Sports in Montreal have played a major role in the city's history.Montreal is best known for being home to theMontreal Canadiens of theNational Hockey League, which are currently the city's only team in theBig Four sports leagues.
Other professional teams in Montreal include theMontreal Alouettes of theCanadian Football League,CF Montréal ofMajor League Soccer, andMontréal Victoire of theProfessional Women's Hockey League.
Montreal is also well known for hosting the annualFormula OneCanadian Grand Prix.
In the past, Montreal has also hosted many sporting events, namely the1976 Summer Olympics. It was also home to theMontreal Expos ofMajor League Baseball from 1969 to the 2004 season.
TheMontreal Alouettes of theCFL play atMolson Stadium and have been one of the most successful CFL teams in terms of championships won and sellout crowds. The Alouettes have won 8Grey Cup championships in their history. In women's football, theMontreal Blitz currently represent the city in theCentral Canadian Women's Football League.
Although university football has long been popular with Anglo Montrealers, who support theMcGill Redbirds andConcordia Stingers, enthusiastic Francophone crowds also enjoy theUniversité de Montréal'sCarabins.[1]
The development of modern ice hockey occurred in Montreal. The city is famous for its enthusiasticice hockey fans. TheMontreal Canadiens is the most successful and one of the highest valued franchises in the NHL. Montreal was home to theMontreal Canadiennes, a professional women's team that won theClarkson Cup in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2017 before theCanadian Women's Hockey League folded in 2019. In 2024, a new professional women's team debuted, withMontréal Victoire representing the city in the PWHL. TheLaval Rocket of theAmerican Hockey League play at Place Bell.
Montreal'soff-island suburb of Boisbriand is home to theQuebec Major Junior Hockey League'sBlainville-Boisbriand Armada.
TheMontréal Mission compete in theNational Ringette League. In 2023, they won silver at theCanadian Ringette Championships.
The city's current soccer team is theCF Montréal (known as the Montreal Impact until 2021), who joinedMajor League Soccer in 2012, the top tier of theAmerican Soccer Pyramid, and play home games atSaputo Stadium. Montreal's WSL affiliate,FC Montreal, play at theComplexe sportif Claude-Robillard. Also at theCentre Sportif Bois-de-Boulogne plays theLaval Comets of theW-League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada. Montreal's first professional women's soccer team,Montreal Roses FC of theNorthern Super League, began play in 2025.
AFL Quebec is the governing body of Australian Rules Football in Quebec. Based primarily out of Montreal and surrounding areas, it includes both a Men's and a Women's League. AFL Quebec prides itself on been one of the fastest growing and best runs leagues in Canada and North America.
AFL Quebec Men's League consists of four clubs, the West Island Wooders, Laval Bombers, Montreal Demons, and Old Montreal Dockers while the newly expanded Women's League also consists of four clubs, the NDG Devils and the Plateau Eagles from Montreal and the Carleton Warriors and Rideau Shamrocks from Ottawa.
Like most leagues outside of Australia, AFL Quebec is a nine a side league in both the men and the women. This is for numerous reasons, including but not limited to local player development and field availability. AFL Quebec plays the vast majority of its regular and final series games at Vanier College.
The AFL Quebec Regular Season runs over nine rounds from mid-May until early September. This is followed by finals in mid to late September, with three rounds of finals for the men and two rounds of finals for the women's.
AFL Quebec has both representative Men's and Women's 18 a side teams. These teams are known as the Quebec Saints, Montreal Angels and Ottawa Lady Swans respectively. They compete against other 18 a side representative team across Canada and North America. Generally these games occur a handful number of times over a season either in one off games or more commonly at invitational tournament. Such a tournament is the AFL Quebec Women's Tournament held early May every year.[2]
Montreal has become one of the top boxing cities in the world, hosting the third most events in North America, only behindAtlantic City andLas Vegas. The city also currently has two world champions inJean Pascal andLucian Bute as well as a number of top contenders such asHerman Ngoudjo,Joachim Alcine,Adrian Diaconu and Sebastian Demers.
From 1897 to 1917 and from 1928 to 1960, Montreal fielded a minor league team, theMontreal Royals, most famous for havingJackie Robinson as a player for the 1946 season.
