‘Intense rivalry’ brings new hockey fans. Is sports worth it?

The NHL also pointed to WIRED its partnerships with Pride organizations across the U.S., Canada and Australia, as well as the pro-inclusion organization You Can Play, which it has been working with since 2013. The league said it will host the third annual Pride Cup in 2026.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said he was “binging” Hot competition One night he told reporters that all the NHL teams were having a Pride Night. However, as The New York Times reported, this is no longer the case, with two teams opting to hold more inclusive events.

Teresa Fowler, an associate professor at Concordia University in Edmonton, and Tim Scouse, an associate professor at Brandon University, have been researching hockey culture in Canada for years. Fowler is candid when she talks about the league’s embrace of Hot competitionwhich feels performative.

“Where’s your gay friend on your team? You know what I mean?” She says. “It seems so hypocritical when people say, ‘Yes, we welcome them,’ and yet the person they call their brother, you know, and for whom they would do anything, is so afraid to bare his soul.”

Fowler and Skuse published a study on hockey culture in 2023, interviewing 21 elite players from the junior level and above, many of whom say they are current or former NHL players. Fowler says she has also worked with younger players, including U-18 and youth hockey players. One of the main issues they pointed to that reinforces the toxic culture in sports is hazing.

“They would make the players dress up like women, then go to the mall and sing ‘My Little Teapot.’ They will have notches in their belts for sexual conquest. But then, of course, there’s more to the physical [hazing rituals]: Drag your balls across the rink naked, and into the bathrooms naked“It’s just disgusting,” says Fowler. It doesn’t make sense to me how this is group bonding, nothing at all. These rituals are sexist and misogynistic rituals, constantly degrading women.

In 2022, a Globe and Mail investigation revealed that Hockey Canada, the sport’s national governing body, partly used player registration fees to cover uninsurable liabilities, such as sexual assault settlements; Last July, five former Canadian junior hockey players were acquitted of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room in London, Ontario.

Hockey Canada did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Scouse, who played college hockey and AAA hockey, says a lot of the men he interviewed said they “felt uncomfortable” about the hazing but “didn’t want to say anything about it.” Belonging to the team depends on keeping up with what is happening.

Skuce says he wants to see a shift away from humiliation-based hazing rituals to more “holistic” rituals.

With the Olympics taking center stage, there is once again the potential for transgender people in sports to be put in the spotlight — a culture war issue that Brown says has created a “moral panic.” He co-authored the book 2025 Let’s play About this issue.