Time To Be Relevant

If you follow this blog, you know that I'm critical of Canada West and its nine member schools that participate in hockey when it comes to them being relevant in the hockey world. Let's be honest - they're not. No one talks about scouting Canada West for players they can sign, and it seems pretty obvious that only the best of the best are playing hockey at the professional level once their U SPORTS careers are done. So how can Canada West be relevant? Let's discuss.

Uofficially, I have spoken to dozens of people this summer about U SPORTS hockey. For the most part, they know a few teams, but naming specific players, knowing any stats, and naming which schools won the U SPORTS National Championships are questions that were largely met with blank stares. I can't speak for what happens in other conferences as much I can speak to what the experience is like in western Canada, but I suspect that most U SPORTS markets would show the same apathy as people to whom I spoke in western Canada.

How can this change? I'll admit that I don't have any of Creative Communications, business, commerce, or sports management degrees, but I have watched enough sports in my life to know what works and what doesn't when it comes to being relevant. Remember when the NHL was on OLN - the Outdoor Life Network - and people threw a fit because OLN, as a network, had no audience? The NHL learned from its mistakes as it tried to claw and scratch its way into being a popular sport, and now we're talking about billion-dollar deals for the league. That's relevance.

Admittedly, none of these solutions are a catch-all to making the league and its teams more relevant in Canada and across the hockey world, but the trends from other leagues seem to indicate that the current pay-to-watch model is completely outdated. In saying that, let's take a look at five solutions that Canada West hockey could put in place tomorrow that are inexpensive, easy to implement, and will provide greater return when it comes to being relevant.

1. Remove The Paywall

It has become painfully obvious that more leagues who want to gain more viewers are removing the paywalls that prevent people from watching. The SDHL announced earlier this summer that they're going to put all their games on YouTube, we've witnessed the spike in viewers when CBC Sports offers games for free, and other sports have also discovered that more people watch when they can access the games. Allowing people to watch games at their leisure and without committing to a subscription can also mean a boost at the box office as well, and that's something all teams want.

The American Association of Professional Baseball might be one of the best examples of this as the high-A baseball league removed the paywall in 2024 and saw an incredible 224% growth over 2023's viewership numbers on aabaseball.tv. Additionally, multiple teams saw attendance numbers go up as well as more people watching seemed to prompt more people to check out games in-person. If it's working, why wouldn't other leagues follow that model?

And if you thought baseball was the only sport benefitting from YouTube, the PWHL "saw a 2,557% increase in YouTube subscribers throughout the" 2024 season as viewers from 88 countries tuned in to watch the women play hockey. That number dipped in 2025 thanks to the PWHL removing YouTube as an option for Canadians, but the PWHL still boasted a "68% increase in social media engagement across all platforms, including YouTube" this past season. Is anyone still asking why the SDHL is moving to YouTube for the 2025-26 season?

2. Give Me Engaging Stories

If there's one thing that people want more of when it comes to sports, it's highlights and content of their favorite teams and players doing what they do best. Last season, the only women's hockey team who produced highlights after games was the Calgary Dinos, and they were consistent all season long. I'll give shout-outs to the MacEwan Griffins and UBC Thunderbirds who often posted clips of goals and saves on social media regularly, but the other six teams were hit-and-miss when it came to regularly posting game content across all platforms. Note that italicized part because that's important.

NHL teams are excellent at doing it. Most AHL teams and ECHL teams are good at posting clips, and NCAA teams often post game clips. It shouldn't surprise anyone that these four leagues have a lot of followers while the teams who are posting a lot also have a high number of followers. Content is everything on social media, so Canada West should force teams to not only post clips on social media, but produce the entire highlight reel of plays from games. From there, cross-post like mad. Retweet and reshare content produced by teams. Make it so that people have to notice Canada West and its members! After all, 43% of people aged 16-34 follow leagues on social media. This isn't a difficult concept!

Would it surprise you that the two weekends where Canada West produced highlight reels were the two weekends where The Rundown got the most hits all season long? I'm not saying that the "Headline Sports"-style highlight reels I did were better than anything produced by anyone else, but the numbers on those two weekends speak for themselves. Highlight reels work based on my own observations.

The key here is that social media with engaging content can drive all sorts of metrics for all sports and all teams such as increased visibility, fan engagement, links to other content and material, cross-promotion of a variety of options, promotion of sponsors and supporters, brand awareness, and more. All of this just takes effort and collaboration, and the return on that investment could be huge.

3. Collaborate With Others

There are incredible content creators out there for all sports at the Canada West and U SPORTS level, and neither of those entities even tries to make connections with those outside media sources. The teams often fail at that too as witnessed first-hand on a number of occasions, but failing to even talk to those people who have a passion for telling the stories at team and league levels is a failure of monumental proportions. They're already doing the work - all the leagues and teams have to do is create a link to that work!

