Heated Rivalry, the viral queer ice hockey romcom that hit our screens in November, might be doing more than just capturing hearts and winning over hockey fans. With increased attendance at NHL games in North America and interest in the sport in Australia spiking, the power of inclusive and diverse storytelling in a sport setting is showing the industry a new playbook.
Based on a book series by the Nova Scotian romance author Rachel Reid, the rivals-to-lovers tale of two fictional ice hockey players – Canada’s Shane Hollander and Russia’s Ilya Rozanov – explores queer love and acceptance in men’s professional sport.
Written by an ice hockey fan uncomfortable with the hypermasculine attitude that often pervades the sport, Heated Rivalry has not only become one of the most talked about television events of the year, but demonstrates popular culture’s power to drive change.
Men’s professional sport is often dominated by a culture of hypermasculinity and homophobia is rife, with very few male athletes choosing to come out, even in retirement.
In Australia, the NBL’s Isaac Humphries and the A-League footballer Josh Cavallo have led the way in being active and out athletes. However, as shown by Cavallo’s accusations of homophobia after his departure from Adelaide United, there is a long way to go to demonstrate genuine acceptance for queer people in sport.
That’s where Heated Rivalry is doing something different. While it’s a romcom, it depicts a sporting environment where queer stories shine.
“Too often LGBTIQA+ athletes are hidden, silenced, or openly vilified,” says Dr Ryan Storr, a diversity and inclusion expert and founder of The Diversity Storr.
Storr highlights the importance of exploring diverse stories in sport and the power these narratives have to highlight the issues queer athletes face.
“The show did really did a great job in showcasing the love story, but also the athletes’ private lives and the things closeted athletes have to go through on a day-to-day basis. It is exhausting, stressful – and we know through research that it leads to poor mental health outcomes.”
Storr says Australian sport can take lessons from a show like Heated Rivalry, such as to be more inclusive.
“The Australian sport sector has made a great start, with increased activity in this space in the past couple of years – from pride rounds and activations, to the development of participation programs for LGBTIQA+ people, and inclusive policies around trans and gender diverse athletes,” Storr says.
“But I think some sports still view this type of diversity and the various communities as too difficult, and that there is no market for LGBTIQA+ players and fans.
“[Heated Rivalry] shows there is absolutely a market and strong business case to adopt LGBTIQA+ inclusive practices and cultures, which will not only benefit LGBTIQA+ communities, but the wider fandom and sport community too.”
Sports romance is part of a broader trend, with shows such as Drive to Survive and Taylor Swift’s attendance at NFL games providing a pop culture-led entry point to sport. The question is: are sports ready and willing to change to accommodate more diversity and inclusion?
Heated Rivalry is a Canadian show, depicting a popular North American sport, so it is hard to imagine a culture so far removed from Australia driving impact here.
“Hockey culture in Canada is fraught with problems, and recently we’ve learned about how it’s systemic. So, I don’t necessarily think that is something to try and replicate,” says Dr Kyle Rich, an associate professor of sport management at Brock University in Canada.
“Hockey has a really strong image and association here – our five-dollar bill has an image of kids playing hockey on a frozen pond. But with this imagery comes a lot of baggage. Hockey is plagued with a culture of toxic masculinity and misogyny.”
While a niche sport in Australia, ice hockey enjoys a strong community. There are established queer clubs in Melbourne working to make hockey more inclusive and challenge some of the sport’s cultural problems.
“We’re seeing a lot of interest coming in from people interested in Heated Rivalry and this really demonstrates one thing to me: our queer community really wants to play sport, but often doesn’t see themselves in it,” says Kade Matthews, founder of Southern Lights Ice Hockey in Melbourne.
“Heated Rivalry gives people the courage to get in contact with us because they’ve finally seen a version of sport – that conveniently is ice hockey in our case – that includes them. It’s friendship and acceptance over results, it’s feeling you have a space over fighting for a spot in a squad. We’re all humans first, athletes second.”
The sports romance audience overlaps heavily with the self-professed category of 20% of Australians being “sports haters”, which includes young women. This same market segment comprises some of the most frequent and most engaged social media users, which at least in part explains the fan-led response and popularity explosion for a show made in Canada with a modest budget, unknown actors and minimal marketing.
Australian sporting organisations can take some lessons in how to leverage such interest. For example, the Canadian ice hockey team’s social media manager met the moment and embraced the crossover opportunity by engaging with fans’ desire to source the fleece Hollander wore at the show’s fictionalisation of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
In joining the conversation and pitching to have the fleece merchandise manufactured in real life for the upcoming Milano Cortina Winter Games, the social media manager brought in new fans and amplified Team Canada’s profile.
Heated Rivalry shows there is an enormous under-serviced market hungry for diverse, quality content and that the sporting clubs and organisations already doing the work need more support.
“The heavy lifting is currently being done by volunteers at clubs like Southern Lights, always with our own resources, from our own people. It’s time for these organisations to get on board, listen to the clubs already doing the work, and proactively support them,” Matthews says.
