‘I’m here for the boy aquarium’: The sport catching the eye of new female fans

Jessica Harris wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Garrett Graham to attend her first ice hockey game on June 13.

As the protagonist of the very-hot-right-now hockey romance series Off Campus, Graham does not exist. But by attending the sold-out game between the Sydney Bears and Melbourne Mustangs, the recently single Harris was hoping to find his real-life equivalent.

The 26-year-old and her friends decided to buy tickets primarily because they love reading and watching hockey romance.

“We’ve always wanted to come but never got around to it. The show [Off Campus] really pushed us to,” says Harris.

Harris and her friends aren’t the only new, and predominantly female, fans.

Hockey romance is having a moment in the cultural zeitgeist. According to Prime Video, Off Campus has become the platform’s No.1 debut series of all time among female viewers aged 18 to 34. The genre doesn’t look to be slowing, with Netflix announcing this week they have green-lit an adaptation of Hannah Grace’s novel Icebreaker.

The Australian Ice Hockey League is trying to capture this rising tide of interest. Melbourne Mustangs, who played and lost to Sydney Bears at the June 13 game, said they have had more sold-out games than ever and noticed more interest from young women.

Mustangs social media manager Alaska Green says their content engagement has been increasing, too. Currently, 60 per cent of their Instagram followers are women.

“Since January to now we’ve gained 9000 TikTok followers … with 2.4 million views across our TikToks. That’s 6½ times the number of views we had in the six months prior and 10 times the number of followers,” says Green.

Mustangs president John Belic says the recent development has provided “crazy numbers and an amazing experience for the club”.

Sydney Bears president Bianca Musico says the phenomenon has created an opportunity to grow the fan base.

“It’s not trend-chasing for us, it’s about recognising what’s happening in culture and meeting fans there,” says Musico.

And it’s working. Musico says they have sold more tickets to home games this year than the entire previous season. According to the Sydney Bears, female ticket purchases for the games are up 35 per cent since Off Campus aired. Total tickets sold are also up 10 per cent, with female attendees constituting the majority. Brands are also jumping on the bandwagon, with Liquid IV, a sponsor of fictional Briar Hawks players in Off Campus, sponsoring the Sydney Bears.

“Ice hockey in Australia has traditionally skewed male, so to see women becoming the majority of our audience i