By Eunice Soriano

When fans try to watch an Ontario University Athletics (OUA) game, they come face to face with a paywall—the newest obstacle that prevents Canadian university sports fans from enjoying the thrill of OUA athletics from the comfort of their homes. 

This paywall has challenged U Sports viewers to discover new ways to track games and engage with their favourite teams and student-athletes. However, rising Canadian-based media outlets are making this pursuit possible. 

The founders of these groups aim to shed light on the beauty of Canadian university sports and make the viewing experience more accessible for fans one click at a time.

OB.SESSED

Bryden O’Flaherty is a graduate from the University of Regina,  but not too long ago was throwing dimes as the former quarterback on the Regina Rams football team. He credits the team for not just heightening his love for the game but also for igniting the spark to grow the U Sports fanbase along the west coast. 

“I was kind of chatting with all the guys in the locker room about how to grow sports and how to grow the fan base,” O’Flaherty said. “The Rams do pretty well in terms of attendance…but it’s like, how do we get those five figures of people watching it on TV?”

With the desire to increase viewership off the field, he teamed up with University of Ottawa graduate and former sports editor for The Fulcrum, Andrew Wilimek, to create OB.SESSED—a media outlet consisting of social media accounts and an app, providing their users with the latest updates on scores and stories across the country. 

From in-depth game recaps to player profiles that highlight the league’s stars, Wilimek hopes he and his “established pipeline of writers” can draw attention to the wonders of U Sports and sustain the growth of OB.SESSED. 

“We’ve got some really top notch writers on the app, so I think to me all the offerings are there. It’s just more a question of sustainability,” Wilimek said. 

On the other hand, co-founder O’Flaherty applies his coding skills to fuse the Canadian sports scene with one of his favourite pastimes: fantasy football.

“One of the ideas I always latched on to was fantasy football, and how that made me more interested in the [National Football League] and actually understanding who the players are when I’m watching a game,” said O’Flaherty. 

Since the addition of fantasy football and articles on the app, fans have become more attuned to the league and connected with a variety of players across coastal lines. 

Inspiring the next generation of sports fans and media makers is a sentiment that Wilimek takes to heart when he envisions the future of OB.SESSED. 

“For me, sports journalism is an outlet for creativity…and so I hope that enriches not just their experience and their portfolio, but also the experience of readers,” Wilimek said.

Wilimek hopes that OB.SESSED helps propel U Sports onto a grander stage. 

“You quickly realize when you watch [U Sports] games, or you start following them through the media that does exist that [Canadian university athletics] are just as entertaining as the [National Collegiate Athletic Association] or any other amateur sport,” he said. 

PRSVRE

PRSVRE Media Group is a sports-centric media group that draws upon their social media platforms to “rewrite the narrative, shed light on our athletes and celebrate Canadian university sports the right way,” according to their website. 

The platform includes rapidly growing social media accounts and a YouTube series that gives viewers a glimpse into the life of a U Sports athlete. Their work has laid the groundwork for the next generation of media creators. 

Growing up in Newfoundland, second-year student Olivia Byrne moved to Toronto to pursue TMU’s sport media program and explore the city’s ever-growing sports scene. 

In search of a media outlet that would familiarize herself with the OUA, she stumbled across PRSVRE’s Instagram account and is now one of their active followers. 

“I didn’t know a whole lot about the OUA and U Sports…I followed the account and it really helped me expand my knowledge,” Byrne said. 

Byrne added she values the diversity of PRSVRE’s storytelling, not limiting their coverage to solely the “big four” sports—basketball, hockey, soccer and volleyball—but also expanding to facets that don’t get enough recognition. 

“They’re open to talking about every sport. And I mean like posting insane rugby scores…posting U Sports football highlights—it’s everything. And I think that’s really cool,” she said. 

Similar to Byrne, third-year sport media student Anjali Singh is an up-and-coming sports journalist who said she emulates PRSVRE’s style of storytelling when she writes player profiles or films “day-in-the-life” videos. 

“PRSVRE does a great job telling the story, and not just the finished product…I kind of learn what not only I like, but also what different people like, what different audiences like and then I’m able to adapt and use that information to then do my own work,” said Singh.

With these new and experienced media moguls seeking to blaze a trail in the sports industry, the end goal of bringing more recognition to the Canadian sports scene becomes increasingly more achievable.