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From:
Richard Hungerford <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Richard Hungerford <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 30 Mar 1997 11:29:12 -0500
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TEXT/PLAIN
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Sorry about the messed up previous post, but my local host is having
problems this fine morning!
--      --      --      --      --      --      --      --      --
The 1997 Women's World Ice Hockey Championship starts tomorrow in and
around Kitchener, Ontario.  I will post results and standings to Info-
Hockey-L starting on Tuesday.
 
Canada, with two former Northeastern players, and the United States,
fielding a team filled with former and current ECAC League players,
should meet in the final for the gold medal.  Finland, China, Sweden and
Russia will battle it out for the bronze medal and the last three qualifying
spots for Nagano 98.
 
A key match between China and Russia on Monday at Hamilton should tell
us if the Russians are for real.  This past week Team Russia lost twice to
Team USA (7-0, 13-0).  The loser of the Hamilton match will likely meet
Sweden or perhaps Finland in the 5th place qualifying match on Sunday.
The winner will have a shot at the bronze medal.  The other key contest on
Monday features Sweden versus Finland in Brampton.  Sweden won the
1996 European Championship.  Finland has had a number of injuries but
have won the bronze medal in the previous three WWCs.  These two Monday
matches should give us an idea of who the other powers will be in 1997.
 
Below is an article from:
http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/sports/970330SPB1b_SP-FINANCE30.html
 
I especially like the part where Gerry Heaney (TCW) turns down more money
to endorse a product designed for women players!  FYI: Vicki Sunohara
(TCW) played at NU 1988-89.
--      --      --      --      --      --      --      --      --
   Women's team finally getting its just rewards
 
   By Randy Starkman - Toronto Star Sports Reporter
 
   Coming soon to a sporting goods store near you: the Geraldine Heaney
   hockey stick.
 
   After years of digging deeply into their own pockets to play the game
   they love, Canada's women's hockey players are finally starting to
   attract some sponsor interest.
 
   Being named an official Olympic sport for the 1998 Winter Games at
   Nagano, Japan, will do that.
 
   Young girls across the country soon being able to purchase a brand of
   hockey stick endorsed by Heaney - a star on defence who is regarded as
   ``the Bobby Orr of women's hockey'' - demonstrates how equipment
   companies now recognize a whole new market.
 
   ``I guess until I actually go into a store and see one there, I try
   not to think too much about it,'' said Heaney, one of the key players
   in Canada's bid for a fourth consecutive world women's championship
   title this week in Kitchener. ``It's exciting. It's good to see and
   it's good to see how it's growing.
 
   ``A lot of companies want to get involved with the Olympics because
   it's such a big event. This is the fourth world championship. The
   world championships have helped out tremendously, but with it being an
   Olympic sport it takes it a step further.''
 
   Marketing opportunities are definitely new ground for the women's
   team. Until now, one of the main means of fundraising has been using
   personalities such as hockey commentator Don Cherry to front their
   efforts.
 
   Cherry thinks the women have been getting a very raw deal.
 
   ``I've been called the chauvinist pig of all time, but the way they've
   been treated isn't right,'' he said. ``I wish more corporations would
   get behind them. Somebody should take the ball and run with it.
 
   ``One of the guys said they expect them (the women's team) to stand
   out on the street selling apples. They've got to sell my shirt to make
   money. No doubt about it, they've been ignored. Corporate sponsors
   don't seem to want to get behind them for some reason.''
 
   Cherry pointed out the different worlds inhabited by the men's and
   women's national hockey teams.
 
   ``What bothers me is - and I'm not knocking the male Olympic team -
   but millions are being spent on them and none of them are going to be
   on the team,'' said Cherry, of the touring men's national team.
   ``They're going around playing and the NHL guys will be on (the team
   in Nagano).''
 
   The remarkable thing is the women hockey players don't appear to give
   a hoot about the money. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly.
 
   ``We don't want too much (money), either, because the reason we're
   here is to play hockey,'' Heaney said. ``It's just a bonus. With the
   men's hockey, they get paid so much money they're not even out there
   to play. They don't play with the heart they probably used to when
   they were first trying to make the team.
 
   ``I think that's the difference between the female game and the men's
   game at the pro level. We play with a lot more heart. We're there
   because we love the game. They're there because they get the huge
   contracts and that's all they're always fighting about. I would never
   like to see that happen with women's hockey with sponsorships.''
 
