The PWHL San Jose professional women’s hockey team will play its first season and subsequent seasons at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. Photo Credit: Arturo Hilario / El Observador
Arturo Hilario
El Observador
Welcome to Hockey City, USA.
On Tuesday May 19 at the SAP Center in San Jose a press conference was held to welcome the newest expansion team of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), which is set to start its inaugural season this fall in the same home as the San Jose Sharks.
The new team, known as PWHL San Jose for the time being, is the final addition to a four team expansion to the 2026-2027 season. The other three cities chosen for this newest expansion were Hamilton, Ontario, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Detroit, Michigan.
The PWHL was founded in 2023 and officially launched in 2024, with six teams. In 2025, two more teams were added, bringing it to eight. With San Jose being the final addition of this round of expansion, the total stands at twelve teams across the US and Canada, and the first Californian team in the league.
With the announcement of this new hockey franchise, San Jose now becomes the only city in the United States where three pro leagues of hockey are played within the city limits, the San Jose Sharks (NHL), San Jose Barracuda (AHL), and now PWHL San Jose.
Since its inception the PWHL has broken multiple attendance records and holds the worldwide all-time record for a women’s hockey game, with attendance and viewership consistently growing since.
The popularity of women’s sports in general has been on the rise, specifically in the Bay Area with the addition of Bay FC and Golden State Valkyries in the last few years seeing incredible attendance and cultural relevance.
The relevance of hockey is also at a high, with shows like Heated Rivalry bringing in non-traditional fans to games. The San Jose Sharks also have had a resurgence, having a season where they saw their young rebuilding team progress much more than it was imagined they would, barely missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs by 4 points.
With a new fanbase emerging it seems like the right opportunity for the PWHL to come in and add another avenue for enjoying the communal ritual of sports entertainment in the Bay Area.
I think one of the most powerful things about sports is really the way that it can shape confidence and, and also identity in young people. When girls see women playing and competing at the highest level, leading teams, building teams, leagues, and drawing enthusiastic fan bases all around the community, this really expands what they feel is possible.
– Kristi Yamaguchi, Olympic gold medalist
History was remembered and new history was made
The historic announcement on Tuesday also gave way to some history lessons, about the pursuit of women’s sports in the Bay Area as well as the forgotten hockey history tied to the region.
President of the San Jose Sharks Johnathan Becher recalled how the birthplace of women’s hockey in California began in Oakland in 1916 where 1,200 fans attended a game between the Minerva Hockey Club of Oakland and the Diana Club of San Francisco, a “Battle of the Bay” 42 years before the Giants moved to the region, and 52 before the Athletics called Oakland their home.
Becher said, “In a very real sense, today has always seemed somewhat inevitable.”
He tied this recollection to another historic moment in women’s hockey history, which happened at the NHL All-Star Skills Competition at the 2019 NHL All-Star game that took place in San Jose.
“More than 100 years later another seminal event in women’s hockey happened again here in the Bay Area, in this case right here on the show floor at SAP Center. Many of you may have actually been here because in 2019, that’s when the NHL All-Star Game was in this building, and for the first time, a woman participated in the NHL All-Star Skills competition. Kendall Coyne Schofield participated in the fastest skater competition. When I say fastest skater, she was fast.”
Coyne Schofield nearly won, beating all the other NHL players besides one, finishing second behind who is considered the best hockey player in the world, Connor McDavid.
“And I remember I was here in the audience and I turned and looked at the people I was sitting next to, our own Sharks owner and the former GM, and I said, ‘We gotta get a women’s hockey team here into San Jose.’ And well, took a few years, but now they’re here, and that is definitely worth another round of applause,” Becher added.
Icons of women’s sports give their blessing
It wouldn’t have been a real welcome to the Bay Area moment for women’s hockey without having influential sports legends in the building to help welcome the PWHL.
Brandi Chastain and Kristi Yamaguchi were both present to give remarks about their experiences with the Bay Area, women’s sports, and their hope for the new PWHL team in San Jose.
Chastain is a San Jose native who is known around the world as a World Cup soccer champion, Olympic gold medalist and recently one of the founders of Bay FC.
Yamaguchi is also a Gold medalist, capturing the award through figure skating and continuing to live and work in the Bay Area, most notably a frequent attendee and supporter of the San Jose Sharks.
The two iconic athletes gave their blessing of this new franchise, highlighting the hard work and trailblazing that those that came before them did, how community helped them, and the hope that collectively these new athletes will pave the way even further for women’s sports.
Chastain said, “Honestly, I’m almost at a loss for words because as a young girl growing up in South San Jose, there was no professional women’s sports, team sports. There was tennis, there was golf, but there was no team sports. And my mom wanted me to play tennis and my grandfather wanted me to play golf. Team sports was really something that I loved and I did not have access to that, so I thought I would be a 49er. That was really my dream.”
Both former professional athletes showed deep enthusiasm and hope for the PWHL to come to the Bay Area and add to the already incredible programs for youth and professional teams that serve as role models and community connections for many.
“I think one of the most powerful things about sports is really the way that it can shape confidence and, and also identity in young people. When girls see women playing and competing at the highest level, leading teams, building teams, leagues, and drawing enthusiastic fan bases all around the community, this really expands what they feel is possible. And we’ve seen that magic with Bay FC. We’ve seen it with the historic couple of seasons with the Golden State Valkyries. So, you know, welcoming the PWHL here is just another step that is taking women’s sports to another level here,” said Yamaguchi.
Yamaguchi brought up Chastain at the end of her speech to close out their comments on women’s sports history being made once more.
“So from the women’s sports community here in the Bay Area, we are so, so, so proud to welcome the PWHL to San Jose. Women’s sports has always been built on collective support and shared momentum and women who are continuing to open the doors for others. So when one league grows, it really helps elevate all of us,” she added.
The event on Tuesday highlighted not only the enthusiasm of the Bay Area sports world for the new PWHL San Jose, but a hope that through this the community of sports enthusiasts and athletes grows and redefines San Jose and the Bay Area as a safe place for all to enjoy sports, and for all to participate in them.
Finally, Amy Scheer, the Executive Vice President of Business Operations for the PWHL added to the history lesson from 1916, “and it was journaled in the local paper that there was a boom in women’s hockey after that, but clearly it faded away. But I will tell you, we are going nowhere. We are here for the long term, and we will continue to build women’s hockey and keep growing, growing, growing.”
As the new team takes shape, a draft in June will determine the first number of players that come to San Jose and begin the inaugural season of PWHL San Jose. And from there, new traditions will be made when the team finally gets a proper name and logo, since the difficult part of building momentum and support has already started.
