UBC coach hopeful Vancouver could get women’s hockey team
Posted January 29, 2019 7:28 pm.
Last Updated January 29, 2019 7:36 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Vancouver doesn’t have a professional women’s hockey team, but there’s hope that could change.
The coach of the women’s hockey team at the University of British Columbia, Graham Thomas, believes what the NHL did this past weekend by involving women at the All Stars Skills Competition is another sign the sport is growing.
He believes Vancouver is not far off from getting its own team, although it will take some motivated people to make that happen. He says it would first need the right group of investors.
“Get some partners and sponsors and then try to build it from there,” Thomas says. “I do think the interest is there.”
Why doesn’t Vancouver have a women’s hockey team already? Thomas believes the climate may be partly to blame.
“There’s different weather out here, so it sometimes lends itself to different sports,” he says.
And, he adds, young girls don’t necessarily grow up playing hockey in Vancouver, the same way they do in colder cities.
“Sometimes out here we don’t have that privilege of having outdoor rinks and just the ability to go out and play and have fun.”
Thomas says that right now the UBC women’s hockey team, the Thunderbirds, average about 350 fans at home games, which is an improvement of about 125 people per game from five years ago.
There are currently four professional women’s hockey teams in Canada, one in Calgary, another in Montreal, and two in Ontario.