With the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) games officially underway this semester, some Warriors fans may find it difficult to attend the games with upcoming snow storms, icy sidewalks, and the academic stresses of the term. To allow all students, regardless of the weather or the city their co-op is in, Ontario University Athletics has partnered with Yare TV, an online streaming subscription which students can now use to stream 12 varsity sports, including hockey, basketball, volleyball, and soccer.
The UW athletics portal has embedded links with each game which take you to the OUA Yare TV portal. Users will be asked to log in with their school credentials in order to access the games. Students, professors, and alumni alike can search by date, university, sport and gender — for example, to watch a men’s basketball game, students can go to the schedule for the season and find a TV icon on the game’s window. This redirects the user to the page with the live stream for the game.
Through the portal, users can also stream older games, dating all the way back to some games from the early 1990s. Similarly, they can also stream the nail biting hockey face-off between University of Western Ontario and UW, which ultimately saw UWO take the win in overtime penalties after a 1-1 draw at the end of regular time. The window features a scoreline of the game, but also has commentators that allow the experience to be akin to streaming professional sports.
Overall, UW athletics and the OUA look to increase participation and student interaction through this service. It has allowed students to access support to their teams while on co-op in different cities, or when the weather does not permit them to walk or take the bus to PAC or their respective athletics center.
