The Professional Women’s Hockey League’s first four playoff games will be played in Toronto’s Coca-Cola Coliseum and Place Bell in Laval, Que.
With Toronto and Montreal having secured playoff berths and home-ice advantage, the PWHL announced Tuesday their best-of-five semifinals will start in those arenas.
Toronto’s first two playoff games are May 8 and 10, and Montreal’s are May 9 and 11.
The top four in the six-team league advance to the post-season.
Once the regular season concludes Sunday and the standings are final, the top team in the league has a 24-hour window to choose its semifinal opponent between the third and fourth seeds.
Toronto and Montreal were tied atop the standings with 41 points apiece Tuesday. Toronto had two games remaining and Montreal one.
Minnesota, Ottawa and Boston were still in the hunt for the two remaining playoff spots. New York was eliminated from contention.
Toronto’s Coca-Cola Coliseum, with a capacity of about 8,000, is the home of the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies.
Place Bell, which is the rink of the AHL’s Laval Rocket, holds just over 10,000.
The new United Football League announced its full 43-game schedule Monday, kicking off with a March 30 matchup of the champions from the two leagues that formed it and concluding with a championship game June 16.
UFL teams will practice in a central location near Dallas but will play five games apiece in their home markets as part of a 10-game schedule. The league, formed last year via a merger between the XFL and USFL, will open with a March 30 game between the USFL champion Birmingham Stallions and the XFL champion Arlington Renegades at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas (1 p.m. ET/FOX).
The rest of the opening weekend’s schedule includes:
• St. Louis Battlehawks at Michigan Panthers (March 30, 4 p.m. ET/FOX)
• D.C. Defenders at San Antonio Brahmas (March 31, noon ET/ESPN)
The UFL will host two conference championship games the weekend of June 8-9 to determine the participants in its league championship game the following weekend.
Every UFL game will be televised on either ABC, Fox, ESPN, ESPN2 or FS1. ABC/ESPN games will be streamed on ESPN+, and Fox games will stream on the Fox Sports app. Nearly three-quarters of the games will air on either ABC or Fox.
“The UFL will now have exceptional platforms through which fans can experience spring football. We are equally excited to welcome new and returning fans back into our buildings this season so they can immerse themselves in the energy around spring football,” UFL president/CEO Russ Brandon said in a statement. “Our players are here to perform and to reach the next level, and our fans are going to be treated to an excellent on-field product and in-stadium experience.” The league also confirmed all eight home stadiums for 2024. They are:
• Birmingham Stallions: Protective Stadium • Arlington Renegades: Choctaw Stadium • Houston Roughnecks: Rice Stadium • D.C. Defenders: Audi Field • Memphis Showboats: Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium • San Antonio Brahmas: The Alamodome • Michigan Panthers: Ford Field • St. Louis Battlehawks: The Dome at America’s Center
The PWHL has officially announced six venues as homes for their franchises for the inaugural PWHL season beginning January 1.
“Giving our athletes the opportunity to step onto the ice to compete in front of our passionate fans has been the driving force of our efforts, and it’s going to be an exciting reality on New Year’s Day,” said Stan Kasten, PWHL Advisory Board member. “It’s time for the best women’s hockey players in the world to lift our game to greater heights.”
PWHL Toronto will play at Mattamy Athletic Centre, also known as the former Maple Leaf Gardens. Mattamy is currently used as the home ice of Toronto Metropolitan University.
“We are looking forward to welcoming the Toronto Professional Women’s Hockey League franchise to the TMU campus as they make the Mattamy Athletic Centre their home ice for the inaugural season of this highly anticipated league,” said Mohamed Lachemi, President and Vice-Chancellor, Toronto Metropolitan University. “This partnership is important to the university and aligns well with our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive campus culture for all. It is essential that we show our continued support for the amplification of women’s sports, and we hope that this wonderful community partnership will inspire others to join in, participate and cheer on not just the Toronto PWHL team, but our TMU Bold teams as well.”
In Ottawa, perhaps the longest known venue is TD Place Arena, home to the OHL’s Ottawa 67s and the original venue for the first women’s World Championship in 1990.
“We are thrilled to call The Arena at TD Place our home,” said Mike Hirshfeld, PWHL Ottawa General Manager. “The history of the arena, including hosting the first ever women’s world ice hockey championship in 1990, is something we are eager to be a part of.”
PWHL Boston will play in Lowell, Massachusetts, roughly 35 minutes outside Boston at the Tsongas Center, home to the UMass Lowell hockey and basketball teams.
“We’re thrilled to have the Tsongas Center as our home arena – a great facility with an ideal seating capacity of 6,500,” said Danielle Marmer, PWHL Boston General Manager. “Located in Lowell, MA, it’s a hub that’ll draw fans from the Merrimack Valley, North Shore, Southern New Hampshire, and the Greater Boston Area.”
