By Elazar Abrahams
Last month, I headed to Newark’s Prudential Center, usually home to the New Jersey Devils, to watch the New York Sirens take on the Montréal Victoire in a rousing game of ice hockey. It’s a rare occurrence in pro-sports to walk into an arena and feel like you’re arriving at the beginning of something special, not the middle of a preexisting fandom. So while the Sirens lost 4-1, the score is not the story here. The takeaway is that you can feel the stock rising.
The Sirens play in the PWHL – Professional Women’s Hockey League, a relatively new project founded in 2023, whose six teams only received names in 2024. Attending a game and witnessing the already-present energy feels like getting in on the ground floor of a future success story, knowing that in a few years when this team is hanging banners in the rafters and selling out the stands, you’ll have bragging rights for being there first.
A few years ago, I covered the New York Liberty at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and at the time, although the WNBA was plenty old, it still felt like the league and that franchise were building toward what it would become. Now the Liberty are champions, selling multiple levels of seating and generating news that has the entire city celebrating, and the WNBA is a legitimate juggernaut.
This night out at the Sirens felt like an early chapter of a similar women’s sports success story.
Right now, the crowd at Prudential isn’t enormous, and the ticketing setup reflects that. At the February 26th match, much of the arena was curtained off and the seating was contained to one side of the lower bowl. For now, that creates a tighter, louder, and more communal atmosphere where you can hear every whack of the puck and skid on the rink. The fan culture already has die-hards with signature bits. Although the name of the team is definitely meant to invoke imagery of mythic sea creatures, the crowd is fond of making literal siren noises. Wee-ooo! Wee-ooo!
It is also genuinely emotional about watching kids of all genders look up to these players as heroes. The level of play is high and super fun. Even if you’re not a usual hockey watcher, it’s easy to appreciate the speed, physicality, and rhythm of the game when witnessed up close. A rookie to the sport myself, that particular week felt like the perfect time to lean into the sport, as both the women’s and men’s USA national teams had just won Olympic gold.
On the practical side, I was expecting the trip to and from Newark to feel like a schlep, but it didn’t. Traveling from Manhattan was quite easy, and Prudential Center is only two blocks from Newark Penn Station, so once you hop off the train, follow the crowd of teal and orange clad people that are heading to the game.
Exploring the arena was part of the charm, and once the puck dropped, it was a typical sports outing in the best way. You grab a hot dog, grab a drink, settle in, and before you know it, you’re on your feet yelling at the refs.
The appeal of cheering on the Sirens is not that it’s the hottest ticket in town, because it isn’t. But come because you can feel something brewing, and a few years from now, these games will be a much harder ticket to get.
Tickets, schedule, and more information can be found HERE.
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