The PWHL’s Ottawa Charge will play their home games at the Canadian Tire Centre, home of the Ottawa Senators, starting with the 2026-27 season, the team announced at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
“Senators Sports & Entertainment is proud to officially welcome the Ottawa Charge to Canadian Tire Centre,” SS&E president and CEO Cyril Leeder said in a statement. “The Ottawa-Gatineau region is fortunate to have two professional hockey teams competing at the highest level. In a short period of time, the Charge have developed a substantial following and fan base, and they have become an important part of our local hockey ecosystem.”
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The Charge spent their first three seasons at TD Place, located in the city’s Lansdowne Park area. But in November, the city of Ottawa approved a $419 million redevelopment plan for Lansdowne Park, which included a much smaller event centre that seats 5,850 and has a capacity of 6,600. The current TD Place has a capacity of 8,500.
“Honestly, in four decades of working in professional sports, this might be the most disappointing thing I have ever seen,” PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations Amy Scheer said in an op-ed to the Ottawa Citizen in November.
The Charge played Walter Cup playoff games at the Canadian Tire Centre this spring, en route to a championship final series appearance against the Montreal Victoire. Ottawa set attendance records at the Canadian Tire Centre. For Game 1 of its Walter Cup series against Montreal, the Canadian Tire Centre had 16,894 fans, a PWHL single-game playoff attendance record. The Charge lost the Walter Cup to the Victoire in four games.
In a regular-season game against the Victoire on April 3, the Canadian Tire Centre had 17,114 fans, the highest-attended women’s hockey game ever played in Ottawa.
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“As the Charge community continues to grow, the move to the Canadian Tire Centre will position us to welcome more fans and continue building a memorable experience for our players and our supporters,” Charge GM Mike Hirshfeld said in a statement. “TD Place was the foundation of our early success, and we’re deeply grateful for the energy our fans brought to every game in that building. In the playoffs, we witnessed that they could recreate that magic at CTC, and we’re looking forward to continuing to build momentum in our new home.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Ottawa Senators, Ottawa Charge, NHL, Sports Business, Women’s Hockey
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