March – June 2026 | Ballhockey.com Adult Leagues
What’s New for 2026!
Three Seasons. One Better League Experience.
Starting Spring 2026, adult leagues will run on a three-season calendar:
- Spring: March – June
- Summer: July – October
- Winter: November – February
Fewer seasons means less resetting and more time competing, resulting in a stronger, more balanced league experience.
Season Format
- 18-game regular season (up from 12 games)
- Guaranteed 2 playoff games per team
- Up to 3 games per round (best-of-three series format)
Total Guaranteed Games: 20 (18 regular season + 2 playoffs)
Divisions of Play Offered
Each division lists its designated game days. When registering, teams are asked to rank their preferred game days in order of preference. For example, if your team registers for Division 2, which plays on Mondays, Fridays, and Sundays, and your preference is Fridays first, Sundays second, and Mondays last, you should indicate during registration: “1. Fridays, 2. Sundays, 3. Mondays.”
While teams may request a specific division at the time of registration, league management reserves the right to reallocate teams to a different division prior to the start of the season. This may occur based on factors such as, but not limited to, roster strength, past performance, and overall competitive balance within each division, in order to ensure a fair and competitive league experience for all participants.
Division 1
- Game Days: Tuesdays / Thursdays / Sundays
- Format: Open Division – no player restrictions
- All D1 teams are required to have full uniforms.
- Prizing (unique to Division 1): Champions win $2000* voucher for following season’s team fee!
- *Prize pool of $2000 increases $250 per team (if division has five or more teams in current season)
Division 2
- Game Days: Mondays / Fridays / Sundays
- Roster Restriction: Max 4 players from higher divisions (D1)
Division 3
- Game Days: Tuesdays / Fridays / Sundays
- Roster Restriction: Max 4 players from higher divisions (D1-D2)
Division 4
- Game Days: Mondays / Thursdays / Sundays
- Roster Restriction: Max 4 players from higher divisions (D1-D3)
Division 5
- Game Days: Tuesdays / Fridays / Saturdays
- Roster Restriction: Max of 4 players from D4. No players from D1-D3 permitted.
Men’s Recreational Division
- Game Days: Wednesdays / Mondays / Sundays
- Restrictions: Max of 1 player from D4 and D5 collectively. No players from D1–D3 permitted at all.
Women’s League
- Game Days: Wednesday Nights & Sundays (early – mid afternoon)
- Recreational Format: Max 3 players with comp experience
Co-ed Competitive Division
- Game Days: Wednesday Nights & Sundays (early – mid afternoon)
- Format: Open Division (no restrictions)
Co-ed Recreational Division
- Game Days: Wednesday Nights & Sundays (early – mid afternoon)
- Roster Restriction: Max 3 players from higher divisions
(Women’s Comp, Coed Comp, Men’s D1–D3)
Spring 2026 Adult Season Timeline
- Team Registration Deadline: March 1, 2026
- Deadline to register your team for the upcoming season.
- Schedule Release (First 3 weeks): March 4-5, 2026
- We issue our schedule in stages to allow for team movement between divisions to keep things competitive. Generally speaking, each team will have their first 3-4 games scheduled.
- Season Start Date: March 8, 2026
- This is the date of the first game of the season. Chances are your team will not play this day, but will have their first game shortly thereafter.
- Complete Schedules Released: March 25-27, 2026
- The remainder of the season schedule is released
- Roster Deadline: May 1, 2026
- Rosters become locked as May 1, 2026. Reminder that players must participate in three (3) regular season games to be eligible for playoffs.
Team Fee & Cost Breakdown
Team Registration Fee:
$3,200 + tax per team
Payment Structure:
- Prior to the first scheduled game: $500 payment required
- Prior to the third scheduled game: $500 payment required
- Prior to the sixth scheduled game: $500 payment required
- Prior to the ninth scheduled game: $500 payment required
- Prior to the twelfth scheduled game: remainder of team balance due.
Based on a 18-player roster and 20 guaranteed games, your team cost breaks down to $8.88 + tax per player, per game!
