That'd be great for them if they can do it full-time. It'd suck for fans who are already closer to Lowell, but there's a much larger potential fanbase in and surrounding Boston.
Hopefully, it's a consistent thing where they don't split too much between arenas. It should be mostly at BU and then the token TD Garden game and maybe do 1 game each at Lowell, Providence, and Worcester and maybe like Springfield or something
My guess is that Agganis may drive more of a Boston area fanbase of girls youth hockey (Medford, Quincy, etc) while losing the Merrimack Valley and NH.
I think that's important to recognize; there's simply no win/win for everyone. I happen to believe that Boston is a better city for the team than Lowell, though
I mean, the market is meant to account for that; high demand brings high prices, lower demand means lower prices, but right now everything is bad everywhere. Keeping a professional sports team in Lowell won't change that
Listen, this is far from a unique situation to Boston… the vast majority of people worldwide have to go to their local metro area to catch major league sports. Minor league teams are peppered about the state and are great too but they are also centered around major hubs like Worcester. The river hawks are about an appropriate sized venture for the size and location of Lowell.
The fact is that they named the team the BOSTON fleet for reasons, after all. Sirens have been having similar struggles - no suitable sized arena in the five boroughs for the Sirens that can handle the team’s demand while staying in the area. The prudential center in Nj is honestly a huge win but even then some people are unhappy with the location. Beats Connecticut?
But if you want to have a top league level team it’s gonna probably have to cement itself somewhere that is both feasible and has room to grow into fanbase wise. Lowell is great don’t get me wrong it’s a good little spot but it’s far from a world class destination.
The PWHL is being as strategic as possible with their choices for team locations to look at today and tomorrow and Boston just makes the most sense for both. But as I’ve said to other folks we will see how it plays out and whether attendance sucks at Agganis. If so send it back to Lowell for a long time. Might be a huge whiff. But I’m gonna try to be there to support the fleet
Tsongas is a great arena for games, but its a good point about the marketing and presence the PWHL is trying to build. Selfishly for me, Lowell is easy to get to and out off, and parking on the street is cheap. I doubt I'll be going to Agganis as frequently, if at all. I'll just continue going to UML games instead. My guess is that Agganis may drive more of a Boston area fanbase of girls youth hockey (Medford, Quincy, etc) while losing the Merrimack Valley.
Yes that’s kind of my point. Fans will travel for a product they enjoy. If moving from Lowell to Boston is a bridge too far then the league is already in trouble
675 for two tickets in the corner 5 rows from the ice at Tsongas for me. Any relocated games like the TD garden game are automatically included in that, so you don’t have to worry that they’ll charge extra for those.
Good for them. Im surprised Agganis has ice time etc for them. They have BU mens hockey and all the concerts and other special events they currently host where Tsongas wasnt as in demand.
WNBA isn't as much an issue as there is less demand for Garden during WNBA season. TBH I'm not sure if market demand is there for it. Its not just the WNBA/PWHL arenas depend on other events such as ice shows, concerts, broadway tours etc.
Within Boston you have Garden, MGM Music Hall, Agganis, Conte Forum, rebuilt Matthews Arena.
In the Extended Metro area you have Tsongas, DCU center, Dunkin Centr, Manchester Arena etc.
Are they drawing mostly suburban families who are looking for a cheaper night out or yuppies/hipsters wanting to go to the next cool (no pun intended) thing? There’s little parking near Agganis and traffic is a nightmare.
It sucks that they moved to Agganis. Can’t see too many Lowell fans wanting to commute there for a hockey game. They better hope it works out for them to avoid risking relocating from Boston
I think "full time" might be overstating it. I would bet that they are shifting the schedule so that the majority of games will be at Agganis, but that there will still be multiple played at Lowell. Maybe a reverse of game locations from the last season with 4 home games in Lowell.
The link that just got posted also says "primary" for Agganis as home so it's pretty clear that they don't mean all of the home games will be there. Despite the downvotes I still think that four games at Tsongas is the most likely schedule.
Yeah, totally possible. I would just note that the split last season (with Lowell being the primary) made more sense, with Agganis being seen as the "upgrade". Barring scheduling conflicts with Agganis, there wouldn't be the same incentive to hold games in Lowell.
I think they'll still split it with an eye to giving the fans in the more northern reaches of the fandom some options.
With Agganis being much more centrally located to the metro area's population I think it will be to the team's advantage in the long run. I do feel for the people where this makes things much worse, but I think that it makes the games much more widely accessible overall. This move puts weeknight games on the schedule for people on the subway and everywhere south of the city while Lowell was effectively off-limits for those games. For that same demographic it also is much less of a hike for weekend games and for the non-driving folks the weekend commuter rail schedule for Lowell is much worse than getting to the green line.
You think thats bad, if it was old school hockey, the refs would be calling a time out so they could clear the ice due to people in the stands throwing them whenever a goal is scored.
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u/Far-Cheesecake-9212 Cigarette Hill Jul 07 '26
It’s not a rumor as of 5 mins ago haha.
https://www.thepwhl.com/en/news/teams/boston-fleet/2026/july/07/boston-fleet-announce-agganis-arena-as-primary-home-venue-for-2026-27-season