Sports in Montreal
Sports in Montreal have played a major role in the city's history. Montreal is best known for being home to the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League, which are currently the city's only team in the Big Four sports leagues.
Other professional teams in Montreal include the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, CF Montréal of Major League Soccer, and PWHL Montréal of the Professional Women's Hockey League.
Montreal is also well known for hosting the annual Formula One Canadian Grand Prix.
In the past, Montreal has also hosted many world-renowned sporting events, namely the 1976 Summer Olympics. It was also home to the Montreal Expos of Major League Baseball from 1969 to the 2004 season.
Professional and amateur sports
Canadian football
The
Although university football has long been popular with Anglo Montrealers, who support the
Ice hockey
The development of modern ice hockey occurred in Montreal. The city is famous for its enthusiastic, if not obsessed,
Montreal's
Ringette
The Montréal Mission compete in the National Ringette League. In 2023, they won silver at the Canadian Ringette Championships.
Soccer
The city's current soccer team is the
Australian rules football
AFL Quebec is the governing body of Australian Rules Football in Quebec. Based primarily out of Montreal and surrounding areas, it includes both a Men's and a Women's League. AFL Quebec prides itself on been one of the fastest growing and best runs leagues in Canada and North America.
AFL Quebec Men's League consists of four clubs, the West Island Wooders, Laval Bombers, Montreal Demons, and Old Montreal Dockers while the newly expanded Women's League also consists of four clubs, the NDG Devils and the Plateau Eagles from Montreal and the Carleton Warriors and Rideau Shamrocks from Ottawa.
Like most leagues outside of Australia, AFL Quebec is a nine a side league in both the men and the women. This is for numerous reasons, including but not limited to local player development and field availability. AFL Quebec plays the vast majority of its regular and final series games at Vanier College.
The AFL Quebec Regular Season runs over nine rounds from mid-May until early September. This is followed by finals in mid to late September, with three rounds of finals for the men and two rounds of finals for the women's.
AFL Quebec has both representative Men's and Women's 18 a side teams. These teams are known as the Quebec Saints, Montreal Angels and Ottawa Lady Swans respectively. They compete against other 18 a side representative team across Canada and North America. Generally these games occur a handful number of times over a season either in one off games or more commonly at invitational tournament. Such a tournament is the AFL Quebec Women's Tournament held early May every year.[2]
Boxing
Montreal has become one of the top boxing cities in the world, hosting the third most events in North America, only behind
Baseball
From 1897 to 1917 and from 1928 to 1960, Montreal fielded a minor league team, the Montreal Royals, most famous for having Jackie Robinson as a player for the 1946 season.
Montreal was the home of a major league baseball team, the
A two-game MLB exhibition
Basketball
Montreal has had several minor pro basketball teams. Currently the city is home to the
Montreal has also established itself as a popular place for NBA preseason games. On October 22, 2010, the
Montreal is considered a possible future location for an NBA team.[6][7][8]
Gaelic sports
The Gaelic games of hurling and Gaelic football, governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association, have been played in Montreal since 1948. These sports have become increasingly popular with locals and new Irish immigrants. Beginners are actively encouraged. Games are played against Quebec City, Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Halifax, St.Johns etc.. There is also a domestic co-ed Montreal Gaelic Football Superleague open to complete beginners. They are played under the banner of the Montreal Shamrocks GAC.[9] Despite having no home field, Gaelic sports have grown leaps and bounds over the years, many requests have been submitted to the city as the Shamrocks await a permanent home.
Roller derby
Montréal Roller Derby were the first non-U.S. roller derby league to gain membership in the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).[10] The league hosts the annual "Beast of the East" tournament for intraleague (club) roller derby teams from eastern Canada. As of November 30, 2015, their travel team was ranked 15th in WFTDA's East region.[11]
Rugby
Rugby is sport in expansion on the island. The rugby teams are divided by their language and their division, but over all it is a big family trying to expand a sport misunderstood and unknown by many. Montreal boasts a dozen rugby clubs, including the oldest in North America, Westmount Rugby Club, founded in 1878 and the newest Rugby XV de Montreal created in 2010. Traditionally associated with the Anglo community, rugby has seen a sharp rise in Francophone participation in recent decades. Quebec Caribou, drawing many players from Montreal clubs, represented the province in the Rugby Canada Super League before the league's demise following the 2008 season, and now represents the province in the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship. The province's senior players are also eligible for selection to the Atlantic Rock, a St. John's-based team which represents Canada's five easternmost provinces in the Canadian Rugby Championship.
Recreation
Montreal has a well-developed network of bicycle paths.
