Before PWHL Ottawa came into existence, the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group had a plan in place to re-design Lansdowne Park. It is a plan that would involve the construction of a new 5,500 seat arena on the site, followed by the demolition of TD Place Arena, the current home of PWHL Ottawa and the OHL's Ottawa 67s.
While the Ottawa 67s averaged only 4213 fans this year, meaning they would not be impacted by the change in capacity, the move would be a significant hit to PWHL Ottawa topped all PWHL teams with a 7,496 average attendance. Seven of Ottawa's 12 regular season home games brought in more than 8,000 fans, which means Ottawa would be losing more than 2,500 fans for many games. It would be a substantial hit to the team's fan base, and potentially the viability of the franchise in the city.
When asked for comment on the impact the reduction in seating from TD Place Arena to the new planned event center at Lansdowne, a representative for Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe told The Hockey News that "the redesign of the TD arena predates the establishment of a PWHL team in Ottawa. It was initially being reworked with the OHL (the Ottawa 67s) in mind and, as such, the reduction in seating was deemed to be suitable for the average attendance of OHL games (roughly 4000 people per game)," the Mayor's office wrote to The Hockey News in an email. "With the advent of the PWHL in Ottawa, the TD arena still meets the ideal building size for a facility of this nature and use. Currently the average attendance for a PWHL game is roughly about 5400 people per game."
The email also stated plans for TD Place Arena have not yet been finalized.
The response from the Mayor's office utilizes the league attendance average of 5448 as justification rather than Ottawa's average. The PWHL's numbers were primarily driven down by attendance figures in New York where the team averaged 2,496. Removing New York's home dates pushes the league average to 6246, and if you were to remove Boston and New York, the league average would sit at 6982.
Related: Smaller Arena In The Future For PWHL Ottawa A Significant Concern
In response to a post from The Hockey News - Women's on "X" discussing the arena portion of the Lansdowne 2.0 plan, Ottawa city councillor Shawn Menard posted a comment on the situation as well.
"The existing civic centre is slated to last to 2067 and was valued at $132,000,000. Tearing it down and putting it on much loved green space with fewer seats and more expensive tickets at a cost of $419 million makes little sense," Menard wrote.
The Hockey News also emailed Menard for comment, but had not received a reply at the time of press.
While the PWHL played only 12 home games per market in 2024, those numbers will climb to 15 next season as the regular season expands to 30 games. With potential expansion to the league in the future, that schedule could again rise.
The City of Ottawa is holding a public meeting to showcase the plans on Tuesday, June 18, from 6:30 to 8pm inside Gate 2 at TD Place Arena. It's expected there will be a presence at the meeting from concerned PWHL Ottawa fans.
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