Why Professional Women's Hockey League picked Detroit for expansion

With dozens of young female hockey players in attendance, the Professional Women's Hockey League had a blowout celebration as they announced the arrival of a Detroit team , which is slated to start playing games in December at Little Caesars Arena. Marian Ilitch, matriarch of Hockeytown, was in attendance, too, at the event on the concourse on Wednesday, May 6, to welcome the ninth team in the PWHL. There's no name yet, and for now, the logo is a circle in white, black and red that says "Detroit" above two hockey sticks, with PWHL along the bottom.

"Why Detroit? First of all, look at today, the turnout," said Amy Scheer, PWHL executive vice president of business operations. "Detroit just checked off every possible mark on why we would [want to] expand here.

And it's been about the warmest welcome we could have ever envisioned. " How the Ilitches fit in with PWHL The PWHL is a single-entity league. Mark Walter from the Walter Group , majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, Dodgers and Sparks, owns all the teams.

The relationship with Ilitch Sports and Entertainment is more of a partnership, with the PWHL Detroit team taking up residence at LCA. TRENDING: Detroit to get a Professional Women's Hockey League team in 2026 Plans to turn one of the multitude of locker rooms in the practice facility into a permanent one for the PWHL team are already being made. "This is more than a business announcement," Christopher Ilitch , president and CEO of Ilitch Companies, and owner of the Tigers and Red Wings, said.