{"id":732973,"date":"2026-06-13T01:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T01:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732973\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T01:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T01:10:15","slug":"heated-rivalry-off-campus-and-romance-books-driving-ice-hockey-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732973\/","title":{"rendered":"Heated Rivalry, Off Campus and romance books driving ice hockey boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

As hordes of ice hockey fans stream into Canberra’s AIS Arena, groups of women congregate excitedly outside.<\/p>\n

Taylor Elfverson said she and her friends were having “a girls’ night out”.<\/p>\n

“I watched a few episodes of that Off Campus [show] and thought, ‘let’s go see an ice hockey game’,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never seen a game before so I have no idea what I’m in for.”<\/p>\n

There is no denying ice hockey is hot right now.<\/p>\n

\"Books<\/p>\n

The books that inspired the TV shows Heated Rivalry and Off Campus have also surged in popularity. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n

Queer hockey romance series Heated Rivalry became a massive streaming success when it premiered late last year.<\/p>\n

Last month, Off Campus \u2014 a romantic drama about college hockey players \u2014 attracted 36 million viewers in its first 12 days, breaking Amazon Prime’s viewership record in the 18-34 female demographic.<\/p>\n

Both were adapted from ice hockey romance novels, a subgenre that has developed a devoted fandom, particularly through TikTok.<\/p>\n

\"Ella<\/p>\n

Off Campus has been an epic hit for Amazon Prime. (Supplied: Prime Video)<\/p>\n

‘Undeniable’ impact<\/p>\n

Canberra Brave chief executive Stephen Campbell said the flow-on effect of these shows for the Australian Ice Hockey League was “undeniable”.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s fantastic \u2014 it’s great for the sport,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Having any program or novel or subgenre of novels that attracts people to the game, I think is a positive.”\"Two<\/p>\n

Taylor Elfverson and Renee Grant knew little about ice hockey until recently discovering shows such as Off Campus. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n

While women have always been involved in the sport, crowds at games have historically skewed male.<\/p>\n

This year, more than 67 per cent of tickets to Canberra Brave games were purchased by women.<\/p>\n

Players like Casey Kubara have watched the ice hockey romance frenzy unfold.<\/p>\n

“It’s kind of taken the sport by storm,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Canberra Brave players Casey Kubara, pictured with Jacob Carey, says the new attention on the sport “is great”. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n

He has not watched the TV shows or read the books but said he was happy the genre was shining a light on the sport.<\/p>\n

“I’d say [ice hockey] is too aggressive and violent to be romantic,” he laughed.<\/p>\n

“I get asked about it a lot and all I say is that it’s probably not quite like what you see on TV, but the attention is great.<\/p>\n

“It’s honing in a lot of people’s attention that wouldn’t even have known that we had ice hockey in Australia.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

New fans have led to increased sponsorships for the ice hockey industry. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n

The Canberra Brave, which relocated to the larger 3,000-seat AIS Arena in 2025<\/a>, has been selling out every game.<\/p>\n

It is a similar story across the league.<\/p>\n

“We’re getting TV deals now with the league just signing with ESPN, all the teams have a bigger social media presence,” Kubara said.<\/p>\n

“It’s bringing more fans and more sponsorships, so the game is really growing across the whole country.”\"Two<\/p>\n

Heated Rivalry became a massive streaming success when it premiered late last year (Supplied: HBO)<\/p>\n

‘People aren’t ashamed’<\/p>\n

One of those sponsors is Canberra’s dedicated romance bookstore.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a whole section of our shop that is designed for sports romance \u2014 it is a massive part of the romance genre,” Astoria Romance & Fantasy Bookstore owner Beth Taylor said.<\/p>\n

“Ice hockey is by far the biggest part.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Romance bookstore owner Beth Taylor says her book club has also gained new members. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n

She said the intensity and physicality of the sport translated well into romance.<\/p>\n

“[Reading] romance has typically been something we hide \u2026 but I think it’s coming forward \u2014 people aren’t ashamed of it, they’re proud of it, they’re bringing their books to games,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Taylor, who also runs a romance book club, said the group attended its first ice hockey game last year and “fell in love with it”.<\/p>\n

“A whole bunch of the girls have now bought season tickets for this year,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Being there live, it’s just the most wonderful atmosphere \u2014 it’s electric.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As hordes of ice hockey fans stream into Canberra’s AIS Arena, groups of women congregate excitedly outside. Taylor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2666,64,63,2667,354579,134,187023,589,5584,2668,17357,49294,323747,7820,38174,24945,22139,354580],"class_list":["post-732973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-act","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canberra","tag-canberra-brave","tag-entertainment","tag-heated-rivalry","tag-ice-hockey","tag-literature","tag-local-stories","tag-love","tag-novels","tag-off-campus","tag-players","tag-queer","tag-romance","tag-sponsor","tag-subgenre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}