   As Canadian Hockey vice-president Bob Nicholson noted, ``It's a clean,
   interesting attitude, isn't it? It's sport alone that they're
   interested in.''
 
   Still, things are developing quickly and it's hoped that increased
   sponsorship will help the players offset the financial sacrifices they
   must make to chase their Olympic dream, which include losing their
   jobs or taking unpaid leaves.
 
   Nicholson said about seven or eight players on the women's team have
   sponsorships with hockey equipment companies so far and that number
   should rise to 12 by the end of the tournament. Most of the deals are
   worth from $5,000 to $10,000.
 
   Those selected for the Canadian Olympic team will assemble in Calgary
   in September and stay together through the Winter Games in Nagano next
   February. They will receive between $15,000 and $18,000 each from
   Canadian Hockey.
 
   Heaney actually took less money than Nike was offering her to sign an
   equipment deal with Louisville, because they're the frontrunners right
   now in terms of producing hockey equipment specifically designed for
   females.
 
   ``They're (Louisville) going into it quick, but Nike and Bauer are
   coming hard,'' Nicholson said. ``When those companies start to produce
   equipment, they do promotion, too, which should also have an impact on
   our numbers.''
 
   Those numbers right now are about 30,000 females playing hockey in
   Canada compared to about 550,000 males. Nicholson anticipates those
   numbers to double for women because of the Olympic involvement.
 
   ``There's going to be a huge explosion in the next 12 months,'' he
   said. ``We started to see it at the Three Nations Tournament recently
   in the Ottawa area. Now, the young kids have role models and have
   dreams.
 
   ``That's what's been so positive on the men's side. You see kids out
   in the driveway wearing the sweaters of Wayne Gretzky, Paul Kariya or
   Mario Lemieux. Now, we're starting to see young girls with (Hayley)
   Wickenheiser and Heaney and (Cassie) Campbell's name on their
   sweaters.''
 
   Keith McIntyre, of the marketing firm K. Mac and Associates in
   Mississauga, is working with players such as Heaney, Campbell and
   Vicky Sunohara and the national team to develop fully integrated
   sponsorship programs.
 
   McIntyre, who worked with Mark Messier and Frito Lay recently on a
   successful TV advertising campaign, said there will likely be some
   cross promotions with the men's team as well.
 
   ``There's not enough female athletes out there to be marketed,''
   McIntyre said. ``If you go back and take a look at all the Atlanta
   programs all the sponsors ran, there's a real niche for building
   programs using women.
 
   ``You can educate very quickly because hockey's big. The second thing
   is that the female market as a group as a purchaser is very relevant
   to a lot of these corporations and this is what female hockey can
   deliver. If we can address those two points, we've got a winning
   program.''
 
   Sunohara, a centre from Scarborough, knows how difficult the balancing
   act can be for players on the national team. She puts in a 40- to
   50-hour work week as a lab technician at Cott Beverages in Mississauga
   and also works part-time as an instructor at Ice Sports in Etobicoke.
 
   The 26-year-old said her supervisors are pretty understanding about
   the time off she needs for major tournaments, but not all her
   teammates are as fortunate.
 
   ``Some people have companies that are very supportive and even pay
   them for the time that they're away and then there's others who have
   been working at the same job for years and they may have to actually
   resign from their positions or quit and that's just ridiculous,''
   Sunohara said.
 
   ``It's not just a pickup hockey game or hockey tournament; this is
   playing for your country at the Olympics. It shouldn't even be an
   issue. But it is. It's just incredible.''
 
   Colin MacKenzie, president of the perennial powerhouse North York
   Aeros, a winner of nine of the past 10 Ontario titles, said companies
   have a double standard when it comes to female hockey players.
 
   ``When it comes to their work, nobody can understand the level of
   hockey they play at so they can literally lose a job when they go to a
   national championship,'' MacKenzie said.
 
   ``Whereas, if it was a guy, they'd throw a party for him before he
   left, they'd pay him when he was gone and they'd throw a party for him
   when he got home.''
--      --      --      --      --      --      --      --      --
NOTE: Kelly Dyer (former TUSAW, NU) and Cammi Granato (TUSAW, PC93) are
also endorsing the Louisville line, among other.
 
 _____________
/
 good shooting
 hungerf
_____________/
 
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