The University of Saskatchewan has a prretty good partnership with Pattison Media's HuskieFan app which has some incredible people doing awesome work at telling the Huskies' stories. The collaboration between the Huskies and these media people have resulted in solid content each and every season for the University of Saskatchewan, and dare I say that they are the best at what they do because they let the broadcasters bring stories to life. I would love to see more content from everyone involved, but I don't pull those strings.

Check the exceptional work that the HuskieFan Twitter account is doing with the stories they're producing and tell me why the Saskatchewan Huskies Twitter account has none of those stories retweeted. I often write stories about Canada West women's hockey players who have graduated, and not one school has ever reached out and asked if they could link to it. We feature interviews on The Hockey Show with players and coaches, and not one athletics department nor has Canada West asked for the audio or linked back to it. It's almost like the schools and league try harder to ignore stories than they do promoting them. This might explain why no one ever talks about the teams or players despite their accomplishments.

Mount Royal University offers "the only 4-year bachelor degree program for broadcast students in Western Canada," yet the School of Broadcasting isn't involved in telling stories for their Athletics Department. UBC is affiliated with CiTR 101.9FM and has a soccer show, but nothing about the Thunderbirds. CSJW 90.9 FM in Calgary is a campus and community radio station with zero chatter about the campus sports teams, and only has one monthly podcast about sports in general. At some point, you'd think those three schools might want to see if there's room for a campus-produced show about the sports programs they boast. However, it's silence from the west.

4. Go Get Big Names

There will be those that argue that there are still bills to pay even if you give away the content for free. My conjecture is that the subscription model doesn't work to maximize the profits one could see with Canada West TV, but instead limits the number of eyeballs watching those broadcasts. Streaming is very much a thing now, and the chances of it going away anytime soon seem to be near zero. As such, streaming networks need to find ways to be profitable, and it seems that Canadians aren't against the idea of seeing advertisements on streaming services as a 2022 study stated that "48 percent of Canadian viewers are open to seeing ads in streaming television in exchange for lower subscription costs".

Since we already removed the paywall in my first suggested improvement, let's take the advertising to a new level on a league-wide basis for each sport. Banks, food and beverage companies, grocery store chains, and hotels and airlines are all companies that could advertise on Canada West TV across all nine schools. For example, the WestJet first period would be a good way to work their slogan of "Where Your Story Takes Off" into the broadcast, and the Sobey's third period would emphasize that the game you're watching is "So Canadian" as their slogan says. Running these companies' ads before and after full intermission shows would be some additional engagement for these brands, and I feel like the loss of subscription dollars would be made up fairly quickly and then some.

We're not just talking hockey either. Four quarters in football and basketball, set breaks in volleyball, three periods in hockey, two halves in soccer, and whatever else one can sell to companies can be done. There could Kit Kat timeouts in all sports, McDonalds starting lineups, and more. There quite literally is no limit to the advertising dollars teams and leagues could make with board ads, scoreboard ads, and gameday publications all within striking distance of any of these advertising businesses. The money is there if the teams and leagues are willing to do the work to earn it. As per Nike, just do it.

5. Live Is Free; Replays Are Not

Based on the information about the American Association of Professional Baseball, they seem to be banking on the idea that the live games are where more people will tune into their broadcasts. I cannot disagree with this idea, so follow their lead and charge for on-demand access only. After all, if you had tickets, it's not like you can show up a day later to watch the game. That access will cost you.

There may have to be some market research done on what a price point should be for the on-demand access, but anything more than $5 per game seems overpriced to me. If I missed the free broadcast, that's enough of a penalty to make me rethink where I'm going to be for the next broadcast. Be on time for game time!

Those five things could really put Canada West and its nine member schools on the map once again. We've heard the old women's hockey phrase of "To be it, you have see it" or some variation on that, but it's entirely true of university sports. Whether it's organizing blood donation drives, raising funds and awareness for the Special Olympics, or working with the underprivileged in communities, there are a ton of stories that can and should be told on Canada West TV and through other media, and none of these make it to the final cut until Canada West is considering those players and efforts for awards.

Beyond that, just getting more eyeballs on and people to attend games doesn't take a Brinks truck of money to accomplish. It takes passion, effort, and a desire to tell stories, and that's what all broadcasters, journalists, and bloggers want: a compelling story that features a great human interest moment. The outcome of the games being broadcasted are just scores - it's the stories from within the games and that are bigger than the games that sell the sport and broadcasts. People don't tune into broadcasts that aren't interesting.

The above is how I feel Canada West and, in turn, U SPORTS can reach farther than they currently are, and most of the requirements are simply hard work and dedication. Having passion for university sports will captivate viewers, and viewers will come back if it's interesting. If the people running the show don't have those traits, the broadcasts will be as entirely mediocre as they are now.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!