Ally, Scripps Sports partner to present PWHL Detroit game for national audience on Ion

The GIST: Ally and Scripps Sports are teaming up to present the PWHL’s first-ever nationally televised game in the U.S. on March 28th. This Takeover Tour stop in Detroit will give the PWHL the chance to reach more than 126M households via Scripps Sports network Ion, home to the NWSL, WNBA, and the upcoming SI Women’s Games.

• Last week, we spoke with Ally CMO Andrea Brimmer about the importance of televising the game nationally and why first movers should jump at such opportunities in women’s sports. If you’re not first, you’re last.

The context: The PWHL has had four Canadian national broadcast partners since the puck dropped in 2024, yet none in the U.S. — American teams only have partnerships with local broadcast networks and stream games on YouTube.

• Brimmer, a self-described fan and hockey mom living in a hockey town, noted how hockey fandom isn’t as widespread in the U.S. and on the men’s side, the NHL “doesn’t have the ubiquity” of the NFL or MLB. “It's a very regional sport, and I think it has more regional interest,” Brimmer said.

• However, she noted that unlike the NHL, the PWHL can utilize a targeted strategy to “ride more of the wave of the excellence of women's sports in general,” giving them the “ability to create rabid fandom…because people are ravenous to consume as much women's sports as they can.”

The why: Brimmer and Ally have experience bringing women’s sports to primetime with the NWSL Championship in 2022 and hosting Unrivaled watch parties in 2025. Media exposure has been a major key in fully unlocking the women’s sports opportunity for leagues and sponsors — reaching millions of Americans will, ideally, prove the PWHL’s viability to a national media partner.

• And why Ion? The network has enjoyed its own success with its women’s sports strategy, and Ally believes they share the same passion to amplify women’s sports. “They're a deeds, not words, kind of platform…they've really put their money where their mouth is,” Brimmer said.

Zooming out: Brands can help close gender gaps in sports, whether it’s through media exposure or prize money. Ally has enjoyed boosted brand affinity through such partnerships, and convincing the league and Ion to put a game on primetime will, like the Takeover Tour, prove its broader appeal. Brimmer advised now is the time to get into the PWHL before “it’s about to explode.”

• “There's a lot to be said for getting in when you can still shape it,” she said, noting how saturated other women’s sports leagues are. “You still have a lot of room to get into something that's very evergreen and help shape the narrative, and to punch above your weight as a brand,” she added.

• And Ally knows a good investment when they see it: It began backing the NWSL eight years ago, while Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier pitched the concept for Unrivaled to Ally, its first and founding partner, over a Zoom call. Here since day one.