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The US Women's National Team vs. USA Hockey |
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The United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) for hockey has caused quite the stir as they announced that they will boycott the upcoming Women’s World Championship of Hockey taking place at the end of March in their own backyard of Plymouth, Michigan. The women of the USWNT are protesting what they believe to be unfair wages and unequitable support that they receive from USA Hockey compared to the men’s and boy’s national programs:
It may seem that the USWNT is taking quite the drastic measure by going all in and willing to sacrifice playing in this year’s World Championships. Perhaps though, in their united stance they are willing to do something that previous players did not believe that they had the leverage to do. These women are prepared to fight not just to improve their own quality of life while playing hockey, but so that future generations of women’s hockey players won’t have to.
At the core of the issue is that players on the USWNT do not have a contract. They receive very little financial support from USA Hockey outside of the time leading up to an Olympic Games. In an Olympic year the players are forced to uproot their lives and centralize as a team six months in advance in order to prepare for the games. In the past the players taking part in the centralization have received $1,000 a month for their time and commitment. In USA Hockey’s initial response to the USWMT, they claim that the with their current offer they can earn up to $85,000 in the upcoming Olympic year. The problem is that only a fraction of that would actually come from USA Hockey. The United States Olympic Committee pays all gold medalist $60,000 and from that potential of $85,000, only $15,000 would come from USA Hockey. If the USWMT do not win gold than that amount is even less. Here is the full response from USA Hockey:
The most unfortunate part of their statement comes at the end from its President Jim Smith:
“USA Hockey’s role is not to employ athletes and we will not do so.”
So basically USA Hockey wants to have their cake and eat it too. They expect their athletes to stay in tip top shape year round but primarily at their players expense. Comparatively, even USA’s Under 18 Boy’s team receives better treatment than the women. The u18 boy’s program (USANTDP) ) live and train together nearly year round while playing a schedule of over 60 games. The women only play nine games outside of the World Championships in a non-Olympic year despite numerous requests to increase that amount. The players would also like to be allowed and encouraged to go on tour and play exhibition games to celebrate the team post games in order to capitalize at the height of their success and visibility.
These women do not have an NHL salary to fall back on to pay their bills. If they want to play Olympic hockey they have to separate themselves from their family and take leave from their regular employment in order to have the privilege of representing their country. They do so for the love of the game and to play it at the highest possible competitive level. The USWNT are simply asking to be compensated fairly for their time, training and dedication to the program under US Hockey. They are asking to pour even more efforts into the development of girls hockey which will only benefit future teams as the player pool growS and continually improves.
At first US Hockey did not seem to take the threat of a boycott seriously as they believed that they would still be able to field a competitive team, even if it was not made up of the players initially named to their roster. They asked for a 5pm deadline on Thursday for the USWMT to advise them if they planned on going through with the boycott. The players did not budge from their stance and they received support from the under 22 and under 18 national team members as well as the NWHL and players in the NCAA. Simply said, everyone else has their back. At first US Hockey seemed to be retreating by stating that they were committed to negotiation with the USWMT. However, shots by them were fired on Friday as they attempted to make the players appear greedy:
To which the USWNT responded:
For a full account on the dollars being discussed and how it compares to Hockey Canada, I highly suggest reading this information article at the Ice Garden:
These players are about advancing the rights and equality for female hockey player in the United States. Perhaps it would benefit USA and Canadian Women’s Hockey were the two organizations able to support and allocate money towards women’s professional hockey, similarly how the two countries soccer organizations support the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). If these women were paid proper wages to play professional hockey than perhaps this current mess would not exiSt. That though is an entirely different topic and area of concern…
Cheers and follow along!
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