BEPPLE – Women’s hockey in Canada is in need of our support at all levels

NOW THAT THERE are no Canadian hockey teams in the Stanley Cup finals, it appears that hockey may not be the only sport around.  The elimination of the Toronto Maple Leafs on the heels of the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets spells hard times for hockey in Canada.

 Or, more correctly, men’s hockey.

 If things are bad for men’s hockey in Canada, things are even worse off for the women’s game.

At the end of March, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, the professional hockey league for women in Canada, folded.  The league, which had six teams and 150 players, attracted the top women players from around the world.  But it failed to attract the revenue from sponsors, advertisers or fans.

Without the league, women in Canada lose a key venue to develop their hockey skills.  World championships and Olympics are great, but it is the week in and week out grind of competitive hockey that builds players’ skills, whether male or female.  

Equally, spectators lose one of the few options to watch top caliber women’s sports teams compete. Here in Kamloops we’ve been lucky to watch the women’s world championships in 2016, and the Four Nations Cup in 2014.  But those few games are a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of games over the same number of years of men’s hockey, whether Blazers or Storm, we have gotten to watch.

It’s not only at the top of the game that women’s hockey struggles.  When the private Ice Box arena closed in 2015, Kamloops Ladies Rec Hockey League and Kamloops Vibe have had to compete for ice time in the City of Kamloops arenas with men’s teams.  

In all, the two women’s leagues get only 124 hours a year.  And the times they are allocated are often the latest time slots.  With 124 hours, there aren’t many opportunities to build the skills needed to go to the Olympics, get a university hockey scholarship, or join the national team.

If hockey is to be our national sport, then it needs to be our sport for both men and women.  At the national level, corporations need to back the women’s game with as much zeal as they back the men’s game.

Equally, locally, women’s teams need more ice time.  Our young women need to know there is a future in the game.   More ice time, especially good ice at decent times, needs to be opened up.  

Otherwise, women’s hockey will languish locally and nationally.

Canada’s women’s team defeat at this year’s world championships will become an all too familiar occurrence.

Nancy Bepple is a former City councillor of Kamloops with a strong interest in community building projects.