Make It A Hockey Night

The cat to the left is not HBIC CEO Meg, but Meg is sleeping noisily next to me. I sit here and giggle quietly as she snores audibly enough that she's competing with the hockey game on TV, but I'm somewhat envious of her as I could use more sleep after what was a busy weekend. Between being up early to watch the U SPORTS National Championships to running around to watch PWHL hockey to just trying to get some stuff done around the house, I burned the candle at both ends this weekend so I'm taking the night off just to watch hockey and relax. And maybe nap.

By no means am I the average television viewer as I don't even have a cable subscription nor do I pay for streaming services. I happen to be somewhat tech savvy, however, so I do have ways of finding hockey on various streams that are broadcast free on the internet. One of those, as you likely know, is CBC Sports' website and YouTube channel, and I had wondered on Sunday why U SPORTS wasn't working more closely with CBC to being U SPORTS hockey to their streams every week as some sort of "Hockey Night From Canada" broadcast.

Note the preposition change there. Trademarks matter.

Creative naming aside, hear me out on this because the numbers seem to indicate that there's a market for U SPORTS hockey. According to The Sport Information Resource Centre, U SPORTS broadcasts on streaming services increased in 2023-24 by 20% over 2022-23 thanks, in large part, to CBC's coverage of U SPORTS competitions. By sport, U SPORTS women's hockey saw an unreal 81% increase in viewership that year while men's hockey saw a modest 9% boost in online viewership. In short, people were watching games.

"U SPORTS has worked with our media partners TVA Sports, CBC Sports and Radio-Canada Sports, as well as iSi Live and Live U to give our student-athletes the best exposure of any amateur sports organization in the country," John Bower, U SPORTS Director of Marketing and Communications, said in 2024 in the SIRC article. "Our focus on digital broadcasting allows fans to watch our championships on any screen anywhere in Canada or worldwide. We're meeting consumers where they are, and that's how our exposure has grown so much over the past three years."

That's fine and dandy for 2024, but it's 2026 and we had Canada West hockey broadcasts on CBC streams all winter with almost no one knowing about it. I posted it a few times, but I'm not being paid to promote anything for U SPORTS, Canada West, or CBC. In saying that, it seems like that any momentum that was built in that 2024 season has relied almost exclusively on National Championships rather than looking to expand the coverage into any conference's regular season.

Consider the following scenario for a second: OUA women's hockey has a single game played every week on Thursday when no other conference is playing hockey regularly while the RSEQ has games being played on Sunday when no other conference is playing regularly. That would leave Friday and Saturday for Canada West and the AUS to broadcast games on CBC online streams, and you'd be able to schedule things appropriately for some of the bigger "featured" games each season like the Crowchild Classic in Calgary.

Just to prove my point, I looked at November 9 through November 23 for all four conferences. Here's what the schedule could look like if regular season games from all four conferences were on CBC streams:

• Wednesday, Nov. 12: St. Thomas @ Mt. Allison - 7pm AT (AUS)
• Thursday, Nov. 13: Toronto @ Brock - 6pm ET (OUA)
• Friday, Nov. 14: Bishop's @ Montreal - 7pm ET (RSEQ)
• Friday, Nov. 14: MacEwan @ UBC - 7pm PT (CW)
• Saturday, Nov. 15: Toronto @ Waterloo - 2pm ET (OUA)
• Saturday, Nov. 15: St. Thomas @ StFX - 7pm AT (AUS)
• Sunday, Nov. 16: McGill @ Concordia - 2pm ET (RSEQ)
• Wednesday, Nov. 19: StFX @ Dalhouse - 7pm AT (AUS)
• Thursday, Nov. 20: Laurier @ Ontario Tech - 7pm ET (OUA)
• Friday, Nov. 21: UNB @ Moncton - 7pm AT (AUS)
• Friday, Nov. 21: Mount Royal @ Trinity Western - 7pm PT (CW)
• Saturday, Nov. 22: StFX @ Saint Mary's - 3pm AT (AUS)
• Saturday, Nov. 22: UBC @ Alberta - 5pm MT (CW)
• Sunday, Nov. 23: Bishop's @ Concordia - 1pm ET (RSEQ)

Imagine being able to see 21 of 35 U SPORTS women's hockey teams playing over two weeks without having to do anything other than logging onto CBC's online streams to watch games. Perhaps we'd see an uptick in the number of players drafted by the PWHL teams with this improved exposure as teams could do better scouting of players they're watching. Most importantly, it might give players a better idea of playing U SPORTS hockey rather than playing NCAA hockey.

I get that there's a significant margin of play when it comes to elite NCAA teams and elite U SPORTS teams and I'm not here to denigrate NCAA or ACHA hockey whatsoever. It's clear, though, that there's a significant margin between the exchange rates for the Canadian and US dollars. If players had a better appreciaton for how good U SPORTS hockey is, maybe some of them stay home to play hockey in Canada.

Some will say, "Teebz, you're competing against the NHL broadcasts on some of those nights", and I'd argue that U SPORTS programs already are. Add in the fact that paywalls prevent any easy accessibility to U SPORTS broadcasts, and you've now removed any chance of competing for viewers whatsoever. At that point, why go to the trouble of broadcasting at all since you can't attract casual fans?

Look, this is all just a fantasy right now anyway as CBC would need to agree to this gradiose plan to broadcast the streams before anything could even be scheduled. Based on the SIRC's data, however, there certainly appears to be a market for U SPORTS hockey in this country, and that market could grow by leaps and bounds if people just had access to games. CBC would just need access to the local feeds produced by the schools to put up on their streams, and this "project" would cost almost nothing while changing the landscape for Canadian university hockey. Someone just needs to get the wheels turning.

That person, however, won't be me. U SPORTS nor any of its conferences know I exist nor will they acknowledge my emails to them with any response. U SPORTS can steal this idea and claim it as their own if they like since I'm posting it publicly, but it's shocking that with the growth seen in 2024 that no one looked to capitalize on that interest in the game. U SPORTS was handed a winning lottery ticket in 2024 with SIRC's data, and U SPORTS basically tore it up.

There's still time to correct this error with the number of people that I believe tuned into the broadcasts this year, but ignoring the popularity of university hockey, specifically women's hockey, is something for which U SPORTS should be crucified if they squander yet another opportunity to improve the game for everyone.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!