‘Little Caesars Arena showed up’: PWHL returns to Detroit for Takeover Tour, sets new U.S. attendance record

DETROIT -- Serving as the eighth stop on the PWHL Takeover Tour, Little Caesars Arena opened its doors to 14,228 fans – a new attendance record for a professional women’s hockey game in the United States -- to watch the New York Sirens defeat the Minnesota Frost, 4-1, on Sunday night.

“We’re proud to spend a big night in Detroit with the Red Wings, who have been so good to us and treat us with class from the beginning to the end,” said Amy Scheer, PWHL Executive Vice President of Business Operations. “And so, to do it here, I think is really special, the big numbers.”

The PWHL also celebrated another impressive milestone on Sunday, surpassing one million fans in attendance since its inaugural 2024 campaign. In recognizing the feat, players from both the Sirens and Frost went onto the ice as part of a special timeout during the first period and threw commemorative pucks to fans in the stands.

The PWHL previously set the U.S. attendance record on March 16, 2024, when 13,736 fans watched the Boston Fleet take on the Ottawa Charge at Little Caesars Arena. That number was broken on January 12, when 14,018 people took in a matchup between the Frost and Montreal Victoire at Ball Arena.

To date, the PWHL’s total attendance stands at 1,001,648 fans.

“After being here and seeing what Detroit did last year, then the record getting broken, obviously we were watching ticket sales and seeing where it was trending,” said Jayna Hefford, PWHL Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations. “I think we always believed Detroit was going to show up, and they did. We didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we anticipated this could have been a record [on Sunday].”

Sunday’s entertaining clash featured several ties to the state of Michigan, including Frost defenseman Mellissa Channell-Watkins (Plymouth), Sirens forwards Elle Hartje (Detroit), Taylor Girard (Macomb) and Abby Roque (Sault Ste. Marie), along with Minnesota assistant coach Josh Sciba (Westland).

Channel-Watkins described Sunday’s game as a dream come true.

“Though it wasn’t at Joe Louis Arena, like I would have loved it to be, but Little Caesars Arena showed up,” Channel-Watkins said. “Everybody here has been so welcoming. It’s been a great opportunity. Just seeing all the girls in the stands wearing their youth hockey jerseys, now they can see it and know they have something to look forward to in their future.”

For Roque, playing at Little Caesars Arena was a full-circle moment.

“I was for sure blessed as a kid,” Roque said. “I knew the equipment manager for the Red Wings really well, so I got to meet a lot of the guys and go in that locker room as a kid. Right before the game, I was like ‘I want to see the new one.’ So, I went and checked that out. It is really special, like those are the people that I looked up to. Pavel Datsyuk was the guy when I was a kid. Now, you’re playing in the same building the Red Wings do. It is something as a kid, I don’t think I ever truly imagined when I got to the point that I knew girls’ hockey was the only route.”

Seeing the passion and support for women’s hockey in Detroit was a great feeling, according to Sciba.

“You look at the crowd out there, I think it speaks volumes to what hockey means to Hockeytown,” Sciba said. “I think it’s a really special opportunity that we get to participate in a game here.”

Like last year’s PWHL game at Little Caesars Arena did, Sunday’s historic turnout sparked questions regarding the league's ongoing expansion plans and if Detroit was being considered as a potential fit for a new team.

“Detroit has been wonderful for us,” Scheer said. “We’ve had two great games here. The Red Wings have been wonderful to us and [Detroit] is certainly very much under consideration, but we have some work to do. We’re really at the point now of waiting to hear back on what the board would like to do. Detroit has been wonderful for us. We love playing here. Our players love playing here, so we’ll see where the chips fall in a few weeks.”