PWHL ‘will not play’ at Landsdowne 2.0, leaving Ottawa Charge’s future up in the air

Ottawa's professional women's hockey team is calling their new rink with fewer seats 'unacceptable' given their growing fan base. Annie Bergeron-Oliver reports.

There’s an off-ice faceoff playing out in the nation’s capital between the city’s professional women’s hockey team and the city of Ottawa.

“We will not play at Lansdowne 2.0,” Amy Scheer, executive vice-president of business operations for the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), told reporters virtually on Tuesday. “That’s the one option not on the table.”

The Ottawa Charge currently play at TD Place Arena at Lansdowne Park, just outside of downtown. The Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, who manages the arena, says the Charge’s current facility has a total capacity of 8,268 people for hockey, with 8,193 dedicated seats.

But that is about to change. Earlier this month, Ottawa city council approved plans for a $419-million redevelopment of Lansdowne Park, known as Lansdowne 2.0. It includes the construction of a brand-new event centre, with an arena that will have a total capacity of 6,600 fans for hockey, with 5,850 dedicated seats.

Ottawa’s city manager had previously said that adding thousands of seats to the new event centre could cost an additional $80-$100 million and delay the project by up to three years.

“We will not go backwards,” Scheer said. “These women have worked too hard to get to the point today where a 5,500-seat building is well below what we average in Ottawa.

‘We don’t want to leave’

Numbers provided by the Charge show the team averaged 6,592 fans in their 12 home games played at TD Place Arena during the 2024-25 season. The figures show attendance ranged from a low of 5,005 people to a high of 8,576.

The PWHL has said all options, including leaving Ottawa, are on the table if a deal for more seats cannot be reached.

“We certainly don’t want to leave Ottawa. We chose Ottawa for a reason, and the fans have been wonderfully supportive of us there,” Scheer said Tuesday. “We’d like to find a solution that works for us to stay in Ottawa, but the city hasn’t made it easy for us.”

TSN 1200 radio host John Rodenburg said the Charge have had a wildly successful first two seasons in Ottawa, which include many sold-out games.

“It could be on an upward trajectory. It could be kind of sustained where it’s at right now,” said Rodenburg about the team’s ability to fill the arena. “Bottom line is, if it stays where it is right now, a new arena that they would move into in three years from now would not meet the current demand for the amount of tickets.”

Rodenburg questioned whether the Charge could play where their NHL counterparts, the Ottawa Senators, do at the much larger Canadian Tire Centre. He also wondered about, in the much longer term, the new downtown arena proposed for the Senators at LeBreton Flats.

“If you’re curtain off the 300 level, that would kind of put them at where they’re at right now … so that is doable,” said Rodenburg. “But the flip side of that is … we hear from a lot of fans of the Ottawa Senators that they don’t like to travel out to the western edge of the city to go to games.”

When asked about that idea earlier in the week, the Senators would not comment.

What does the city say?

The city, OSEG and the PWHL were scheduled to meet Friday to try and find a solution. None of the invited parties offered any comment regarding the meeting, saying they wanted to respect the negotiations.

According to Ottawa’s Lobbying registry, the PWHL has hired a lobbying firm based in Toronto to meet and communicate with officials at City Hall.

Asked for a general comment on the team’s importance to Ottawa, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe — who described himself as a “huge fan” of the Charge — said he wants to see the team stay in Ottawa.

“Everybody wants the Charge to stay in Ottawa,” said the mayor said during a media availability on Friday. “Why would they move the franchise that has been drawing significant crowds regularly, and they have franchises in other cities that are not attracting as many fans?”

Sutcliffe said he is “confident” an agreement can be reached to ensure the team’s continued success in the capital.

“I am sure there are solutions, and the conversations are going to continue, the negotiations are going to continue,” Sutcliffe said. “This is about a lease negotiation, and I want to respect the process.”

Sources have told CTV News that the Charge have one more year remaining on their lease. If they decided to re-sign, the team would continue playing at TD Place Arena until their new venue is ready in 2028.

The first phase of construction on the redevelopment project known as Lansdowne 2.0 is expected to start before the end of 2025.

Rodenburg said the city is likely doing a cost-benefit analysis on a project that council has already approved.

“They only play 15 games a year, plus playoffs, so the cost versus benefit, right? That’s the debate,” he said. “It would appear to me there’s really not a middle ground.”

Rodenburg said that from the outside, it appears the two sides are stalled if the league “doesn’t want to go backwards,” and the city has already approved the smaller arena.

“We’re kind of at loggerheads right now as to how this is all going to play itself out,” he said.

The Charge kick off the 2025-26 season at TD Place Arena on Saturday. The team is set to play at least 15 games at home in Ottawa through the upcoming campaign.