USA Hockey might have trouble putting a decent team on home ice for the Women’s World Championships.
Hilary Knight read a text message from a former U.S. women’s hockey player praising the team for not playing in the world championships over a wage dispute. She’s wondering who will play if they don’t make progress in talks with USA Hockey.
“We’re unanimously united as a player pool,” Knight said. “Good luck getting a suitable No. 1 competition to represent our country on a world stage. I kind of dare them. It’s tough.”
After players threatened Wednesday to boycott the upcoming tournament as defending champions on home ice in Plymouth, Michigan, USA Hockey said it will “field a competitive team” for the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Hockey Championship that begins March 31.
Stars such as Knight, Amanda Kessel, captain Meghan Duggan and twins Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando are leading the charge to skip the tournament. Knight thinks other players who might be asked will turn down the offer.
“If you ask older players, they’re going to say no because they’ve been through the wringer on these issues, and if you ask the younger players, unanimously they’re going to say no because they believe in what we’re doing,” Knight said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “It’ll be interesting to see who they come up with.”
The players released another statement on Thursday saying they understand USA Hockey is attempting to find an alternate team and “we regret that they have not instead chosen to reconsider their treatment of the current world championship-winning team.”
Several players said USA Hockey has paid players only $1,000 a month during their six-month Olympic residency period. Players only have contracts in Olympic years and are seeking a deal that covers them during the remaining 3 1-2 years.
Some 14 months of negotiations between players and USA Hockey went nowhere leading up to this development. The lawyer for the players, John Langel, called the negotiating gap a “chasm.” Players have said they won’t attend training camp next week or play in the tournament unless there are clear steps toward a four-year contract.
“This is one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make as a team, I think, in all of our careers,” Duggan said. “Being willing to stand up and sacrifice an opportunity like that, to host a world championship on home soil, to defend a gold medal, I think it just shows how passionate we are and how serious we are.”
USA Hockey said the organization and the U.S. Olympic Committee provide national team players with financial support, training opportunities, camps and strength and conditioning programs.
“We acknowledge the players’ concerns and have proactively increased our level of direct support to the Women’s National Team as we prepare for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games,” USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean said. “We have communicated that increased level of support to the players’ representatives and look forward to continuing our discussions.”
USA Hockey said each player participating in the Olympics in South Korea next February could receive up to $85,000, which also includes medal incentives.
Duggan called the statement “completely misleading and dishonest,” and the law firm representing the players said no $85,000 offer was made. She added that players are also asking for insurance and travel expenses they don’t feel are provided on an equal level as men’s players.
Neither USA Hockey nor the players would reveal details of the wages in dispute or how the men’s team is compensated. The U.S. men’s team is comprised of highly paid NHL players, as are most established men’s national teams.
Players point to the $3.5 million USA Hockey spends annually on its National Team Development Program with no comparable setup for women’s development. Those men’s under-17 and under-18 teams play 60 games a season compared to just nine for the women’s national team in a non-Olympic year.
Canada, the world’s other women’s hockey powerhouse, puts more money into the sport in part because of government funding. Hockey Canada general manager of women’s programs Melody Davidson said development players receive $900 a month and senior-level players $1,500 a month even outside Olympic years and that players are supported full-time for nine months around the Olympics.
“We get paid for six months out of a four-year span,” said forward Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, who only recently received a check for December Series games against Canada.
Matt DelDuca, a lawyer specializing in labor and employment issues said, “Who’s going to win is going to depend on how strong their leverage really is in the eyes of the organization.”
Knight says it’s time to improve the pay structure and other issues.
“We’re asking for equitable support and marketing and visibility and promotion in programming but also in some financial support,” Knight said. “It’s 2017 and those things are not unreasonable.”
USA Hockey said it is committed to growing women’s hockey and that more than 73,000 women play hockey in the U.S. now compared with 23,000 in 1998, when the Americans won gold at the first Olympics for women’s hockey.
The wage dispute follows one by U.S. women’s soccer players, who last year filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that alleged wage discrimination by the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Lamoureux-Davidson said the hockey players have been in touch with soccer players about their dispute, which is ongoing; Langel represented U.S. women’s soccer players from 1998 to 2014.
Cammi Granato, one of the first women in the Hockey Hall of Fame after being inducted in 2010, dealt with wage disputes during her career and appreciates current players taking such a difficult stand.
“It says a lot for what they’re fighting for,” Granato said. “It says a lot for the fact that there needs to be change. This takes a lot of courage.”
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Follow Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SWhyno .
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Let 'em walk! Remember when it was an honor to be chosen?