I may be dating myself here, but when I was growing up in the Fraser Valley, getting to watch the Vancouver Canucks on TV was a relative rarity.

In the mid-1990s, less than half of the Canucks’ schedule was broadcast on TV, with games split between BCTV, CHEK, CBC, and TSN. If you wanted to follow the full Canucks season, you needed to attend in person, listen to the games on the radio, and/or follow along in the newspaper.

These days, fans take it for granted that they can watch every Canucks game in a season, though as recently as 2010, some games were only available on pay-per-view.

But there was a benefit to the old way. At least the majority of the games that were available on TV could be watched for free with an antenna, at least if you were within broadcast range for BCTV and CHEK, and the playoffs were free on Hockey Night in Canada on CBC.

This season, there will be no free games for Canucks fans.

With CBC no longer carrying NHL broadcasts, fans will have to pay to watch any Canucks games this season, whether as part of a cable package or, for those who have cut cable, via streaming.

Unfortunately, Sportsnet+ is increasing its price for the third time in two years.

In 2024, the standard plan on Sportsnet+ cost $179.99 per year. In January of 2025, that went up to $199.99 per year, then increased again in September of 2025 to $249.99.

Now, a standard plan will go up again this September to $269.99 — $90 more per year from where it was two years ago.

Of course, the standard plan will only suffice for in-market Canucks fans. Out-of-market fans will have to pay for the premium Sportsnet+ plan, which has increased from $249.99 two years ago to $344.99.

The kicker is that price doesn’t even get you every Canucks game. With Prime Video signing a 12-year deal to broadcast “at least 26” Wednesday night games, you can expect at least a couple of the Canucks’ eight Wednesday games to be on Prime instead of Sportsnet, which will require another subscription.

That’s another $99/year for Prime, and there’s a chance that another streaming service will be required. There was a report earlier in the year that Bell Media would be picking up broadcast rights for NHL games on Mondays for the 2026-27 season, and would broadcast them on their streaming service, Crave, though that has not been confirmed.

In any case, it still feels absurd to have the cost of Sportsnet+ go up by $90+ while potentially broadcasting fewer games.

Going to the games in person isn’t getting any cheaper either, at least for those paying face value. Season ticket holders reported price increases of 5 to 25 percent when their renewals came through at the end of last season.

There’s always the secondary market, but one might expect that season-ticket holders will be hoping to recoup some of that cost and pass along the higher price.

Look, this isn’t just an elder Millennial complaining about higher prices and ranting about how it was better back in my day. In fact, the old way was worse. Having every game on TV is better — much better!

But I don’t know if we’ve fully reckoned with the loss of Hockey Night in Canada or the more modest costs associated with watching every Canucks game even just a few years ago.

At a time when the Canucks are embarking on a rebuild and asking fans to jump on board for what could be a long, difficult journey, it’s frustrating to see higher costs potentially putting up a barrier for new and old fans alike. How many fans will have to look at their budgets and decide that keeping up with the Canucks just doesn’t make financial sense?

It doesn’t help that playing hockey is also getting exorbitantly more expensive year-by-year. When it becomes too expensive to play hockey and too expensive to watch hockey, what will happen to Canada’s national winter sport?

Maybe I’m just getting old and ranting at clouds, but I want hockey to be more accessible, not less. I want fans to be crushed by the Canucks the good old-fashioned way — mentally and spiritually over the course of decades — not in the wallet.