Montreal was the home of a major league baseball team, theMontreal Expos, named after the1967 World's Fair, and began playing in theNational League from 1969. On July 13, 1982, Montreal hosted the firstMajor League BaseballAll-Star Game outside theUnited States. However, due to low attendance and other financial factors, the team moved toWashington, D.C. in 2005, where it was renamed theWashington Nationals.[3][4]
A two-game MLB exhibitionpre-season series between theToronto Blue Jays and theNew York Mets were played on March 28–29, 2014 at Olympic Stadium in front of sold-out crowds. This proved to be very popular with Montrealers, and the Blue Jays (as the home team) hosted theCincinnati Reds in 2015, theBoston Red Sox in 2016, thePittsburgh Pirates in 2017, theSt. Louis Cardinals in 2018, and theMilwaukee Brewers in 2019. (On March 23 and 24, 2020 the Blue Jays were scheduled to host theNew York Yankees at Olympic Stadium but the two-game series were canceled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.) All six of the two-game series were played in an attempt to gauge the city's interest in a revived Expos franchise. TheBoard of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal is also actively working on building a new stadium downtown and bringing back a major league baseball team to Montreal.[5][needs update]
Montreal has had several minor pro basketball teams. Currently the city is home to theMontreal Alliance of theCanadian Elite Basketball League, and theMontreal Toundra ofThe Basketball League. Previously theMontreal Jazz played a single season in theNational Basketball League of Canada.
Montreal has also established itself as a popular place for NBA preseason games. On October 22, 2010, theBell Centre hosted the firstpre-seasonNational Basketball Association (NBA) game between theToronto Raptors and theNew York Knicks. This was followed by further games on October 19, 2012, when they faced the New York Knicks, October 20, 2013, when theBoston Celtics played against theMinnesota Timberwolves, October 24, 2014, when the Toronto Raptors played against the New York Knicks, October 23, 2015, when the Toronto Raptors played against theWashington Wizards, October 10, 2018, when the Toronto Raptors played against theBrooklyn Nets, October 14, 2022, when the Toronto Raptors played against the Boston Celtics, and October 12, 2023, when theOklahoma City Thunder played against theDetroit Pistons. All eight games were held at the Bell Centre and were sold out. They were played in an attempt to gauge the city's interest in a full-time team.
Montreal is considered a possible future location for an NBA team.[6][7][8]
TheGaelic games ofhurling andGaelic football, governed by theGaelic Athletic Association, have been played in Montreal since 1948. These sports have become increasingly popular with locals and newIrish immigrants. Beginners are actively encouraged. Games are played against other cities such as Quebec City, Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Halifax, and St. John's. There is also a domestic co-ed Montreal Gaelic Football Superleague open to complete beginners. They are played under the banner of theMontreal Shamrocks GAC.[9] Despite having no home field, Gaelic sports have grown leaps and bounds over the years, many requests have been submitted to the city as the Shamrocks await a permanent home.
Montréal Roller Derby were the first non-U.S.roller derby league to gain membership in theWomen's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).[10] The league hosts the annual "Beast of the East" tournament for intraleague (club) roller derby teams from eastern Canada. As of November 30, 2015, their travel team was ranked 15th in WFTDA's East region.[11]
Rugby is a sport in expansion on the island. The rugby teams are divided by their language and their division, but over all it is a big family trying to expand a sport misunderstood and unknown by many. Montreal boasts a dozenrugby clubs, including the oldest in North America,Westmount Rugby Club, founded in 1878 and the newestRugby XV de Montreal created in 2010. Traditionally associated with the Anglo community, rugby has seen a sharp rise in Francophone participation in recent decades.Quebec Caribou, drawing many players from Montreal clubs, represented the province in theRugby Canada Super League before the league's demise following the 2008 season, and now represents the province in theRugby Canada National Junior Championship. The province's senior players are also eligible for selection to theAtlantic Rock, aSt. John's-based team which represents Canada's five easternmost provinces in theCanadian Rugby Championship.
