Hockey is a sport that doesn’t need an introduction. Whether you played hockey as a kid, you have family members that play, or you just watch it on television, you know the Canadian identity just isn’t complete without the game.
Sean Fitz Gerald’s new book, Before the Lights Go Out, predicts that despite hockey’s status as a cultural staple, it is at risk of becoming less popular as costs to play become prohibitively high. Registration numbers have already declined in youth leagues, and as costs continue to increase, this trend is likely to continue.
According to Canadian Sports Insurance Brokers, there are currently 572,000 players enrolled in Hockey Canada, which is down over 200,000 from peak participation rates.
To give some background about the cost of kids’ hockey, here are just the easily calculated costs of playing for a season, using estimates from Canadian Tire: registration costs around $1200, skates around $200, equipment around $400, a helmet around $60, a stick around $80, and the list goes on.
To combat this problem, I suggest a bold move: declare hockey a protected cultural practice and grant government funding for kids’ hockey leagues.
This goes without mentioning the constant equipment maintenance required and the extensive travel playing in higher levels involves. Just looking at the basic costs and responsibilities, it is understandable why both new Canadians and longtime hockey families may pick a less financially draining sport, such as basketball or soccer.
Looking back at the sport’s history, hockey was a game for everyday people. All a kid needed to play were hand-me-down skates, a cheap stick, and some basic equipment. =
However, with increased commercialization and professionalization, having any real chance at succeeding in kids’ hockey requires parents to pour thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands, into the game.
Of course, families which have that kind of money to spend on their kids will do so, but for parents looking for a sport to get their kids into, hockey will often be ruled out at the first sight of the bill.
Obviously, there is a major problem with prohibitive costs in kids hockey–but what can be done to amend this situation?
Sean Fitz-Gerald claims there is still time to save hockey, but there is not much will to do so. Companies such as Canadian Tire are satisfied with the prices they have set, and there’s not much which can be done to incentivise a drop in costs. While meagre financial assistance is available in certain cases, this is not a reasonable long-term solution due to the fact that it dances around the problem, rather than fixing it.
To combat this problem, I suggest a bold move: declare hockey a protected cultural practice and grant government funding for kids’ hockey leagues. There is precedent for such aid through cultural resource management, and it would be hard to argue that hockey does not qualify as an essential part of Canadian culture.
While the costs of such a program would be high, as the thousands of dollars that parents spend would need to be subsidized, I would venture to say it is worth the cost to preserve not just the game of hockey, but all the good that it brings to Canadian culture and society.
File photo.
