Initially, interest in rugby football was mostly confined to the prairie provinces. As is the case today, ice hockey was Western Canada's most popular sport, and the presence of what were recognized to be "major league" professional circuits in Western Canada initially served to limit the resources which the fledgling senior football unions on the prairies could muster. The collapse of the last such "major" Western league in 1926 opened a void that was quickly filled by football, with a provincial union finally being formed in British Columbia that same year. The four rugby unions in the West were named the Manitoba Rugby Football Union, Saskatchewan Rugby Football Union, Alberta Rugby Football Union and the British Columbia Rugby Football Union.