It feels like being an NHL fan in Canada is becoming increasingly more difficult and not as enjoyable as it once was.

The days of paying reasonable prices for things like cable packages, streaming services, tickets to watch your favourite team, food and beverage at the arena, and even merchandise is slipping away.

The days of getting to know players through authentic storytelling is slowly working it’s way out of the game.

And the days of being able to consume comprehensive media coverage of your favourite team through multiple outlets is quickly eroding.

Being a sports fan is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be a way to be part of a community. It’s a way to take your mind off the daily grind that life can be. Unfortunately professional sports is becoming something that feels out of touch with the average fan.

Here are a few things that are making the fan experience more difficult than it’s ever been.

Rogers Sportsnet is the national TV and streaming service rights holder in Canada for the NHL. They own a monopoly when it comes to the streaming service part of their business. And what happens to monopolies when there is no competition or oversight? The consumer suffers.

We saw exactly that on Thursday when Rogers announced that they are increasing the price of their streaming service Sportsnet Plus for the third year in a row.

The Premium plan, which you need to watch every NHL game and avoid blackouts, went from $42.99 per month to $44.99 per month, and from $324.99 per year to $344.99 per year.

The yearly subscription price for a premium account has increased by $95 since 2024. And for what? Are the fans going to experience a new app? Is Rogers investing some of that money in local markets to increase the coverage of the NHL? The answer to those questions is no.

Sportsnet has rolled out the same app for multiple years with little to no updates to help enhance the viewing experience. It’s a basic app with very little bells and whistles. It’s not the kind of cutting edge app you’d expect to get when you’re paying upwards of $44.99 per month.

Some of the issues that NHL fans have had with the app include:

A lot of these are pretty basic upgrades that Sportsnet could make, especially with the additional money they will be collecting from increasing their prices over the last five years.

All those features were available to fans when the NHL ran the Game Centre live streaming service which was an excellent product for a fair price.

It’s interesting to see that things like media rights deals, sponsorship deals, TV viewership and overall demand for the NHL has never been higher than it is right now.

But yet the media companies and number of individuals covering the game continues to shrink.

Rogers and Bell have shut down all sports radio stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Hamilton within the last five years. Newspapers are sending fewer reporters to cover games. Local TV stations no longer have sports departments who cover amateur and professional sports.

For example, Calgary doesn’t have a dedicated TSN reporter, an Athletic reporter or an all sports radio station.

And that’s a similar story when it comes to most Canadian markets not named Toronto and Montreal. Fewer people are creating content because of the lack of jobs available in Canadian sports media.

The more opinions, voices, and outlets we have in sports media, the better. It increases the quality of product and allows for more debate and thought.

Between tickets to the game, parking/transportation, food/drink, merchandise, etc. it’s becoming unaffordable for the average fan or family to attend live professional sporting events. You’re looking at hundreds of dollars spent on a night out for a family of four.

As we all know, life is incredibly expensive as is. The basic costs of life is eating away at disposable income. Mortgage/rent payments, paying off loans, car payments, wi-fi, phone bills, food, and clothing adds up quickly. The days of people having lots of disposable income to spend on things like an NHL game are slowly coming to an end.

This is something that should concern the NHL. Right now there is still a lot of demand for their product. There is a group of people who are willing to spend big bucks for season tickets or a multi game packs. But as young people continue to get by instead of thrive, spending hundreds of dollars on a night out to a game is going to become less frequent.

There are a lot of teams who do a good job promoting their players and allowing their fan bases to get to know them and their personalities. But they could be doing more to build that connection.

NHL teams have tightened up access to their players over the last decade. It feels like we as fans don’t get the opportunity to get to know the players as much as we once did. We don’t see many long form one on one interviews or in depth content features (common ways for fans to get to know the players). Most of the interactions between the media and players that fans see are from scrums. That’s not an ideal environment to have players show off their personalities or tell their story.

It would be great to have players do more one on one interviews with local media. And talk about where they came from. Talk about their love and appreciation for the fans and the city they live in. Talk about the charity work they do around their city, because a ton of players do a lot of great work in that respect. Film content with a player at local hot spots to show that they are part of the community and not just there to play hockey.

Fans are going to cheer more for players who they feel like they know and have a connection with than if they don’t. You’re more excited for their success individually and the team success if you know their story. Fans don’t have the ability to get to know their favourite players if they only see them in scrums giving hockey clichés.

A great example of this in Calgary is Zach Whitecloud. He’s only played 31 games for the Flames, but he is already a beloved member of the team and community. Part of that is because of the way he plays the game on the ice. But it’s also because of how he interacts with the media, talks about the city and the Flames organization, and the countless charity initiatives he’s already undertaken since arriving in Calgary.

Telling stories about players like Whitecloud is something NHL teams should embrace and encourage.

Between streaming monopolies, increasing prices of consuming the NHL, lack of media coverage and restricted player access, the NHL is making it more difficult and less enjoyable to be a fan. It feels more like a corporation than a sport.

And don’t get me wrong, the NHL is in the business of making money. I get that. But at what cost? When will we get to a point where we start to see a drop off in fan interest? It’s a death by a thousand paper-cuts situation. Pretty soon, all these things I have talked about will add up and start to upset fans just like yesterday’s announcement of the price increase of Sportsnet Plus.

Never miss what matters in the game. From lineup changes to breaking trades and must-read analysis, FlamesNation delivers the insight serious hockey fans rely on—straight to your inbox. Sign up for the FlamesNation newsletter!