The steady decline in youth hockey participation in Canada is a warning sign for the future of the sport.

BRAMPTON, Ontario — Hockey remains a beloved pastime, a source of pride and joy and something that has united Canada for more than 150 years.

But youth hockey participation in Canada has fallen by nearly a third over the past 15 years, a decline that began well before the pandemic and dates back to 2010, when more than half a million kids were participating at its peak.

The rising costs of everything from equipment and on-ice time to specialized coaches and travel programs have families choosing other sports such as soccer and basketball over hockey. There are concerns about the future of domestic grassroots hockey, which has developed into a popular and vibrant sport that is growing in the United States and elsewhere.

“It's really sad,” said Alex Klimciak, who coaches two teams in Brampton and plays recreationally outside Toronto at 44. “Enrollment has probably been declining for the last five or six years. We were definitely seeing it before the pandemic. The pandemic has just put a magnifying glass on it and escalated it.”

Two years ago, Hockey Canada reported there were 340,365 youth under the age of 18 participating in the sport, down 35 per cent from 523,785 just 13 years earlier. That figure rebounds slightly in 2023 to 360,31, but is still about 15 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, even as Canada's soccer and tennis populations have already rebounded.

“We're concerned, but we're not panicking,” said Ed Kinnerly, CEO of hockey equipment giant Bauer Inc. “I think the right people — the National Hockey League, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada, the private sector — are starting to have an honest conversation with each other, which means, A, we have to stop talking about what's wrong and B, we have to start investing in change for the sake of the sport.”

According to the Solutions Research Group's Canada Youth Sports Report released last summer, soccer topped the list with 16 percent, followed by swimming, hockey and basketball. Participation numbers for each sport are not directly comparable because different governing bodies have different registration requirements.

Parents cited finances (58%) as their top concern, followed by caregiving for family members and youth mental health, including bullying. There were also concerns about the time required for practice and drills, even at the lower levels of competitive hockey.

“It's definitely a challenge,” said Priyanka Kwatra, whose 10-year-old son, Sean, has taken up the sport and plays outside Toronto. “It's a very time-consuming sport.”

When her husband, Amit, first looked at equipment for Sean, he was stunned by the $1,000 price tag. Coupled with the limitations on the amount of ice he could practice and play on, basketball and soccer suddenly seemed easy.

“Getting started in hockey is not as easy as just having a soccer ball to start playing,” Amit Kwatra said, “With hockey, the amount of equipment you need to start playing the game is huge, and I think that's the biggest barrier for a lot of people trying to get their kids into hockey.”

During All-Star Weekend in Toronto, the NHL held a youth event near York, where Priyanka and Amit were with their daughter, Sharon, to watch their son take to the ice. He and more than 100 other young players were outfitted in their first full set of equipment provided by Bauer as part of the NHL/NHLPA First Shift, one of many instructional efforts aimed at keeping hockey in the Canadian tradition.

“It's a low-cost entry point and it provides an opportunity, so it can obviously accelerate growth,” said Matt Herr, a former NHL player who is now the NHL's senior director of youth hockey and industry growth. “Especially in Canada, we're now competing in places that were once recreational.”

Technological advances have vastly improved the quality of sticks, helmets and padding, but they have also driven up prices, risking leaving behind lower-income families who want to try hockey, especially as the sport is played almost year-round at a high level.

Brampton coach Klimciak estimates that the cost to be on a competitive team that travels to tournaments and has multiple practice hours, as opposed to a recreational team, starts at $4,000, with some teams charging more than $10,000.

Even more concerning is that even though Canada's population is now nearly 40 million and has doubled in 50 years, the International Ice Hockey Federation reports that the vast country has only 2,860 indoor ice rinks, and renting ice can cost hundreds of dollars for an hour or two.

Kinaly pointed to a 2019 plan by Ontario Parks and Recreation to spend $2 billion over the next 20 years to build 45 new soccer fields, 30 basketball courts, 18 indoor swimming pools and one hockey rink as a further cause for concern.

“The number of rinks that are delayed or closed for repairs is further straining the available time for on-ice sports,” Kinnerly said. “If people don't have places to play, that's going to be a setback and a really difficult situation.”

Programs like First Shift and Scotiabank Hockey for All are among the steps being taken to stem the decline. Kinaly said Bauer's program has been “greatly successful” not just in getting kids into hockey, but in keeping them there, with a retention rate of about 60 per cent.

While there are other positive signs, such as hockey remaining a favorite sport among Indigenous youth and roughly 40 percent of First Shift participants being female as attention to the women's game grows, the overall trends raise painful questions that must be answered.

“I don't think hockey can rest on its laurels, and I'm partly OK with that,” said Simon Darnell, a professor at the University of Toronto who specializes in sport culture and sociology. “I think if we're going to invest in hockey as representing Canadian culture, we need to actually think about what Canadian culture is and how that's reflected in hockey, because at the moment it's not.”