Buzz grows, tickets go fast as PWHL Montreal nears record crowd at Bell Centre
CBC
Sporting a purple and white tuque with the letters PWHL, Bethany Haeseler's passion for women's hockey is palpable — and she says it's uplifting to see women athletes finally getting their due.
"It's emotional in ways that I didn't anticipate it being. I feel so fulfilled and so happy and so energetic because their success is our success," said the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) superfan.
For the first time since the start of its inaugural season in January, the PWHL will be making its debut at the Bell Centre — home of the Montreal Canadiens and the biggest hockey arena in North America.
Early ticket sales suggest the league is on track to setting a world record for largest attendance for a professional women's hockey match at the April 20th game between Montreal and Toronto.
Pre-sale tickets were snapped up in the past few days, with Tuesday's batch selling out within hours. The league has not confirmed how many tickets were available during pre-sale, and some have already cropped up on popular reseller platforms.
Tickets for the general public went on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET.
Haeseler, a season ticket holder for Montreal's PWHL team, says she can't wait to see her home team make history, adding the crowd is bound to "blow the roof off the place."
"I'm sentimental about it already and I'm so proud of our team," she said.
"They deserve to be on TV. They deserve to be streamed. They deserve to fill an arena and have it sold out and to be given the opportunity to do so."
The league's current attendance record is currently held by Toronto, which hosted Montreal at the Scotiabank Arena in February in front of 19,285 fans.
The Bell Centre has a maximum capacity of 21,105.
The Montreal PWHL team normally plays at the Verdun Auditorium, which has a capacity of 3,650 seats. They've played a few games at Place Bell in Laval, which has about 10,000.
But Heidi Van Regan, a PWHL fan club founder, says that doesn't satisfy the public's appetite.
She says the ultimate goal would be to have a purpose-built arena that is "exactly the right size for the women's game."
A pedestrian is dead after a vehicle crashed into a building in Toronto, said police.
RCMP in Inuvik, N.W.T., say two youth have been arrested after officers found suspected cocaine and a loaded firearm at a home in the community.
Canada and 13 other countries issued a joint statement Wednesday condemning the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Alberta health officials are flagging the circulation of a rare bacteria known as Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) among homeless adults living in Calgary.
The future of a prominent building in London's Old East Village (OEV), once home to the London Food Incubator, is looking uncertain following the relocation of its anchor tenant and the planned departure of another.
As Yukon continues to deal with a prolonged spell of extreme cold, emergency officials are advising people to be prepared in case of a power outage.
Police say they have found and arrested 47-year-old Douglas Yetman, a man wanted for murder.
Confirmed flu cases in northeastern Ontario are much higher now than they were at the same period last year.
The organization that represents some of America's largest spirits producers is calling for the NSLC to remove a policy that gives preferential markup to Nova Scotian spirit products.
Some energy experts are challenging N.B. Power’s claim that a proposed billion-dollar power plant is needed to avoid an electricity shortage predicted for 2028.
After walking a few laps around the shop, Maria Castagna picks up a glass ornament in the form of a pink, sparkly ice cream cone and smiles widely.
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham says he has much unfinished work from his first term in office, as he prepares to make his pitch to voters ahead of the 2026 election.
Moving to Canada from Singapore meant losing close social connections for Iris Akbar, but Akbar says the gift was in finding an affirming space with friends that became like family.