The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) says all options are on the table to keep the Ottawa Charge in the capital, but the team won’t be playing at the smaller hockey arena at Lansdowne once it’s built. In a news conference Tuesday, Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s executive vice-president of business operations, told reporters the team does not intend to play in a 5,500-seat building. “Every option’s on the table at this point. We’ve certainly been clear with OSEG (Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group) and the city. We will not go backwards,” she said. “These women have worked too hard to get to the point where a 5,500-seat building is well below what we average in Ottawa. And so, we will not play at Lansdowne 2.0. That’s the one option not on the table.” According to the City of Ottawa’s lobbyist registry, a lobbyist hired by the PWHL had several meetings and emails with councillors and city staff prior to the Lansdowne 2.0 vote, including two meetings with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s Director of Policy. Scheer also appeared before Ottawa City Council as a public delegation against the controversial Lansdowne 2.0 project, saying the new event centre would not be financially viable for the Ottawa Charge. The current arena, which council voted earlier this month to replace, has a capacity of approximately 8,500 fans, while plans for the new arena call for 5,850 seats and a capacity of 6,600 people. Attendance figures provided by OSEG show only four of the 13 Ottawa Charge games at TD Place during the 2024-25 season exceeded 6,600 fans. The average attendance for the Charge was 6,191 during the regular season and 6,892 for the playoffs. Prior to the final vote on Lansdowne 2.0, Ottawa’s city manager warned that adding 2,000 seats to a new event centre would cost an additional $80 to $100 million and delay the project by up to three years. Scheer said the PWHL does not want to leave Ottawa and is exploring every avenue to stay. “We certainly don’t want to leave Ottawa. We chose Ottawa for a reason, and the fans have been wonderfully supportive of us there. 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 and it’s disappointing.” OSEG president Mark Goudie told councillors earlier this month that he met with Scheer to “clear the air.” City Manager Wendy Stephanson said she had a meeting with the PWHL at the request of Scheer to discuss the issues around capacity and the lease negotiations. In October, Stephanson shared an update from Goudie, in which he said OSEG thought it was close to an agreement on a five-year extension for the Charge to play at Lansdowne. The PWHL said it could not commit to a lease agreement with the City of Ottawa beyond 2031 due to its collective bargaining agreement with the players. Scheer would not comment on the ongoing negotiations when asked about them on Tuesday. “I think it’s best to keep the conversations private. I will say that I think negotiating through the media is probably not a wise choice or decision,” she said. “When we feel we’re ready to announce something, then we’ll make an announcement, but we don’t have a deadline on when we feel something needs to be done.” A spokesperson for OSEG told CTV News in an email that the group is meeting with the City and the PWHL on Friday, but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing negotiations. “OSEG remains committed to working collaboratively with the PWHL to ensure the Ottawa Charge continues to play and thrive in Ottawa,” the email said. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the city is supporting negotiations between OSEG and the PWHL. “Everybody wants the team in Ottawa. I think the PWHL wants the team in Ottawa as well. So, there must be a way forward,” Sutcliffe told CTV News Ottawa. “We just have to let the negotiations play themselves out.” Sutcliffe says in initial plans, the arena only had 4750 seats and a total capacity of approximately 5,500. However, the arena’s planned capacity and seating were increased. “They’d like it to be larger than that. That’s not what city council ended up deciding based on all of the other needs. But it is larger than what the original plan was when we had that conversation roughly 18 months ago,” Sutcliffe said. The mayor says its possible the Charge may eventually be too large for the arena at Lansdowne. “I don’t know that the Charge, if they continue to be successful, would be at that facility for the next 20 or 30 years anyway. They would probably outgrow it,” Sutcliffe said. The proposed construction timeline for Lansdowne 2.0 would see work begin on the new event centre early in 2026, with completion in 2028. The PWHL’s regular season begins Friday. The Charge will host the New York Sirens on Saturday at TD Place. With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Josh Pringle, CTV News Ottawa’s Dylan Dyson and CTV News’ Annie Bergeron-Oliver.