Bandy Quebec[14] seeks to promote bandy in Montreal. There has been an introduction.[15] No teams exist yet.[16]
Sporting events
Montreal is host to three high-profile auto racing events each year: the
In
Montreal has hosted several international soccer tournaments, including some games for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.
The
Montreal has also hosted multiple professional wrestling events, most notably the WWE Survivor Series on November 9, 1997, where the infamous Montreal Screwjob took place. The WWE’s annual Draft event took place in Montreal in 2019 (called the Superstar Shake-Up at the time), which made Montreal the very first city outside of the United States to host the event.
Multi-sport events
The most important sporting event in Montreal's history was when Montreal played host to the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Montreal hosted the
In July 2005 Montreal hosted the
.In 2006, Montreal was expected to attract some 16,000 LGBT athletes, who will participate in the first-ever GLISA World Outgames. The Outgames are being hailed as the largest international event in the city of Montreal since the 1976 Olympics.[18]
Organizations
Ethnosport World Society is based in Montreal.[19]
Sports media
Montreal has one all-sport radio station, the English-language
Major sports venues
Venue | Capacity | Team/Tournament/Attraction |
---|---|---|
Gilles Villeneuve Circuit
|
100,000[citation needed] | |
Olympic Stadium | 65,255 |
|
Molson Stadium
|
25,012 |
|
Hippodrome de Montréal
|
25,000 | Horse Racing
|
Bell Centre | 21,273 | Montreal Canadiens |
Île Sainte-Hélène Aquatic Complex
|
XI Fina World Championships
| |
Saputo Stadium | 20,341 |
|
IGA Stadium | 12,000 |
|
Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard | 9,500 |
|
CEPSUM Stadium
|
5,100 |
List of sports teams
Club | League | Sport | Venue | Established | Championships |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Montreal Canadiens | NHL | Ice hockey | Bell Centre | 1909 | 24 |
Montreal Alouettes | CFL | Football | Percival Molson Memorial Stadium Olympic Stadium |
1946 | 8 |
Montreal Shamrocks GAC | Canadian GAA
|
Gaelic Football, Hurling
|
Parc De La Verendrye | 1948 | 5 |
CF Montréal | MLS | Soccer
|
Saputo Stadium | 1992 | 3* |
Quebec Caribou | RCSL | Rugby union | Dollard-des-Ormeaux | 1998 | 0 |
Montreal Blitz | CCWFL
|
Football | Dalbé Viau High School | 2002 | 4 |
Montréal Mission | NRL | Ringette | Centre Étienne Desmarteau | 2004 | 0 |
Quebec Saints | AFL Quebec | Australian rules football | Vanier College | 2008 | 2 |
Montreal Royal | UFA | Ultimate | Claude-Robillard Sports Complex | 2014 | 0 |
Montreal Alliance | CEBL | Basketball | Verdun Auditorium | 2022 | 0 |
Montreal Tundra | BSL | Basketball | Centre Pierre Charbonneau | 2023 | 0 |
Montréal | PWHL | Ice Hockey | Verdun Auditorium | 2024 | 0 |
References
- ^ Carabins Archived February 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine - University of Montreal (French)
- ^ www.aflquebec.ca
- ^ "Ballpark financing issue may kill deal". ESPN.com. Associated Press. December 15, 2004.
- ^ "Announcement will come Wednesday". ESPN.com. Associated Press. September 28, 2004.
- ^ "Bringing baseball back - Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal". www.ccmm.ca. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
- ^ "Montreal must prove to NBA it has value as an expansion city - Sportsnet.ca". www.sportsnet.ca. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ^ "François Legault Wants Quebec To Have Its Own NBA Team After Toronto Raptors Championship Win". www.mtlblog.com. June 14, 2019. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ^ "Montreal group discusses plan to pursue NBA team".
- ^ Montreal Shamrocks Cumann Lúthchleas Gael
- ^ Chris "Hurt Reynolds" Seale (January 22, 2009). "WFTDA makes a run for the border". Retrieved January 27, 2009. [dead link]
- ^ "https://wftda.com/rankings"
- ^ Québec, Vélo. "Vélo Québec". www.velo.qc.ca.
- ^ Government of Quebec Archived February 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine - Current water quality of Montreal beaches (French)
- ^ "Welcome to Bandy Time". bandyquebec.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2016.
- ^ "Google Translate". translate.google.ca.
- ^ Does bandy have a place in hockey-obsessed Montreal? Archived December 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Montreal back on the F1 schedule for next 5 years". Associated Press. November 27, 2009.
- ^ Outgames hit Montreal Archived May 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine - The Link, Concordia University
- ^ "World Ethnosport Society (Riga)". ethnosport.org. Retrieved July 13, 2018.