Indeed, that initial neutral site game—part of the league’s initial PWHL Takeover Weekend before there was a full-blown Takeover Tour™—on March 16, 2024, really started things off strong. Boston, led at that time by Team USA stars Megan Keller and Hilary Knight, faced Ottawa at Little Caesars Arena.
Knight scored the game-winning goal in a shootout to give Boston a thrilling, 2-1 win. A crowd of 13,736 attended the game, setting a then-U.S. record for attendance at a professional women’s hockey game. It was an early sign that Detroit’s reputation as Hockeytown extended beyond the NHL and into the women’s game.
As Keller, a Michigan native, said of the experience: “It exceeded [expectations]. It was pretty special to play in front of this crowd. They were loud all night. Especially coming home to Michigan and bringing the PWHL here is awesome to be a part of and hopefully it’s not the last time that we’re playing here. Hopefully there were a lot of young girls in the crowd here tonight and now they have something to look forward to and look up to once they’re our age.”
Exactly one year later, on March 16, 2025, the league returned to Little Caesars Arena as part of its first Takeover Tour™. This time, New York defeated Minnesota 4-1 before another record-setting (this time it was 14,288) crowd at LCA.
That same afternoon also became a milestone for the league itself, as it’s the day the league surpassed one million total fans in attendance since launching in January 2024. It was fitting that such a benchmark came in Detroit, a city rapidly becoming synonymous with the league’s growth potential.
Then-Sirens forward Abby Roque, who grew up in Michigan, was thrilled to be part of it and reflected on women’s hockey’s growth in her home state. “I was sitting in Joe Louis Arena 15 years ago and probably was waiting around for Michigan or Michigan State to get a team––and I think a lot of people were waiting around,” Roque said. “Now there’s this professional level to look up to and be able to watch, it’s really special. There’re outlets for kids to look up to and there’s a huge benefit to having the PWHL—which is great to see and we’re just going to continue growing.”
And the growth continued—in Detroit and around North America. After adding Seattle and Vancouver to the league for the 2025-26 season, the PWHL announced its biggest Takeover Tour™ yet, a 16-game extravaganza that would make two stops in the Motor City.
The first Detroit game of this season, and third overall, came on January 3, 2026, when the PWHL celebrated New Year’s weekend with a dramatic, 4-3 win for the Vancouver Goldeneyes over the Fleet. With another big crowd, it was clear Detroit and the PWHL were getting very comfortable with each other. Three separate dates over three seasons had proven Detroit was a long-term option. The league kept coming back. Another strong crowd and another energetic atmosphere reinforced the idea that professional women’s hockey had found a passionate audience in southeastern Michigan.
Then came the fourth and most emphatic statement. On March 28, 2026, Montréal defeated New York 3-1 at Little Caesars Arena in front of 15,938 fans, the largest PWHL crowd yet in Detroit and one of the best-attended games of the season.
