World Travel Guide Search for a City   Destination Guides > North America > Canada Canada •  Canada   · Where To Go •  When To Go •  Getting There •  Red Tape And Visas •  Information, Web Sites And Maps •  Travellers With Disabilities •  Insurance, Crime And Personal Safety •  Costs, Money And Banks •  Health •  Getting Around •  Eating And Drinking •  Communications, Post, Phones, And The Media •  History •  Language •  Emergency Number •  Opening Hours, Time Zones And Holidays •  Nature •  Spectator Sports •  Directory •  Canada's Aboriginal Peoples •  Books •  Explore Canada CANADA - SPECTATOR SPORTS Canada    view all cities Top Destinations •  Calgary •  Edmonton •  Halifax •  Montreal •  Ottawa •  Quebec City •  St John's •  Toronto •  Vancouver •  Victoria •  Winnipeg Canadians are sports-mad - ice hockey, baseball and Canadian football matches are all extremely popular, both the professional games, and the intercollegiate competitions, the intensity of whose rivalries are notorious. Interestingly, lacrosse is the "official" national sport but, unsurprisingly, the unofficial one is ice hockey.   Ice hockey The sport that really ignites the passions of all Canadians is ice hockey . With players hurtling around at nearly 50kph and the puck clocking speeds of over 160kph, this would be a high-adrenaline sport even without its relaxed attitude to combat on the rink - as an old Canadian adage has it, "I went to see a fight and an ice-hockey game broke out". Players, especially in the minor leagues, are as adept at a right hook as they are at skating, and a few years ago the national team waged such a battle against the Soviet Union that the fight only stopped when officials turned all the lights off. The North American National Hockey League (NHL) consists of thirty teams, of which six are from Canada: the Montréal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers. There are two conferences - Western and Eastern - both divided into two divisions. The Canadiens, Maple Leafs and the Senators meet teams from Buffalo and Boston in the Northeast division of the Eastern conference and the Flames, Oilers and Canucks face Colorado and Minnesota in the Northwest division of the Western conference. Teams have six players and perpetual substitutions are allowed during the game - some players rarely spend more than a few minutes on the ice at one time. There are three twenty-minute periods in a match, but the clock is frequently stopped for a variety of reasons so play usually goes on for three hours. Each team plays over eighty games a season , which lasts from October to May, and on alternate weeks will play two and then three games. At the end of the season the top four teams in each division go on into the play-offs for the Stanley Cup , ice hockey's most prestigious title. The two most successful teams are the Montréal Canadiens, who have won the Stanley Cup 23 times, and the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have eleven victories under their belt. Ticket prices range from around $15 for ordinary games to hundreds of dollars for a Stanley Cup final - indeed, you can forget about getting into this event unless you have high-level political or sporting contacts. For nearly all matches you have to buy a ticket in advance. Other than the NHL there are also numerous minor league clubs composed of farm teams , so called because they supply the top clubs with talent. Ontario and Québec both have their own minor leagues; the rest of the country plays in the Western League, all with play-offs for a variety of awards. For college hockey , the University of Toronto and York in Toronto, Concordia in Montréal, St Mary's in Halifax and the University of Alberta in Edmonton all have good teams. Canadian football Professional Canadian football , played under the aegis of the Canadian Football League (CFL) , is largely overshadowed by the National Football League in the US, chiefly because the best home-grown talent moves south in search of better money while NFL castoffs move north to fill the ranks. The two countries' football games vary slightly, but what differences do exist tend to make the Canadian version more exciting. In Canada the playing field is larger and there are twelve rather than eleven players on each team . There is also one fewer down in a game - ie after kickoff the attacking team has three, rather than four, chances to move the ball forward ten yards and score a first down en route to a touchdown . Different rules about the movement of players, and the limited time allowed between plays, results in a faster-paced and higher-scoring sport, in which ties are often decided in overtime or in a dramatic final-minute surge. Despite the sport's potential, the CFL has suffered a blight of media and fan indifference, which has caused immense financial problems, though recently the crisis seems to be easing, with high-profile celebrity investment. The CFL has tried to expand into the US over the past decade, but all the expansion teams folded at the end of the 1995/96 season. The season , played by two divisions of eight teams, lasts from June to November, each team playing a match a week - 72 matches in all. At the end of the season are the play-offs, which culminate with the hotly contested Grey Cup - which the Toronto Argonauts have won twenty-one times, most recently in 1997. Tickets are fairly easy to come by, except for important games, and vary in cost from $20 to a Grey Cup final price of over $150. Baseball Baseball , with its relaxed summertime pace and byzantine rules, is generally considered an exclusively American sport - despite the first recorded game taking place in Beachville, Ontario. The Montreal Expos and the Toronto Blue Jays perform in the US's two major baseball leagues, the National and the American respectively. In 1992 and 1993, the Toronto Blue Jays became national heroes when they won the World Series twice in a row, beating America at their own game. Historically a lowlier bunch, the Expos are now awaiting the completion of a new $200 million downtown stadium to boost ticket sales - due to open for the 2002 season. However, it was they who became the first non-US team to play in a US league in 1968, eight years before the Blue Jays. Even if you don't understand what's going on, a game can be a pleasant day out, drinking beer and eating burgers and popcorn in the sun, with friendly family-oriented crowds. Moreover, the home ground of each team is a vast, wondrous modern stadium - the Skydome in Toronto and, for the moment at least, the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. With six teams in each division, there are 81 home games each season, played from April to late September, with play-offs continuing through October; there is no set match day and games are either played in the afternoon or evening. Lasting for anything from two to three hours, baseball games never end in a tie: if the scores are level after nine innings, extra innings are played until one side wins. Tickets for the Blue Jays are hard to come by and it's easier to get in for games in Montreal. Nothing can match the glitz of the big two, but there are other minor league farm teams , including the Edmonton Trappers, Calgary Cannons and Vancouver Canadians. Basketball Basketball was invented by a Canadian, Dr James A. Naismith, in 1891. What began with a bunch of his students and a peach basket suspended in the air has become a fast-paced exciting sport with the world's tallest athletes. After a 48-year absence two Canadian teams finally joined the now misnamed National Basketball Association in 1995, the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies, who did about as well as could be expected in their first season, though the Raptors, with huge star Vince Carter, look like the team more on the upswing. The NBA consists of 29 teams divided into two conferences, Eastern and Western, which are further divided into two divisions. The Toronto Raptors play in the Central division of the Eastern conference and the Vancouver Grizzlies compete in the Midwest division of the Western conference. Teams play an 82-game season with 41 home games in a season that lasts from November to April - tickets cost from $10 to $130.