PWHL New York will play in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the 10,000 seat Total Mortgage Arena, home to the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders.
“Having the privilege to showcase our skills in front of our dedicated fans, in a top-tier arena, represents an opportunity that impeccably aligns with the professional standards upheld by the PWHL,” said Pascal Daoust, PWHL New York General Manager. “It promises to be a premier sports experience not only for our athletes but also our fans, allowing them to gather in greater numbers and take immense pride in standing united behind our team!”
Minnesota will play at the 18,000 seat Xcel Energy Center, which is also home to the NHL’s Minnesota Wild.
“We are thrilled to call Xcel Energy Center our home for our inaugural season,” said Natalie Darwitz, PWHL Minnesota General Manager. “The Xcel Energy Center is a premier venue which has the amenities to provide our players and our fans with a first-rate game experience. The enthusiasm and excitement our players and fans will bring to Xcel Energy Center will guarantee our team having a home ice advantage!”
Finally, the Verdun Auditorium will host PWHL Montreal, seating just over 4000 fans, and also housing the team’s practice facility on a separate rink.
“Hockey fans in Greater Montreal and across the province of Quebec are excited to have a professional women’s hockey team established here,” said Danièle Sauvageau,PWHL Montréal General Manager. “
The locations for each of the PWHL’s six franchises are either signed, or nearing complete.
The venues will vary in size, but one similarity is that PWHL franchises will not be inhabiting a venue with several tenants, rather they’re almost exclusively playing at arenas that currently have only a single main inhabitant.
In Ottawa, the new home rink is confirmed as TD Place Arena, the 6,500 seat rink that is currently home to the OHL’s Ottawa 67s. In his introductory press conference, Ottawa general manager Michael Hirshfeld stated a new dressing room facility was under construction at the rink.
While those are the locations we know, two we believe to be all but certainties are Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto, and Walter Brown Arena in Boston. Coca-Cola Coliseum seats 8,100 fans and plays host to the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies. While this is home base, it would not be surprising to see PWHL Toronto play at least a game or two at Scotiabank Arena as well.
In Boston, the 3,806 seat Walter Brown Arena, which currently houses Boston University’s women’s hockey team seems like the finalized location. A suitable arena was always the concern in Boston, and Walter Brown is a bit older, and slightly under the 4,000 seat goal set by the league for venues, but it’s a character rink that will have the charm many new buildings lack.
New York has been rumored to be headed to Bridgeport, Connecticut at the 8,412 Total Mortgage Arena, although some games are likely to be played at UBS Arena, home to the NHL’s New York Islanders. There’s also been chatter recently that New York’s team could play games in Albany at the 14,236 seat MVP Arena.
Finally, Montreal remains a mystery. Playing out of Laval’s Place Bell, a 10,000 rink home to the AHL’s Laval Rocket would be a no brainer. It was the future home for the PHF’s Montreal Force prior to the league being acquired, but as many diehard Montreal fans will argue, Laval is not Montreal. The 4,114 seat Verdun Auditorium is another prime target for the league, as it was slated to become the home to the Montreal Canadiennes prior to the CWHL folding in 2019. Newly renovated, the Auditorium could be the place.
The XFL, the spring pro football league fronted by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia, took a big step toward finalizing its plans Sunday with a press conference that revealed the cities, venues and head coaches for its upcoming 2023 season.
The regular season is set to kick off February 18, 2023 with eight teams. Those include in newly announced cities — Las Vegas, Orlando and San Antonio — which are replacing existing teams in Los Angeles, New York and Tampa, FL. ESPN says those were the three cities with the lowest turnout in 2020, the league’s most recent season, which was halted midway through because of the Covid pandemic.
Two other XFL teams on the 2023 slate reside in Texas (Arlington and Houston), with other franchises in Seattle, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
All 43 XFL games will air on Disney platforms in a carriage deal announced in May by Garcia, the league’s chairwoman and owner, and her movie and TV producing partner Johnson, after the duo with RedBird Capitol Partners acquired the league for $15 million from Vince McMahon in 2020 after it had started bankruptcy proceedings.
McMahon originally bankrolled the return of the league, which he resurrected after a 20-year absence. It had played just one season previously, in 2001, as joint venture between McMahon’s WWF (now the WWE) and NBC.
This year’s games will air on Disney platforms ABC, ESPN and FX.
