Women's hockey is more widespread than most people know.
Let's make it easier to find.
People can't support what they don't know exists
I’m Heather: a Canadian living in Europe since 2003, and passionate fan of women's ice hockey.
I started Mapping Women's Hockey in 2025 to helping potential fans in Switzerland to discover the sport, and opportunities to engage with women's hockey across Switzerland.
I have continued to grow it when the inspiration (and suitable data) has come my way. As I add leagues and tournaments beyond Swiss borders, a broader picture of the sport's footprint is starting to emerge. With it, the potential to grow women’s hockey in Europe and beyond, and to build a connected community around the sport. Discovery is just the first critical step.
When people can find women's hockey:
• More fans attend games.
• Clubs gain visibility.
• Sponsors find opportunities.
• Player pipelines for national and elite teams grow.
• Young girls discover role models and communities see a broader picture of athletic excellence.
The journey often begins with something simple: Knowing where to go.
Making women's hockey easier to find, follow, and support
Women's hockey is thriving in far more places than most people realise, yet countless potential fans never attend a game because they don't know a team exists nearby. Many clubs struggle to attract audiences despite, even those at elite levels. Sponsors often have limited visibility. Federations have limited player pipelines from which to build national teams.
In many places, the issue it's a lack of hockey: It's a lack of awareness.
Whether you're a fan looking for your first game, a league or tournament seeking greater visibility, a sponsor exploring opportunities, or a club hoping to reach new audiences, the goal of Mapping Women's Hockey is to create connections.
Explore the map
- Discover teams near you to support.
- Find games and tournaments to see when you travel.
- Get any insights fans, clubs, and tournament leaders have shared to help newcomers know what to expect.
- Learn about international tournaments in which your country is participating.
Explore the latest version (on Google Maps) which currently includes:
- 200+ teams
- 130+ arenas.
- 16 international tournaments
- 15 leagues
- 13 countries
Sign up to hear about updates
Interested in updates? Request to be informed of map updates, and read on to find out how to suggest updates of your own.
You can help grow the Map of Women's Hockey
Share updates, corrections, and local expertise to help future fans: Suggest updates, whether to enhance existing entries or to add other teams, arenas, leagues, or tournaments. For example:
Teams, Clubs, Fans
- Check your team is on the map.
- Suggest updates for your team, such as:
- Game schedules
- Where to buy tickets
- Tips for first-time visitors
- How to watch games when in-person isn't possible
- How (else) to support the team
- Share this with others.
Federations, Leagues
- Suggest league additions or updates:
- Type and level of the league
- Age limits
- Participating teams in the current season
- Collaborate on participation and visibility initiatives.
Tournament Organisers
- Suggest tournament additions or updates:
- Dates and locations
- Participating teams
- Ticketing information to make it easy to buy and attend.
- Broadcast and streaming links for those who can't visit in person.
Sponsors & Partners
- Support growth through funding.
- Collaborate on technology and data initiatives.
- Help increase visibility for women in sport.
Beyond mapping: growing and connecting the women's hockey community
The map is no longer an end in itself, but rather the start of the conversation and an opportunity to connect and grow the women's hockey community. The opportunity is enormous. So is the challenge:
- Expanding reach: The project becomes more valuable with every new country, league, tournament, and contributor.
- Building better information: Great fan experiences require more than dates and addresses. The best information often comes from people who already know and love their local clubs.
- Evolving the technology: The current platform proved the concept. Future versions can offer richer discovery, community contributions, analytics, and data integrations.
- Funding growth: Sustainable support will accelerate expansion, improve technology, and increase impact.
And this is just one of the tools that I'm developing to help clubs and teams to attract more first-time spectators, then turn them into fans, partners, sponsors or even players (or parents of future players).
Whether you represent an organisation seeking ways to grow the fanbase and community around your women's team, league or tournament, or you are in a position to offer sponsorship, partnership, or funding opportunities, contact me to discuss what we can achieve together.
(Photo credit: IIHF)
Heather's 15 seconds of women's hockey fame, having presented the best player award to Tereza Plosová after Czechia's January 11th win against Sweden in the 2024 Women's U18 Worlds.
As I mentioned above, I'm Heather, a Canadian who has called Europe home since 2003. It surprises many, that I wasn't immersed in hockey, despite growing up in Canada. In fact, I only really discovered women's hockey in 2023 when a new team was built in Zug, Switzerland, near where I had been living for several years.
I was excited about the new discovery, and an immediate fan. I got season tickets, attended every game I could, and, when Zug also hosted the Women's U18s that season, began volunteering within the world of women's (and men's) hockey. I was amazed to discover that Switzerland already had more than 50 women's teams, including another near my home, which I would happily have gone to watch, had I known they were there. That realisation sparked a question: How many more people would attend a game if they knew there was one happening close to home?
So I built a map of the arenas in which the women's teams of Switzerland play, and shared it on LinkedIn. I started growing it opportunistically: first France's Elite A & B, then England's WNIHL. This summer, to help boost visibility of the upcoming Zurich stop of the Women's Euro Hockey Tour (WEHT), and the upcoming season, I updated teams and leagues and posted again. Then I thought I should the other stops of the WEHT and - while I was at it - the Women's Worlds and the Women's European Cup of Nations. And it keeps growing. You can read more about these and other additions and evaluations on the updates page.
What started as a way to help people in my personal network discover local teams quickly grew beyond Swiss borders. Today, Mapping Women's Hockey is evolving into a global initiative to increase visibility, strengthen and connect women's hockey communities, and create new opportunities throughout the women's hockey ecosystem.
Help me keep connecting and growing the women's hockey community
Whether you are a fan with an idea; part an organisation seeking ways to grow the fanbase and community around your women's team, league or tournament; or in a position to offer sponsorship, partnership, or funding opportunities, I'd love to hear from you.
I bring a different perspective from those who grew up on the sport. As a relatively new but deeply passionate fan, I combine curiosity, business strategy, community building, data thinking, and experience across multiple industries to help women's hockey reach new audiences.