Vancouver has the honour of being the first ever expansion franchise in the history of the Professional Women's Hockey League.
The PWHL , with the as-yet unnamed team set to debut in the 2025-26 season. The announcement follows in the wake of the incredibly popular "Takeover Tour," where the PWHL played games in cities without teams. The game in Vancouver on January 8 sold out, with 19,038 fans in attendance to watch the Montreal Victoire take down the Toronto Sceptres 4-to-2.
That was the fourth-largest crowd in PWHL history and notably more fans than all but one Vancouver Canucks game this past season, with even that in question given that Canucks attendance is based on tickets sold and not fans in seats.
But that's not the only way the PWHL's Vancouver team has a leg up on the Canucks. Before even playing a game, the PWHL team will have something the Canucks have been trying to get for 15 years: a practice facility.
"We will be the primary tenant in this venue"
The PWHL team will play out of the Pacific Coliseum at Hastings Park, which was the home of the Canucks from their inaugural season in 1970 until they moved to Rogers Arena — then known as GM Place — in 1995. According to the PWHL's press release, the Coliseum "will undergo comprehensive upgrades," improving the player facilities, the viewing experience — a new centre ice video board is planned — and the broadcast capabilities of the arena, with the upgrades being funded by the PNE and the City of Vancouver.
The Pacific Coliseum won't be the only building getting an upgrade, however. The city will also upgrade the PNE Agrodome next door to function as the team's dedicated practice facility. The two facilities are so close to each other that they share an ice plant, which was installed as part of the renovations ahead of the 2010 Olympics.
"The Pacific Coliseum and the Agrodome will be a first for us, in the sense that we will be the primary tenant in this venue," said Amy Scheer, the PWHL's senior vice president of hockey operations. "For us, that's an extraordinary accomplishment to happen in our third year."
It won't just be a first for the PWHL. They'll also be the first professional hockey team in Vancouver with a practice facility, as the Canucks are one of just two teams in the NHL without one. The only other NHL team without a practice facility is the Calgary Flames, and their new arena, which is currently under construction with plans to open in 2027, will include a practice rink, leaving the Canucks as the sole team without one.
"It looks like a new facility is going to have to be built"
The lack of practice facility is an ongoing frustration for Jim Rutherford, the Canucks' president of hockey operations, who made building a practice facility a priority when he was hired in 2021. Like the two management teams that preceded him, Rutherford found it easier said than done.
"Let's not talk about that," Rutherford quipped when asked about a practice facility on Monday at the team's end-of-year press conference.
"I assure you, we're going to get this done," he said. "Maybe long after I'm here and maybe long after I'm even on this earth. But it'll get done. We've tried hard to form a partnership with some of the local rinks. We need 20,000 square feet that we can build a dressing room onto the rink somewhere and then just use the ice. We've tried three or four different facilities and, for different reasons, it didn't work out."
"We have more people working on this now," he added. "It looks like a new facility is going to have to be built to get this done. There's a couple of parcels of land that have been targeted and that's what we're trying to work on now. But it's going to take a while and we're all disappointed in that."
The Canucks did have a deal to across the road from Rogers Arena. The Canucks for reasons that remain unclear. The property has , and it's unknown whether their development plans will include an ice rink.
The aging Agrodome has a long history
Vancouver's bid to join the PWHL was led by the PNE, which is owned by the City of Vancouver. The prospect of being a primary tenant in a facility, along with the strong response from Vancouver hockey fans, made it a compelling bid.
Other teams in the PWHL are secondary tenants in their respective rinks, which can make scheduling a challenge, with primary tenants getting priority dates. That won't be a problem for the PWHL in Vancouver. Having their own practice facility is also a huge benefit, though the aging arena will need some work to be ready for use by the PWHL.
The Agrodome was built in 1963 and has only briefly been used by professional sports teams and never by an ice hockey team, though it played host to a roller hockey team, the Vancouver VooDoo, for two seasons. It has, however, been used for a couple of iconic sports scenes in movies, standing in for Lake Placid's Olympic Center in the film Miracle and the venue for Rocky Balboa's bout with Ivan Drago in the climax of Rocky IV.
Now the question will be whether Vancouver can stage their own Miracle on Ice and be Balboan underdogs to win the Walter Cup as an expansion franchise before the Canucks can win the Stanley Cup. With just seven teams — at least until further expansion teams are announced, with Seattle expected to join Vancouver in the 2025-26 season — the odds are a lot better for PWHL Vancouver than for the Canucks.