“We’ve had a clear vision for the XFL – the values to instill, the diversity of our leaders, the innovation of the game and how we want to deeply engage with our communities so they can help bring this vision to life. Today, our league takes another step closer to 2023 kickoff as we officially announce where our teams will play,” Garcia said today during a press conference livestreamed on the XFL’s YouTube channel. “What brings a league to life is the passion of the fandom behind it. In each of these cities we will co-create with our fans and build these teams from the ground up so that they represent the unique fabric of our communities. We welcome all football fans to join us as we get ready for kickoff in February.”
Along with the cities, the league revealed its head coaching assignments with most names familiar to football fans: former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops (Arlington), Wade Phillips (Houston), Terrell Buckley (Orlando), Rod Woodson (Las Vegas), Hines Ward (San Antonio), Jim Haslett (Seattle), Anthony Becht (St. Louis) and Reggie Barlow (Washington, DC).
Said Johnson, who was coming off his appearance at Warner Bros’ Black Adam panel at Comic-Con in San Diego, added: “I’m psyched to reveal the cities that our players will have the chance to represent and compete in. This is another massive moment for the XFL, and I’m ready to feel the electricity our dedicated fans will bring to these iconic venues.
“There is great energy building within our league and there is still much more to come… and I can promise it’s going to be worth the wait. We have been working on fresh, new logos and uniforms – even working with some of the team names you already know – that will match the dynamic and innovative vision of our league. We see you, we hear you and your excitement fuels us to continue to bring you the absolute best. We have just under seven months until kickoff and the countdown is officially on.”
The NHL will discuss the possibility of returning to a bubble for the 2021 postseason, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on “Saturday Headlines.”
The league hosted the 2020 playoffs in separate bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton. Whether or not the same measures will be used depends on how the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, Friedman adds.
Over 33,000 tests were administered during last season’s 24-team playoffs, and zero positive results were returned. Teams entered their respective bubbles on July 26, and the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup on Sept. 28.
Nearly every team has had at least one player enter COVID-19 protocol since the 2020-21 season began Jan. 13. The Vancouver Canucks currently have 14 players on the COVID-19 list, and the Brazil variant of the coronavirus has reportedly infected some of those players.
The regular season is scheduled to end May 8, with the postseason beginning May 11, but those dates are subject to change if the league needs to reschedule games.
The Vancouver Whitecaps will call Utah home next season, at least to start.
The Whitecaps announced today that they will play home games in Sandy, Utah, at Rio Tinto Stadium, the home of MLS rival Real Salt Lake. The move is necessitated by travel restrictions between Canada and the United States due to the pandemic.
“We are very thankful to John Kimball and the entire Real Salt Lake organization for welcoming us into their family, their facilities, and providing a home away from home,” said Axel Schuster, Whitecaps FC CEO and sporting director. “We will have a first-class set-up in Utah including an exclusive training pitch, gym and locker room. Also, special credit to our operations team as this is a monumental undertaking and player care is an important focus at our club.”
Vancouver’s season-opener on April 18 will technically be a home game, in Utah, against the Portland Timbers. Portland is where the Whitecaps hosted six matches last fall, where they actually compiled a decent “home” record of 4W-2L-0D.
While the Whitecaps jet off to Utah, Canada’s other two MLS franchises will call Florida home. Toronto FC will host matches at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, while CF Montreal will play their games in Miami at Inter Miami CF Stadium.
Vancouver’s second match of the season is set for April 24 against Toronto FC, in Orlando. MLS has only announced the home openers for each of its 27 clubs, with the complete regular season schedule to be revealed in the coming weeks.
Utah will be the Whitecaps’ home to start the season, but the club is still holding out hope that they could return to Vancouver before the end of the 2021 campaign. That will depend on the success of vaccine rollout in both countries, of course, though given that the MLS season stretches into the fall, it is a realistic possibility that the Whitecaps could return to BC Place this year.
“We will absolutely miss seeing and hearing our fans at BC Place to start the season,” added Schuster. “Rest assured, our main objective is to play as many of our home games in Vancouver as possible. We’re working very closely with the league and public health officials and look forward to a time when our fans can safely attend matches at BC Place once again.”
The Whitecaps are currently conducting training camp in Vancouver, with the intention of relocating to Utah in April. The team has 29 players currently signed for the 2021 season, including 24 returning players — the most since 2017 — and five new additions. Youth will be served, as 17 Whitecaps players are 23 years old or younger.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that all venues in the state that can host a minimum of 10,000 people are now permitted to host fans at 10% capacity beginning Feb. 23, according to ESPN’s Malika Andrews.
Spectators will have to provide a negative COVID-19 test up to 72 hours before the event in question. Fans will also be assigned socially distanced seating and be required to undergo temperature checks and wear face coverings while attending.
Cuomo cited the Buffalo Bills hosting 7,000 fans during the recent NFL playoffs as an “unparalleled success,” opening up a similar opportunity for the state’s other major sports franchises.
The Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks are on track to be the first New York teams to welcome fans back under the new arrangement. The Nets will host the Sacramento Kings on Feb. 23 at the Barclays Center, while the Knicks will welcome the Golden State Warriors on the same day to Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks announced they intend to host “roughly 2,000 fans at every game.” Madison Square Garden normally has a maximum capacity of 19,500 people.
Brooklyn is still awaiting approval by the NBA, according to Andrews.
On a recent episode of the 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about the relationship between Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon. Bischoff, being great friends with Hogan for many many years, says Hogan and Vince have had one of the more dysfunctional relationships he’s ever seen. He also discussed Hogan talking to Vince while he was with WCW during the Monday Night Wars about a possible return to WWE, and stated that he was never worried about Hogan leaving.
“Hulk and Vince, they’re like the most dysfunctional married couple in the world,” Bischoff said. “To this day, look up love/hate relationships and those are the two names that are going to pop up. Even when Hulk was with WCW, he would tell me if he had a conversation with Vince. We were in Denver one night and he said he was going to meet Vince for a drink in his hotel room. I was aware and I was also very much aware that Hulk was a master negotiator, he loved to keep his options open, he loved to have his leverage.
“By that point, Hulk and I became pretty good friends, beyond just work friends. Just based on the conversations he and I had, real casual conversations, the things he said led me to believe there was no way he was going to leave the relatively comfortable environment in WCW and jump back into the shark pool that was WWE. I was aware they were speaking but I really wasn’t concerned.”
“My recall on that was it went back to the time Jesse Ventura was trying to get the talent in WWE to unionize,” Bischoff said. “Word got back to Vince through Hulk and that created a bit of a s–t show and that’s where Jesse harbored a lot of his resentment towards Hulk. I always assumed that was the source of the issue, if there was something more to it I’m not sure what it was.”
“That was odd wasn’t it?” Bischoff asked. “You know who I’m happy for the most? The performers. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to go out there and have a match without a crowd. Especially for experienced talent who have worked in front of a crowd for 10-15 years and developed that direct connection. They affect your timing as well as your energy as a performer. For week, after week, after week to go out there and perform in front of no crowd has got to be challenging. I can only imagine. They won’t work for free, but they’ll feel like offering too, it’s going to be great.”
Bischoff also said he recently saw Hogan and talked to him about his appearance on Monday Night RAW earlier this month. He said he felt bad for Hogan because he wasn’t able to be around the talent.
“When he told me he was going to do it, I was really excited for him,” Bischoff said. “Hulk misses [wrestling], it’s his life. He’s a little bit like Ric Flair in that respect, wrestling has become so much a part of who he is, he’s not just Terry Bollea playing Hulk Hogan in this wrestling show, he’s Hulk Hogan just like Ric Flair is kind of Ric Flair.
“I asked Hulk, it must have been exciting to be backstage and seeing everybody not thinking. But you can’t hang out backstage, everyone is in COVID gear. You’re over here in this bubble and they are over here in that bubble and you can’t go back and forth and visit. So I was really disappointed for him and I can’t imagine what that’s like for the other talent, it’s got to be rough.”
WrestleMania 37, 38 & 39’s locations and dates have all been revealed by WWE.
During a creative (if surreal) promotional video, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks, and John Cena all helped announce the news regrading where and when the next three ‘Manias will be going down.
This year’s ‘Mania 37 has been moved from the original date of March 28 and is set to be yet another two-night affair, airing on April 10 & 11, with WWE seemingly doubling down on last year’s pirate-themed Show of Shows. Also, the comapny will finally be bringing their showpiece event to Tampa, Florida’s Raymond James Stadium after pulling the show due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
WrestleMania 38 will then arrive in Arlington, Texas’ AT&T Stadium on April 3, 2022. This stadium is obviously famous for being the location where WWE reportedly broke their attendance record at WrestleMania 32, with a whopping 101,000 fans in attendance.
And finally, ‘Mania 39 will take place inside of Los Angels’ SoFi Stadium on April 2, 2023. As you’ll likely remember, this ‘WrestleMania Goes Hollywood’ event was initially set to go down at ‘Mania 37. However, it’s clear that those plans have been seriously effected by the current global situation and WWE’s reaction to it.
On top of all this, it appears that the company will be trying to reintroduce fans to their arenas at this year’s event, with WWE’s official press release on the news stating that they “will announce ticket availability and safety protocols for WrestleMania 37 in the coming weeks.”
For now, though, let’s all just celebrate the fact that we won’t have to endure 9 hours of ‘Mania content in one single sitting…in 2021, at least.
Smirfitts Speech 