The PWHL has announced its first outside investors
It’s major news for the league as four new teams get set up for the 2026-27 season
The Professional Women’s Hockey League is set to benefit from the addition of two major corporate equity partners: Kilmer Sports Ventures and Ilitch Companies will be the league’s first outside investors since it was established in 2023.
According to a press announcement, over 1.1 million fans attended PWHL games during the most recent regular season, taking the number of all-time attendees across the two-million mark. Four new teams were recently announced for the 2026-27 season: Detroit, Hamilton, Las Vegas and San Jose.
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Philanthropists Mark and Kimbra Walter, who founded the league, have so far provided its funding. Mark Walter said in a statement that the partnering groups will help the league continue to grow.
“Kimbra and I are incredibly proud of what the PWHL has accomplished in a short time and are excited about what it can achieve moving forward,” Walter, who is chairman and CEO of TWG Global, said in the announcement.
Kilmer Sports Ventures, led by Larry Tanenbaum, is the PWHL’s first Canadian investor.
The Walters and the PWHL’s advisory board will remain in control of strategic direction and operations.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
