Ottawa Charge to make 'major' announcement at Canadian Tire Centre

Ottawa Charge to make 'major' announcement at Canadian Tire Centre

PWHL team played several games this year at suburban CTC

Ottawa Charge to make major announcement at Canadian Tire Centre

The Ottawa Charge are set to make what they're touting as a "major" announcement Thursday at the Canadian Tire Centre (CTC).

The venue chosen for the 2:30 p.m. ET news conference could be a huge clue about what's being announced.

Ottawa's Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) team played several postseason games at the home of the Ottawa Senators earlier this year, and the team has already confirmed it won't play at the new arena being built at Lansdowne Park because it will have less seating than the current TD Place Arena.

So if the Charge announce they're making the CTC their new home, it won't be a huge surprise.

Two people with knowledge of discussions told The Associated Press last month that the PWHL had reached an agreement for the Charge to play at the CTC next season, though CBC Sports did not independently confirm the report.

CBC News will carry a livestream of Thursday afternoon's news conference here.

Charge general manager Mike Hirshfeld and Ottawa Senators president and CEO Cyril Leeder will be on hand for the announcement, along with Charge forward Rebecca Leslie of Ottawa.

The Charge are one of the PWHL's original six franchises and spent their first three seasons at TD Place Arena, also home to the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67's. That team now appears poised to become the new Lansdowne arena's main sports tenant.

The Charge have already signalled they won't play at the new Lansdowne arena because it will have only 5,850 seats, with added standing room boosting capacity to more than 6,600. That's compared to TD Place Arena's current capacity of about 9,500 seats.

Last season, the Charge's average turnout at TD Place was 7,382 in 12 outings, with 10 games surpassing 6,600.

The Charge averaged 13,416 fans per playoff game at the CTC this past season, and drew a crowd of 17,114 for one regular-season game at the same arena where the capacity is 18,655.

The Charge reached the best-of-five Walter Cup Finals in each of the past two seasons, losing both times.

The Senators, meanwhile, could move to a new downtown arena at Lebreton Flats, though construction on that project has yet to begin.

With files from The Associated Press