With US TV debut, women's pro ice hockey hopes to cash in big

Jaime Bourbonnais of the New York Sirens during a game against the Ottawa Charge [Getty Images] Kate Hoos remembers watching in awe from her living room as women's ice hockey players skated on Olympic ice for the first time in 1998. But it would take another four years until women's ice hockey aired on national television again. This time, the wait won't be anywhere near as long.

When the puck drops on the ice at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan, on Saturday, Hoos and thousands of fans will be watching in real time as access to women's ice hockey expands to television screens across the United States. Saturday's game between the New York Sirens and Montreal Victoire will be the first nationally televised Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) game in US history, made accessible to more than 126 million US households, the league said. "There are a lot of people who could be seeing it for the first time, just flipping through the channels," Hoos said.

"It's great exposure. " For a league that has only existed for three years, being broadcast on US television is a massive step. This debut is part of the next wave of expansion for women's professional sports.

Across the board - from the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) to the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) to the women's March Madness tournament - more people are paying attention to and paying to watch women's sports than ever before. "Everything in women's sports starts with visibility; we have to be able to see it, to be fans of it," said Thayer Lavielle, the managing director at The Collective, a think tank focused on female athletes. The momentum for women's ice hockey comes off the back of a gold-medal victory for the US team at the 2026 Olympics against their arch-rival, Canada.