VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If time change legislation is passed in British Columbia, it could impact when sports teams, like the Vancouver Canucks, start their games.
The province has tabled legislation to move to permanent Daylight Saving Time – meaning British Columbians would no longer spring forward or fall back.
And Scott Rintoul with Sportsnet 650 says sports fans would notice a big difference.
“It would affect your football games if you’re a football fan, maybe affect your MLS schedule if you’re a Whitecaps fan. I know they don’t play a lot of games in the time that would be switched over, but the MLS season starts pretty early. It’s not just hockey that would be affected, though that’s the one more people care about.”
He doubts the Canucks players would feel the change when travelling for away games, but puck drop here at home could be as late as 8 p.m. on Saturday nights.
RELATED: Bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent heads to B.C. Legislature Thursday
“I think during normal regional games you’d still start at 7 o’clock here in Vancouver, same as they do in Calgary. That’s a two hour time difference from what happens in the east. Their broadcasts go on, their regular games go on as usual [except] when you get to national games, when you get to Wednesday night hockey, when you get to Saturday night hockey, which is the one most people watch,” Rintoul says.
“We could see that, absolutely, and the strange thing would be it would only happen from about the start of November until some time in the spring and then it would revert back because we’d still be on the same time, whereas everybody else around the country would be changing.”
B.C. Attorney General David Eby said Thursday that the change to permanent Daylight Saving Time would not happen until other west coast jurisdictions changed as well.