PWHL shares Takeover Tour wins that prove women’s sports should activate out-of-market

The GIST: The PWHL shared wins from its first-ever Takeover Tour today, which saw all six teams play games at nine different exhibition sites across the U.S. and Canada. Not only was this a brilliant strategy to market test in potential PWHL cities, but the tour spurred engagement and allowed the league to reach new hockey fans.

• This data shows that exhibition tours can be extremely successful in women’s sports, especially when it comes to smaller and mid-sized markets that are typically overlooked. Small but mighty.

🏟️ A total of 123,601 fans showed up across the nine tour stops. Big crowds in Denver (14,018) and Detroit (14,288) helped the league reset the U.S. attendance record for a women’s hockey game…twice. Five of these games ranked among the league’s top 10 in single-game attendance, led by Vancouver’s 19K sellout.

🤩 About 80% of these fans experienced their first PWHL game thanks to the tour. While it primarily stopped in existing NHL markets, up to 78% of attendees were visiting the host venue for the first time, meaning these women’s hockey fans didn’t previously engage with the city’s NHL team. Dommage.

📈 The league saw a 30% increase in social followers during the Takeover Tour, which benefitted from extensive IRL activations. Over 900 girls participated in hockey clinics at all nine tour sites, player-fan interactions resulted in over 1.4K autographs, and brands like Upper Deck got in on the memorabilia trend in women’s hockey.

Zooming out: While the PWHL plans on adding at least two new cities by next season, it can’t expand to every Takeover Tour city in the imminent future. But there’s still a valuable lesson here: Existing fans willing to travel and new, local fans are available out-of-market, so women’s sports leagues and brands need to think of creative ways to reach them.

• While Unrivaled’s in-person attendance was limited, partner Ally engaged American fans with watch parties across the nation’s growing network of women’s sports bars. And the WNBA has garnered support from Canadian brands by hosting three W games in Canada, which ultimately brought a team to Toronto. Sounds aboot right.