REGISTER YOUR TEAM TODAY
Every season guarantees 20 games, creating a full, meaningful schedule. With playoffs and playoff bracket structure, some teams may play well beyond 20 games, with teams advancing deep into the postseason playing up to 9 playoff games — significantly reducing the effective cost per game.
Team Rep Meetings
To support teams through the updated adult league format, Ballhockey.com will be hosting Team Representative Meetings to review the new season structure and answer any questions ahead of the Spring 2026 season.
Meetings:
- Men’s Divisions – February 4, 2026: 6:30pm
- Co-ed + Women’s Divisions – February 5, 2026: 6:30pm
All Team Rep Meetings are held at Haig Bowl Arena.
Still more to come…
Spring season details, including prizing and additional league announcements, are currently being finalized. As we continue planning for the year ahead, our focus is on building a stronger, more engaging league experience across all divisions, programs, and events. We have a number of initiatives and enhancements in the works, the result of months of careful planning and deliberation, and are excited about what’s ahead as we look to make 2026 a great year for ball hockey in Niagara!
More information will be shared in the coming weeks (shared below)
Additional League Information
Game Format:
- Games are three 10-minute stopped time periods scheduled in 1 hour slots.
- 5 vs 5 format with a 3 vs 3 overtime format for regular season (5 minute run-time). Games do not end in a tie!
- Playoffs have a 5 vs 5 overtime (5 minutes stopped time) followed by a shootout. Championship games 2 & 3 are continuous overtime.
- All penalties are called in accordance with the official ballhockey.com Rule Book (found under the “Resources” tab of website)
Team Requirements:
- Roster minimum is 11 players and roster maximum is 18 players. Which includes at least 1 goaltender. For D1 only, the roster max is 22 (including goalie).
- Teams are required to supply their own jerseys or t-shirts. All jerseys must be the same colour and all team members are required to have a number on the back of the jersey to identify them.
- Team captains are to submit and manage their roster online, but all players must sign their team’s respective waiver inside the clubhouse prior to their first game of the season. Each rink location will have a ‘waiver binder’ with a page dedicated to each team for players to sign. Players only need to do so once at any location before they begin playing. Once a player has signed, they will be approved by staff to the team’s roster. Any players failing to sign the waiver are considered illegal players and any game they participate in will be considered a forfeit loss.
- Players must play a minimum of 3 games to qualify for the playoffs
- Rosters will be locked as of May 1, 2026 for the Spring 2026 Adult League season. League management reserves the right to restrict or regulate rosters at any point during the season based on factors such as team strength and competitive balance. Teams may also be subject to divisional re-placement if deemed more appropriately suited for a different division, either before or after the roster deadline.
Scheduling:
- Divisions have allocated game days, as noted teams must identify their preference while signing up.
- Teams are expected to play between 1-2 games per week.
- Adult league games are scheduled on weeknights between 6:30pm & 11:30pm and weekends between 12pm & 11:00pm.
- The rescheduling of games is reserved strictly for Emergency situations (i.e. Extreme weather conditions, staff illnesses in which coverage cannot be provided last minute, power outages). It is up to the team representatives and players to field a team for any scheduled game. Failure to do so will result in a game forfeit.
Payment Information:
- All payments are made through the team captain. As a reminder, the league is not responsible – nor aware – of the amount each player is paying. The team captain/rep is responsible for the payment to the league (ballhockey.com).
- All teams must pay $500 prior to the start of their first scheduled regular season game.
- All team payments must be paid in full by the start of the team’s twelfth regular season game (in accordance with the payment plan outlined above) . Any team that still carries an outstanding balance after the twelfth scheduled game will be subject to the risk of forfeits until balance is fully paid. (in addition to further disciplinary action if needed)
- Team captains can assign payments to players through their online portal.
- Management kindly asks team reps and teams to do their best at managing their team through the online portal, this includes managing their roster (adding players prior to the season starting), as well as making payments.
Questions?
For more information on the upcoming Spring 2026 Adult League season, please contact [email protected].