Montreal has a well-developed network of bicycle paths.[12] Bike rentals are available at theOld Port of Montreal, as well asquadricycles,inline skates,children trailers, andSegways. In addition to a network of parks that include le Parc du Mont-Royal, on the mountain's side, Montreal offers five beaches around the island for recreational activities:Cap St. Jacques Nature Park,Bois-de-L’Ile Bizard Nature Park,Jean Drapeau Park Beach,Pointe Calumet Beach Club andOka Beach. The Quebec Ministry of Environment tests the beaches for pollutants, on a scale from “A” to “D”.[13]
Bandy Quebec seeks to promotebandy in Montreal.[14] There has been an introduction.[15] No teams exist yet.[16]
Montreal is host to theFormula 1Canadian Grand Prix, which takes place at theCircuit Gilles Villeneuve onÎle Notre-Dame. The race has a contract until the 2031 season.[17] Of the 300,000 spectators at the F1 race, 25 percent are from outside of Quebec. The Formula One event is responsible for $84 million in economic benefits and the province will collect more than $9 million in additional tax revenues every year because of the race.[18] Former races to take place at the track included theNAPA Auto Parts 200 (NASCARNationwide Series), the Montreal 200 (Grand AmRolex Sports Car Series) and theMolson Indy Montreal / Grand Prix of Montreal (Champ Car).
Ingolf, theRoyal Montreal Golf Club onÎle Bizard has been an occasional venue for theCanadian Open on thePGA Tour, most recently in 2001. TheMontreal Championship, an event onPGA Tour Champions for golfers 50 and older, was launched in 2010 and is hosted by Club de Golf Fontainebleu in the suburb ofBlainville.
Montreal has hosted several international soccer tournaments, including some games for the2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup and the2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.
TheCanada Masters, currently sponsored as the Rogers Cup, is an annual tennis tournament held in Montreal and Toronto. The men's competition is an ATP Masters Series event on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour. The women's competition is a Tier 1 event on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour. The two competitions are currently held in separate weeks in the July–August period. The events alternate from year-to-year between the cities of Montreal and Toronto. In odd-numbered years, the men's tournament is held in Montreal, while the women's tournament is held in Toronto, and vice versa in even-numbered years. The competition is played on hard courts.
Incycling, theGrand Prix Cycliste de Montréal has been held on city streets since 2010, using the steep slopes ofMount Royal. The circuit is similar to that at the 1976 Summer Olympics, theGrand Prix des Amériques and the1974 UCI Road World Championships. In 2026, Montreal will host theUCI Road World Championships for the second time, having previously hosted in 1974.
Montreal has also hosted multipleprofessional wrestling events, most notably theWWESurvivor Series on November 9, 1997, where the infamousMontreal Screwjob took place. The WWE’s annualDraft event took place in Montreal in 2019 (called theSuperstar Shake-Up at the time), which made Montreal the very first city outside of the United States to host the event.
The most important sporting event in Montreal's history was when Montreal played host to the1976 Summer Olympics.
Montreal hosted theICF Flatwater Racing World Championships in1986.
In July 2005 Montreal hosted the11thFINAWorld Aquatics Championships.
In 2006, Montreal hosted the2006 World Outgames, the first-everGLISAWorld Outgames. Over 16,000LGBT athletes took part, in the largest international event in the city of Montreal since the 1976 Olympics.[19]
Ethnosport World Society is based in Montreal.[20]
Montreal has one all-sport radio station, the English-languageCKGM (TSN 690). Sport is covered daily in the city's newspapers by beat writers inThe Montreal Gazette,La Presse,Le Journal de Montréal andLe Devoir. The French-language cable television channel,Réseau des Sports (RDS) focuses much of its coverage on Montreal-based sport clubs and events, however also features standardNorth American sports programming much like itsToronto-based English-language sister station,The Sports Network (TSN).
| Venue | Capacity | Team/Tournament/Attraction |
|---|---|---|
| Gilles Villeneuve Circuit | 100,000[citation needed] | |
| Olympic Stadium | 65,255 |
|
| Molson Stadium | 25,012 | |
| Hippodrome de Montréal | 25,000 | |
| Bell Centre | 21,273 | |
| Île Sainte-Hélène Aquatic Complex | ||
| Saputo Stadium | 20,341 | |
| IGA Stadium | 12,000 | |
| Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard | 9,500 | |
| CEPSUM Stadium | 5,100 |
