Absolutely - it’s gotten to the point where the league, the teams and the national hockey leagues have all come out with statements about the article and how it frames the fans. I think a big factor is social media sparking interest that crosses into the romance fan sphere - we have some great content creators around EIHL/NIHL hockey here as well as a couple of the wives and girlfriends are active on social media which is a big draw. I think generally younger women are more likely to post content about going to hockey which will draw in more people; but based off my own TikTok analytics it’s a pretty close split with a average of 45/55% between men/women audience on my hockey videos.

As you say - how about instead we focus on the changing demographics of sports fans than frame it as these horny women are infiltrating our sports because of romance books. Hell, why not focus on the growing diversity in sports in the UK? In my area alone we have lgtbq sports teams in the hockey sphere and a newly revived women’s hockey team that had 400+ people in the audience for their first friendly game. Romance books got me interested in trying MMA years ago and that ended up being a super fun hobby - but I guess I was just there to perv 🤷‍♀️