When the Montreal Victoire and Ottawa Charge skate out to a packed Videotron Centre in Quebec City on Sunday, it will be the culmination of more than a year’s worth of work to bring professional women’s hockey to the city.
For the people who’ve worked to sell Quebec City to the PWHL, they hope it’s the first game of many.
As the league considers whether to expand by as many as two teams as early as next season, Quebec City has made a pitch to be considered.
The city would seem to check a few boxes on the league’s checklist, including geography, a strong fan base, and an arena built with the idea that a professional team could someday be the anchor tenant.
“I can only say that we are in that process of exchanging information,” Martin Tremblay, the president of Gestev, the company that manages and operates the city-owned Videotron Centre, said about expansion discussions with the PWHL. “They have their requirements. We have, I would say, a good relationship with them.”
As of Tuesday, there were fewer than 1,000 tickets available for Sunday’s game, according to Tremblay. Videotron Centre seats more than 18,000 for hockey.
Quebec City is one of nine stops on the PWHL’s Takeover Tour, which is visiting cities across North America this season.
So far, the league has played games inside NHL arenas in Seattle, Vancouver and Denver, drawing more than 45,600 people combined.
Arena waiting for pro team
The push to bring a team to Quebec City began around Christmas 2023, before the PWHL had played even a single game.
Quebec City councillor Jackie Smith had heard about the new hockey league from her assistant. He’s from Beauce, the small community between Quebec City and Maine where Marie-Philip Poulin grew up, and he’s followed the Victoire captain’s career “religiously.”
“He might be her biggest fan,” Smith said.
She was convinced quickly that Quebec City would be a perfect fit for the PWHL.
“We are a hockey town,” said Smith, who represents the Limoilou district in Quebec City, which includes Videotron Centre.
“I know there’s a lot of people who say that, but we had the Nordiques and people are still devastated by [the team relocating]. We have the arena. It’s sitting here waiting for a professional hockey team.”
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A Quebec City PWHL team wouldn’t have to compete with other teams and leagues playing throughout the winter. They would likely share the Videotron Centre with the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. The team is drawing more than 9,400 fans on average, per attendance figures compiled by HockeyDB, which leads the QMJHL.
The league is also looking at economic opportunity, and Smith feels her city checks that box too.
“Economically, Quebec City is a bit of a tiger,” Smith said. “It’s recession-proof because there’s lots of government jobs, there’s lots of insurance, there’s a lot of white-collar jobs. There’s also a good entrepreneurial sector. So we have a really good economy that can really support a professional hockey team.”
The return of women’s hockey
Quebec has a long history of women’s hockey, but it’s been more than 15 years since Quebec City was home to a women’s professional team. That was the Quebec Phenix, a team that played one season in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League before folding in 2008.
The Phenix’s roster that season didn’t come close to boasting the same star power as the rival Montreal team. Montreal has always been a hub for elite players, even some with no connection to the city.
A Quebec City PWHL team should have a more even playing field than the Phenix did when it comes to resources and roster building, given that all PWHL teams are owned by the same entity.
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Laurence Beaulieu has watched girls’ and women’s hockey grow in the area over the last few years, compared to when the 33-year-old started her hockey career. Beaulieu went on to play at the University of Montreal and professionally with the Montreal team in the CWHL, which folded in 2019.
“There’s a big increase in women’s hockey around here,” Beaulieu, who is the director of women’s hockey in Quebec City, told CBC Montreal’s Jay Turnbull.
She pointed to programs aimed at introducing more Quebec City-area girls to the game.
“I think we have the [biggest] increase in girls playing in the province. We’re pretty proud of what we’re doing around here.”
Beyond Quebec, a PWHL team could also attract fans from nearby New Brunswick and Maine, though perhaps at the expense of the Victoire and Boston Fleet.
That could be the biggest drawback to expanding to Quebec City, along with the fact that it would be the smallest market in the league by far.
League visited arena in August
Tremblay reached out to the Victoire last year. He met with staff from the team in March to discuss potentially hosting a game.
That led to meetings with the league, and a site visit at Videotron Centre in August. The neutral-site game was announced in October.
“Quebec City is a fantastic hockey market,” Victoire goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens said on that day. She’s from Clermont, about an hour and a half away from the city.
“The presence of girls’ hockey teams at the International Pee-Wee Tournament proves that people here have been supporting women’s hockey for quite some time now, and we look forward to playing our best hockey in front of them.”
There’s no timeline for the league to announce more details on whether it plans to expand next season. Earlier this month, senior vice-president of hockey operations, Jayna Hefford, told CBC Sports that the league is still gathering information.
“We’re still in really great conversations with a number of people to figure out if there’s a right move for us,” Hefford said.
The Takeover Tour continues in Edmonton at Rogers Place on Feb. 16, followed by stops in Buffalo, Raleigh, N.C., Detroit and St. Louis.
