British ColumbiaThe Penticton Vees and Kelowna Rockets will both be playing the Blue Jays World Series run before puck drop and between periods on their jumbotrons. Meanwhile, restaurants in B.C. are expecting a boost in beer sales.B.C. restaurants predicting boost in beer sales as Blue Jays play in World SeriesTom Popyk · CBC News · Posted: Oct 24, 2025 3:25 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 24Listen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe Kelowna Rockets hockey team, as well as the Penticton Vees, will be broadcasting the World Series in-arena ahead of the puck drop and between periods. (Facebook/Kelowna Rockets)As the Western Hockey League’s Penticton Vees hit the ice for practice ahead of Friday night’s game against their Washington state-based rivals, the Wenatchee Wild, another cross-border battle was on Riley Pollock’s mind.”I think that there’s a lot of people that have been waiting a long time — or even their whole lives — for the Jays to be in the World Series [and] that are also diehard Vees fans,” said Pollock, the team’s director of communications and “Voice of the Vees.”Choosing between watching a new season of Canada’s game, and the championship of America’s, is no easy matter.”It would be a tough choice for me if I wasn’t broadcasting the game,” Pollock admits. The Penticton Vees are among teams that are showing the Blue Jays World Series game on Friday, as baseball fever heats up across Canada. (Penticton Vees/X)At least two Western Hockey League teams in the B.C. Interior have decided that, if you can’t beat baseball fever, you might as well join it. The Penticton Vees will open the doors of South Okanagan Events Centre two hours before puck drop to screen the first game of the World Series on the arena scoreboard and rink televisions. On Saturday, the Kelowna Rockets will do the same for game two. “We thought if we could do something to kind of celebrate [the Blue Jays], but also get people out to our game … it was kind of a no-brainer.” said Pollock.While hockey teams are jumping on the bandwagon, the Toronto Blue Jays’ minor league farm team, the Vancouver Canadians, is keeping celebrations, so far, in the family.The Jays’ High-A affiliate is holding an invitation-only watching party on Friday, mainly for season ticket holders and their strongest supporters.But on Tuesday, the team will host a public watch party for game four at Hero’s Welcome, a pub just down Main Street from Nat Bailey Stadium”It’s first-come, first-served,” Canadians spokesperson Tyler Zickel told CBC News. “We’re looking forward to [a] game four victory.”Bars expect baseball boostFor the B.C hospitality industry, this World Series is providing a much needed break from the ongoing strike by B.C.’s public service workers, which has disrupted liquor distribution.Thousands of workers represented by the B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) have been on strike for weeks, shutting down Liquor Distribution Branch facilities and constraining supply to restaurants.”You know, beer and baseball go well together. So that won’t be a problem,” Ian Tostenson, President and CEO of the British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said of the World Series. “Getting a martini might be a problem, but that’s not really a baseball thing.”[But] we’re gonna see probably a 10 to 15 per cent increase in sales from a typical Friday night, because of the game. It’s good news for us.”WATCH | Jays to play David to Dodgers’ Goliath in 2025 World Series:Blue Jays enter World Series as underdogs against Ohtani’s DodgersThe Los Angeles Dodgers and superstar Shohei Ohtani have arrived in Toronto as the favourites ahead of the World Series against the Blue Jays but Jays fans are excited and the team’s players and coaches believe in their chances.Tostenson says sports championships and high-profile games are events that fans want to share as a community, win or lose. But so far, he says the fever for Canada’s baseball team has yet to fully infect West Coast sports fans or generate notably high revenue for bars.“No, no, it’s not hockey. And it’s not [the] Super Bowl, but it’s something,” he said.”And you know, what we see in hospitality is that anything is something.”
B.C. hockey teams broadcast Blue Jays games in-between periods
