Halifax gets chance to wine and dine PWHL with Takeover Tour

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The city of Halifax will put its best foot forward Wednesday night looking to earn the right to become home to a PWHL franchise.

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It’s the first of two Takeover Tour games slated for this gem of Canada’s East coast, a schedule this season that will see the league play 16 games in 11 neutral-site arenas across North America.

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Halifax is one of five cities — Chicago, Edmonton, Detroit and Denver are the others — that will have the opportunity to host two games.

Six others will host single games.

Wednesday’s game at the 10,595-seat Scotiabank Centre in downtown Halifax sold out within minutes of the event going on sale, so there clearly is a demand for the product.

But what league strategists are determining — and this goes for all the Takeover Tour locales — is whether this market could sustain a team full time.

Outside of the obvious small-market hurdle, the biggest impediment to the PWHL coming to Halifax full time might just be the lack of a precedent for a successful professional team in the city.

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Leagues moving into a new market want some history and the PWHL is no different.

Now that’s not to say that Halifax hasn’t hosted pro teams in the past. The market has been host to AHL clubs for three different NHL cities. They have a professional soccer team in the Halifax Wanderers of the CPL as well as the Halifax Tides FC of the Northern Super League (NSL).

The city also has a professional lacrosse team in the Halifax Thunderbirds that play in the NLL.

Halifax has not had an AHL team since the early 1990’s, but do have a team in the QMJHL in the Halifax Mooseheads.

The CFL has long talked about expanding to Halifax or even sharing a team between Moncton and Halifax, but that never got past the talking stages.

In short, there’s just not a large history of professional teams with long-lasting financial support in the city.

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That and the small market with less disposable income to throw at things like a night out at the rink would be the primary detriments to Halifax getting a team.

Toronto Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan, who hails from nearby Spryfield, is admittedly biased when it comes to his home province, but he sees a real fit for the PWHL in the Nova Scotia capital.

For starters, Ryan points out that the previous failed professional leagues were men’s teams while the PWHL is obviously a top-level women’s league.

But he also sees the financial ask from the PWHL to be far more manageable and in line with a Maritimer’s appetite for sports entertainment.

“I believe the length of the schedule (between 12 and 15 home games) is a perfect number for this market,” Ryan said via text. “Even if it increased to 20, it’s still great.

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“I hope these games show the product well and excited the community even more,” Ryan said. “I think it would be a great market for the PWHL. The support would be strong.”

And those aren’t the only reasons the PWHL might prosper in Halifax as opposed to other markets..

For one, unlike an NHL team, the 10,500-seat Scotiabank Centre already is sufficiently large enough to house a PWHL team.

Additionally, ticket prices are more affordable in the PWHL than what an NHL team would charge.

The league appears to be taking a strong look at Halifax if the two games they will host — Wednesday’s game in addition to a Jan. 11 matinee when Boston and Ottawa clash — are any indication.

The league has been very clear that they are open to expanding by as many as four teams and at least by two by the end of this season.

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They have also made a push to expand geographically and Halifax, if it got in, would extend the league’s eastern boundary.

Chicago is the only other new city on the Takeover Tour to get the two-game treatment, so that might suggest stronger interest as well.

However, Denver, Edmonton and Detroit all have longer histories with the league and, like Halifax and Chicago, are getting multiple games this season as well.

It’s unclear how Halifax could help the league in one of its most pressing requirements, that being a national television deal in the U.S., and that could work against them as Denver, Chicago, and Detroit would all aid in that endeavour.

Travel might also be an issue. The league has scheduled Montreal to play in Halifax on Wednesday and then fly across the country to Vancouver as a test of sorts.

With no direct flights available unless the league decided to spring for a charter, that’s a seven-hour flight plus with at least one stop.

Going to Seattle would add another two or three hours, also without any direct flights and perhaps as many as two stops along the way.

Again, just something the league would take into consideration, but something that could hurt Halifax’s chances when the league starts narrowing down its choice of cities it wants to see join the fold.

mganter@postmedia.com

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