Takeover Thoughts: Back To Quebec City, Did Halifax Jump The Line, And Is A Bell Centre Game Still Coming In Montreal
The PWHL released its Takeover Tour schedule and it’s quite different than last year.
Not only there are 16 games on neutral sites, compared to nine last season, but there’s also multiple games being played in some markets such as Edmonton, Halifax, Detroit, Chicago and Denver.
For the Montreal Victoire, this Takeover Tour answers two thirds of the “to be determined” home game venues on its schedule.
On Sunday, January 11, Montreal will face Vancouver at the Videotron Center in Quebec City, where 18,259 fans gathered last January. Also, on March 28, the Victoire will play host against the New York Sirens at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
That leaves only one date: December 27, against Toronto.
Could Bell Centre be During the Holidays?
The Montreal Canadiens are on the road throughout the holidays, playing their last game at home on December 20, and only coming back on January 7. And on the Bell Center public calendar, nothing is scheduled for that date.
December 27 would be a wise choice. It’s a Saturday, in the middle of the holidays, so the team will count on having tons of young fans, but also adults on vacation from school or work. And the Habs are not even playing that day at all, so no TV competition. Against arch rivals Toronto Sceptres, we could be looking at another sell-out.
The only problem I see is the closeness between the Bell Center and the Quebec City games. There are only 15 days between the two. So basically, the league is asking thousands of fans to buy tickets for those two games in order to get a total of nearly 40,000 spectators in both arenas combined.
That’s a lot.
There’s Christmas just before and those tickets could make very welcome gifts, but two games for a family of four might not fit in everyone’s budget. And January is usually the slowest month in terms of sales, whatever the field is, so the league must be hoping that most of these tickets will be gone by the holidays.
Also, with so few days in between, if someone lives in Quebec City or further east, that person could pick and choose and go only to the Quebec City game to avoid having to ride four or five hours, back and forth.
I’m not saying tickets won’t sell, I’m just saying that these are the obstacles the league and the Montreal Victoire will face in order to have two sell-outs. And that doesn’t even take into consideration that the team has a regular game at Bell Place on January 4.
Halifax Before Quebec City?
Other than that, Montreal will play at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax against Toronto on December 17, at Capital One Arena in Washington on January 18 against New York, and at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg against Ottawa on March 22.
It’s hard not to think that Edmonton, Halifax, Chicago, Detroit, and Denver are the favourites for the next expansions. PWHL Senior VP Amy Scheer did say that there would be at least two to four teams added next season.
Could we have an expansion team in Halifax before one in Quebec City? Year after year, the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL is one of the two best teams in terms of attendance with an average of 7,897 fans since 2022, including this season. The only team surpassing that is the Quebec Remparts, the main tenant at the Videotron Centre, with an average of 9,316 spectators.
All in all, Canada and the United States will both get eight games, with Calgary, Hamilton and Dallas also getting a game each.
