Seattle scores a professional women's hockey expansion team

The Professional Women's Hockey League announced this week it will expand to Seattle next season. Seattle will soon be home to all three of America's professional women's sports leagues — hockey, soccer and basketball. The yet-to-be-named Seattle team will play at Climate Pledge Arena and share the Kraken’s training facility. Seattle Times sports reporter Kate Shefte talked to KUOW’s Paige Browning about what to expect from the new team.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Paige Browning: First thing, what is one of the names you've heard brainstormed for our new PWHL team? I was thinking about how we have the meteorological Reign and Storm, so I came up with the Freeze or Frost.

Kate Shefte: People here would love that. The rest of the country, you might have to explain it to them, but that would be very funny and very appropriate. I have heard that they could kick it very old school, almost 100 years old school, and maybe try the Seattle Vamps, which was a team that played in Seattle from 1917–21. It isn't exactly on theme, but the history buffs would sure love it.

The name I keep hearing kicked around is not meteorology, but it is water. I've heard that people like Seattle Tsunami, because it really rolls off the tongue.

I like that, and it sounds like a force, though, maybe a little scary with the threat of tsunamis. There have been other professional women's hockey leagues in the past that ended up folding. Do you think the PWHL is going to be more successful staying in business?

I don't want to get anyone's hopes too far up, because hopes have been high before, but it does certainly seem like this time is different. They're trying some new things. They're aiming much higher than they did in the past, especially given the disappointments of the past. Boston and Montreal played a “Takeover Tour” game in January, which was kind of a tester. They were trying out new markets, to see where they wanted to expand.

"Testing the Seattle waters," if you will.

And would you say it was a tsunami of interest?

I would say! I was there. The crowd was raucous.

Sometimes it almost seems like a little too good to be true, but you can't really argue with how it's gone so far, and they have hired a lot of good people who seem to know what they're doing.

I do wonder about the crowd expectations. The NHL Kraken average about 17,000 people at Climate Pledge Arena games. The WNBA storm, about 11,000 last year. I got to go to that exhibition game drawing more than 12,000 women's hockey fans. Do we know what kind of attendance to expect?

I would not be surprised if interest is extremely high at first. Seventeen-thousand a game is a lot for a new sport that people are still kind of learning about. They only play 15 to 17 home games every year, so it's not like it's all spread out and kind of watered down like in the NHL season where they play at least 41 home games a season. So, if you want to see them, you have fewer opportunities to do so. I think that will definitely benefit them attendance-wise.

Finally Kate, remind us when we'll get to see Seattle's team take the ice.

The current regular season ends Saturday, May 3, with a slate of games that actually impact who makes the playoffs. The 2025-2026 season will begin roughly November 30, if they're on the same schedule as last year.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.