PWHL heavily outdraws AHL all season long at same rink in Toronto
When the PWHL first announced where home games would be played in Toronto, a similar sentiment rose throughout much of the city.
For their inaugural season, the team played at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, the site of the former Maple Leaf Gardens and the home of Toronto Metropolitan University’s varsity teams.
With a capacity of only around 2,500 fans, the demand for tickets quickly outgrew the venue’s capabilities.
In their second season, a move to the Coca-Cola Coliseum under the Sceptres name appears to have been quite successful.
On Sunday, the Sceptres announced an average attendance this season of 9,059 per home game, excluding a PWHL Takeover home game in Vancouver, with a listed attendance of 19,038 at Rogers Arena.
The number did include Toronto’s home game attendance of 19,102 on Jan. 25 at Scotiabank Arena, though all but one of the games at Coca-Cola Coliseum had an attendance above 8,000, with the lowest mark this year at 7,584 on Dec. 7, 2024, and an average of 8,286 fans per game at the rink.
The number places the Sceptres around 2,500 fans on average ahead of Coca-Cola Coliseum’s other main tenants in the Toronto Marlies, the longtime AHL affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
HockeyDB has the Marlies listed at an average attendance of 5,824 over the course of the year, including when the Marlies drew 13,408 fans to Scotiabank Arena for their annual Boxing Day home game.
The Marlies were quickly bounced out of the first round of the AHL playoffs, being swept out of the first round by the Cleveland Monsters in just two games.
The Sceptres head into a rematch of last year’s semi-final against the Minnesota Frost, which kicks off this Wednesday at home, looking to win their first-ever playoff round.
Game 1: Wednesday, May 7, Minnesota at Toronto, 7 p.m. EDT
Game 2: Friday, May 9, Minnesota at Toronto, 7 p.m. EDT
Game 3: Sunday, May 11, Toronto at Minnesota, 6 p.m. EDT
Game 4: Wednesday, May 14, 2025, Toronto at Minnesota, 7 p.m. EDT*
Game 5: Saturday, May 17, 2025, Minnesota at Toronto, TBD*
*if necessary.
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