When the Montreal Victoire and Ottawa Charge skate to a packed Videotron Center in Quebec City on Sunday, it will be the culmination of more than a year of work to bring professional women’s hockey to the city.
The people who have worked to sell Quebec City to the PWHL hope it will be the first game of many.
As the league considers the possibility of expanding by up to two teams starting next season, Quebec City has made a proposal for consideration.
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 one day be the anchor tenant.
“I can only say that we are in that process of exchanging information,” Martin Tremblay, president of Gestev, the company that manages and operates the city-owned Videotron Centre, said of expansion talks with the PWHL. “They have their needs. I would say we have a good relationship with them.”
As of Tuesday, there were fewer than 1,000 tickets available for Sunday’s game, according to Tremblay. Videotron Center seats over 18,000 for hockey.
Quebec City is one of nine stops on the PWHL’s Takeover Tour, which will visit 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 the professional team
The push to bring a team to Quebec City began around Christmas 2023, before the PWHL had played a single game.
Quebec City Councilor Jackie Smith learned about the new hockey league from her assistant. He is from Beauce, the small community between Quebec City and Maine where Marie-Philip Poulin grew up, and has “religiously” followed the career of the Victoire captain.
“He might be her biggest fan,” Smith said.
He quickly became convinced that Quebec City would be perfect for the PWHL.
“We’re a hockey town,” said Smith, who represents the Limoilou district of Quebec City, which includes the Videotron Centre.
“I know there are a lot of people who say that, but we had the Nordics and people are still devastated by [the team relocating]. We have the sand. “He’s sitting here waiting for a professional hockey team to come.”
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A Quebec City PWHL team would not have to compete with other teams and leagues that play all winter. They would likely share the Videotron Center with the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League. The team draws more than 9,400 fans on average, according to attendance figures compiled by HockeyDB, which leads the QMJHL.
The league is also looking for economic opportunities and Smith feels his city checks that box as well.
“Economically, Quebec City is kind of a tiger,” Smith said. “It’s recession-proof because there are a lot of government jobs, a lot of insurance, a lot of white-collar jobs. There’s also a good business 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 has been more than 15 years since Quebec City hosted a professional women’s 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 roster that season didn’t come close to having 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 level playing field than the Phenix 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 seen women’s and girls’ hockey grow in the area over the past few years, compared to when the 33-year-old began her hockey career. Beaulieu went on to play at the University of Montreal and professionally with the Montreal team in the CWHL, which closed in 2019.
“There’s a big increase in women’s hockey around here,” Beaulieu, director of women’s hockey in Quebec City, told CBC Montreal’s Jay Turnbull.
She pointed to programs aimed at introducing more girls in the Quebec City area to the game.
“I think we have the [biggest] Increase in girls playing in the province. “We are very proud of what we are doing here.”
Beyond Quebec, a PWHL team could also attract fans from nearby New Brunswick and Maine, although perhaps at the expense of Victoire and Boston Fleet.
That might be the biggest drawback to expanding to Quebec City, along with the fact that it would be by far the smallest market in the league.
The league visited the arena in August
Tremblay approached Victoire last year. He met with team staff in March to discuss the possibility of hosting a game.
That led to meetings with the league and a visit to the Videotron Center in August. The neutral site game was announced in October.
“Quebec City is a fantastic market for hockey,” Victoire goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens said that day. She is from Clermont, about an hour and a half from the city.
“The presence of women’s hockey teams at the International Pee-Wee Tournament shows that people here have been supporting women’s hockey for quite some time and we look forward to playing our best hockey in front of them.”
There is no timeline for the league to announce more details about 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 interesting conversations with a number of people to determine if there’s a decision that’s right for us,” Hefford said.
The Takeover Tour continues in Edmonton at Rogers Place on February 16, followed by stops in Buffalo, Raleigh, North Carolina, Detroit and St. Louis.
