PWHL New York falls to Minnesota before biggest crowd of season at UBS Arena
PWHL Minnesota forward Kendall Coyne Schofield celebrates as PWHL New York forward Alex Carpenter, Corinne Schroeder and forward Abby Roque react after Minnesota defenseman Maggie Flaherty scored in the second period at UBS Arena on Sunday, March 3, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Yes, PWHL New York does need a permanent home, said Jayna Hefford, the league’s senior vice president of hockey operations.
But, she noted, by splitting its home games between Elmont and Bridgeport, Connecticut, the team is afforded the rather wide latitude to develop two fan bases simultaneously.
“There can be a real positive in what we’re doing here,” Hefford said in her state of the league address before PWHL New York’s 2-0 loss to Minnesota on Sunday afternoon at UBS Arena. “Long term, we’ll get there, but right now, we look at it as an opportunity.”
In Hefford’s nearly 16-minute news conference, among the themes she stressed was that the start-up league is beginning its third month of play and that any and all ideas to expand visibility and interest will be considered.
“That’s our goal in every single market and even in our markets that have smaller venues,” Hefford said. “Toronto is an example. We sold out every home game from when they went on sale, but that doesn’t mean we’re not still continuing to work hard to drive attendance there, and we had a chance to play in Scotiabank Arena. Sold that out.
“So every single market, we’re trying to build our brand, bring our fan base with us and increase that fan base. That’s no different here.”
To that end, PWHL New York drew a season-high 4,459 fans for the game against Minnesota. Through its first four home games — two at UBS Arena and two at Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport — the team had drawn a total attendance of 8,874, an average of 2,218.5 per game. Moreover, for New York’s previous two games at UBS Arena, the combined attendance was 4,329 (2,164.5 per game).
The team has four home games remaining this season, with only one, the April 24 match against Toronto, having a set venue (Bridgeport). So the possibility exists that UBS Arena could play host to at least one more contest.
“New York is one of the best cities in the world,” Hefford said. “This is a really important market for us. We knew it would be challenging because there’s a lot of competition. There’s a lot of professional sports teams here and it’s a big market. But we believe in the product representing and how it can be different and innovative and a new property for people to fall in love with.”
As for Sunday’s game, New York fell to 6-6-1-1 with its second straight regulation loss and third loss in a row overall. Corinne Schroeder made 35 saves for New York but gave up second-period goals to Kelly Pannek and Abby Boreen.
Said PWHL New York coach Howie Draper: “The biggest commonality from game to game for us is our desire to try and make the game more complex than it needs to be.”