Blade Runners: PWHL Knows The Way To San Jose (CA) With Expansion Roadmap
Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 01:14PM By Barry Janoff
May 19, 2026: The Professional Women’s Hockey League today unveiled expansion to San Jose, Calif., finalizing the league’s four-team expansion for the 2026-27 season.
PWHL San Jose will play its home games in SAP Center, home to the NHL San Jose Sharks, and train in Sharks Ice at San Jose.
The expansion bid was led by San Jose Sharks owner Sharks Sports & Entertainment and the City of San Jose.
The strategy adds San Jose, Detroit, Las Vegas and Hamilton to the PWHL’s eight current markets: Boston, Minnesota, Montréal, New York, Ottawa, Toronto and 2025-26 expansion teams Seattle and Vancouver.
The PWHL and all of its teams are owned by the Mark Walter Group. The Advisory Board of the PWHL is formed by Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss, Stan Kasten, and Royce Cohen.
According to the PWHL, “San Jose and the Bay Area represent a compelling next step for the future of the PWHL, featuring a unique combination of established professional and youth hockey culture, record-setting support for women’s sports, continued opportunity for league geographic diversity, and a strong corporate base.”
The league said the move into the area was also enabled by the success of expansion teams NWSL Bay FC and the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries in 2024 and 2025 respectively, with “fans having propelled both teams to league attendance records.”
The PWHL also that, while Northern California is a new market for pro women’s hockey, “the San Jose Sharks have helped build a strong local hockey community in the Bay Area, which boasts one of the largest ice facilities in the Western United States, while California ranks sixth in the country in girls’ hockey participation behind five colder-climate regions.”
“Between a deeply rooted hockey culture, rapidly booming women’s sports scene, and a community known for growth and innovation, San Jose offers a dynamic stage for the PWHL to expand its reach and build lasting momentum,” Amy Scheer, PWHL evp-business operations, said via the league. 
“Thanks to the San Jose Sharks and City of San Jose’s incredible support systems already in place to grow our sport across the Bay Area, and their enthusiasm for embracing the future of women’s hockey, we have the foundation to establish a lasting and impactful new home for the PWHL in San Jose.”
San Jose’s location places four PWHL teams in the Pacific Time Zone, “expanding the league’s footprint and offering more balance for scheduling and travel.”
“We are honored the PWHL has chosen San José as the site of its latest expansion team, joining the NHL’s San Jose Sharks and the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda,” Jonathan Becher, Sharks Sports & Entertainment president, said via the organization.
““From its humble beginnings with an NHL expansion team in 1991, San José is now truly a ‘hockey city.’ Boasting three professional hockey teams and Sharks Ice, a six-sheet public recreational ice facility, San José hosts one of the largest collection of boys, girls, and adult hockey players in the U.S. Personally, I can’t wait until opening night of PWHL San Jose later this year.”
Having grown from six to eight teams by adding expansion teams in Vancouver and Seattle this past season, it follows that vital numbers would be up across the board for the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
But the numbers for the 2025-26 season even surpassed PWHL expectations.
The PWHL said in its third season it surpassed one million single-season attendees for the first time, the partnership portfolio grew by 35%, online merchandise sales increased by 50%, and social platforms generated more than 682 million impressions.
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