Ally And Scripps Sports Anchor PWHL’s National Expansion

Ally Financial is no stranger to supporting women’s sports or the PWHL. The company has been active over the past several years pushing money into the women’s sports landscape as part of their 50/50 pledge to provide equal sponsorship of men and women’s sports.

Specifically, Ally sponsored moving the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Championship game to primetime broadcast for the first time ever in 2022. They launched the Ally Tipoff, a premiere early-season women’s college basketball matchup between top 25 teams in 2023, with the most recent iteration between NC State and University of Southern California on November 9 in Charlotte.

Ally increased the purse for the U.S. Women’s Open to the highest ever for women’s golf in 2024, and are committed sponsors to WNBA athletes like Breanna Stewart, Sydney Colson, and Paige Bueckers, alongside being a founding parter in the Unrivaled women’s 3-on-3 basketball league.

In terms of the PWHL, Ally sponsored the Takeover Tour events last year in Detroit and Raleigh, but wanted to have a deeper relationship and connection to the league.

According to Andrea Brimmer, Ally’s Chief Marketing and Public Relations Officer, the national broadcast game for the PWHL was years in the works, but post Olympics the moment was right. She said, “I think coming out of the Olympics, the gold medal, the momentum around the women’s team, we then launched a campaign with Hilary Knight where we encouraged fans of women’s sports to post their favorite moments of women’s sports victories, or joys and celebrations.”

The campaign was a success, and Brimmer continued, “We thought we could amplify that more, if we could move a PWHL game to network television. I think it was just this idea of a building effect. We had done the Takeover Tour, a lot of momentum coming out of the Olympics, the Hilary campaign, why don’t we go this last mile and get this game while there is all this rabid enthusiasm around women’s hockey, in a place where a bunch more people will see it.”

Similarly, Scripps Sports also understands the power of women’s sports and the women’s sports fan. Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports detailed, "Fan interest in women’s hockey is at an all-time high, buoyed by the amazing success of Team USA in this year’s Winter Olympics Games. We are thrilled to be teaming with the PWHL and Ally Financial on this milestone event and to bring the excitement of this league to a national audience for the first time."

Scripps, like Ally has been committed to growing women’s sports since 2023 when the media company made a promise to make it easier to be a women’s sports fan in America. Since this pledge, Scripps has dedicated franchise nights to the WNBA and NWSL (Fridays and Saturdays) on ION, as well as launched studio shows to support the leagues.

Additionally, ION broadcasts more WNBA games and more NWSL matches than any other national broadcaster.

Scripps isn’t stopping with this one PWHL game, the media company will bring the Walter Cup finals championship series to national television for the first time in May.

According to Amy Scheer, PWHL Executive Vice President of Business Operations, “I talk a lot about it is the company that you keep. If I was going to do an aspiration board on day one of the PWHL going into business, I would put on our board, ‘where do I want our games to be seen’, ‘what partners do I want as part of our partnership portfolio’, these two would be on that board for us.”

She continued, “You want to be on ION because they are a beacon for women’s sports. You want Ally because of the difference maker that they are for women and women in sports. For us it is absolutely humbling, two and half years into our journey that they have decided to partner with us.”

PWHL Growth By The Numbers

In the month of February alone, the league and its athletes saw merchandise sales increase by 101%, the PWHL YouTube videos viewership grow by 200%, and the league’s website traffic was six times higher with 73% of that traffic representing new users.

Furthermore, after the Olympics, in three of the first four games in the PWHL’s Canadian markets, players came back to sold out crowds in Ottawa (8,572), Montréal (10,172), and Toronto (8,671).

In the United States, the Boston Fleet sold out their first game back from the Olympic break and a new attendance record of 17,355 fans was etched at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on Feb. 27.

The league, which is closing in on two million fans all-time in just its third season since launching in January 2024, is on pace to reach a million fans for the first time in a single season.

Clearly the impact of the Olympics and the women’s national team’s overwhelming success is paying off for the PWHL. However, the PWHL was ready for this moment and have been establishing strong ties with their fans and women’s hockey communities. As Scheer explained, the fan base is full of joy and the PWHL are “joy dealers” as “We have built a wonderful community of fans at every game and a connectivity between our players and our fans.”

Scheer further outlined that what makes their league and the games a must watch are “the games are fast, dynamic, and thrilling.” She continued, “There is not a team that is going to lay down, they are playing to the final whistle. Quite literally every game matters."

Thus, fans in the stadium in Detroit and at home through ION will get to experience the power and precision of the athletes at full speed on Saturday, March 28.

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