BRAMPTON, Ontario (AP) — All four rinks at the Susan Fennell Sportsplex are bustling with activity on this wintry Saturday morning, the air filled with the sounds of hockey skates scraping across the ice and pucks hitting the glass.
It’s a scene as familiar as the sunrise on countless ice skating rinks across Canada. Hockey remains a beloved pastime, a source of pride and joy, and something that unites a great nation for over 150 years.
Behind the scenes of the goals and celebrations, there’s a troubling trend: youth hockey participation in the sport’s birthplace has dropped by nearly a third over the past decade and a half, a decline that began long before the pandemic from a peak of more than half. a million children took part as recently as 2010.
Because of rising costs for everything from equipment and ice time to specialized training and travel programs, families are choosing other sports such as football and basketball over hockey. There are concerns about the future of grassroots hockey in a country that has turned it into a popular and dynamic sport that is growing in other countries, including the United States.
“It’s very upsetting to me,” said Alex Klimsiak, who is coaching two teams in Brampton to regain the opportunity to return to the game he still plays for leisure in suburban Toronto at age 44. years. You could definitely see this before the pandemic. The pandemic just amplified things and made things worse.”
In 2022, about two months after Canada celebrated its then 18th World Junior Hockey Championship, hockey equipment giant Bauer CEO Ed Kinnaly said: “The number of kids playing hockey in Canada is rapidly declining… but no one doesn’t talk about it.” about it.”
At the time, Hockey Canada reported that 340,365 youth under the age of 18 were playing the sport, down 35% from 523,785 just 13 years earlier. In 2023, that number rose slightly to 360,031, but is still about 15% below pre-pandemic levels, even as soccer and tennis in Canada have already recovered.
“I’m concerned, but I’m not panicking,” Kinnaly told The Associated Press earlier this year. “I’m obviously concerned about what the numbers say. I don’t panic because I believe that the sport is developing. I really think the right people – the National Hockey League, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada, private corporations – are all starting to have an honest dialogue with each other, which is: A, we need to stop talking about what’s wrong, and, B, we have to start investing in change for the sake of sport.”
Choices other than hockey
Few things are as closely associated with Canada as hockey, a place where both children and adults look forward to winter, lakes and ponds freeze so they can lace up their skates, pull out the net and play shinny. When Canada met the United States in the 2010 Olympic final on home ice in Vancouver, half the country watched Sidney Crosby score the golden goal etched in national lore. Millions are watching Edmonton this spring as the Oilers try to end the rivalry. The nation’s 31-year Stanley Cup championship drought.
However, the sport may no longer be a favorite activity for children in Canada. According to Canada Youth Sports Report According to data released last summer by research group Solutions, soccer is the top choice (16%), followed by swimming, hockey and basketball. Overall participation figures for these sports are not comparable given the differences in registration requirements between different governing bodies.
Parents cited financial issues as their top concern (58%), followed by family concerns and youth mental health, including bullying. There is also some concern that part of the problem is the time required to train and practice even at lower levels of competitive hockey.
“It’s definitely a big commitment,” said Priyanka Kwatra, whose 10-year-old son Sean has fallen in love with the sport and plays in suburban Toronto. “It’s a very labor-intensive sport.”
This is time-consuming, largely due to the limited availability of ice, which means practices and games have to be held very early in the morning or late in the evening. Many youth programs train nine or more months a year, on the ice three to five times a week, as well as off-ice training.
When her husband Amit first looked at Shawn’s equipment, the $1,000 price tag came as a shock. Add to that the limitations on available ice for practice or entertainment, and basketball or soccer suddenly seems easier.
“Getting someone into hockey is not as easy as getting someone into soccer, where all you need is a soccer ball,” said Amit Kwatra. “Hockey, the amount of equipment needed to get started in the game is very large, and I think that’s the biggest barrier for a lot of people introducing their kids to hockey.”
Other sports may also seem like a safer choice than hockey, with its speed, kicks and sharp skates. Gianfranco Talarico is the founder of Daredevil Hockey, which has been producing cut-resistant equipment for over a decade. He said his company’s feedback and surveys showed that safety and cost were the main factors holding the sport back from growing faster.
“It’s so intertwined in the lives of Canadians,” he said. “Unless we collectively focus on making hockey a safer sport, the potential brand value of hockey as a whole will begin to diminish.”
“Professionalization of hockey”
During All-Star Weekend in Toronto, the NHL held a youth event in nearby York. Along with daughter Sharon, Priyanka and Amit watched their son on the ice, he and more than 100 other young players wearing the first set of equipment provided by Bauer as part of the NHL/NHLPA First Shift program, one of many initiatives to teach the game. intended to keep hockey in Canada’s bloodline.
“It’s a low-cost entry point, and obviously it can accelerate growth because it provides opportunity,” said Matt Herr, a former NHL player who is now the league’s senior director of youth hockey and industry development. “Especially in Canada, we now compete in places where it used to be fun. … it was everyone’s first choice and now there are so many different options and we have to make sure we continue to be everyone’s first choice.”
Herr and others know that the cost of equipment can potentially be a barrier. The quality of sticks, helmets and pads has increased dramatically due to technological advances, but so have prices, and with it the risk of being left behind by low-income families who want to try hockey, especially at higher levels of the sport, almost whole year.
Rachel Bishop in 2017 diploma with honors at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, found a huge gap between the incomes of families playing hockey compared to other sports, highlighting the funds required.
“I do think it’s more of a cost factor, and we’re seeing it become prohibitively expensive now,” Bishop told the AP. “You see the professionalization of hockey: now it’s a year-round sport: you have to join summer leagues, you want to get all the best equipment. Plus, there are always skating lessons, summer camps, so I think a lot of that costs more than anything else.”
Klimsiak, the Brampton coach, estimated that the cost of being on a competitive team — one that travels to tournaments and has several set practices, as opposed to recreational teams — starts at $4,000, with some teams charging $10,000 or more. He said some Toronto hockey organizations are pooling resources because they don’t have enough players.
“The cost of playing has gone up,” said Klimsiak, who has three sons who play, one of whom is on his team, and is having trouble finding goalies. “The costs of judges have increased. It’s hard. It’s proportional. It’s like the cost of living: everything has gone up and now, unfortunately, parents have to pay more.”
Cost is something that University of Toronto professor Simon Darnell is well aware of. The parent of a 9-year-old who plays competitive hockey, the sports culture and sociology expert calls spending one of the “exceptional practices in hockey that goes back a long way,” along with a culture of winning and an obsession with getting to the top. to the next team.
Darnell, while acknowledging the willingness to shell out money for ice and other expenses, also understands that the early morning, nearly year-round aspect of hockey is one of the factors holding some back.
“It’s like, if you don’t want to play hockey in those terms, then I don’t think there’s as much room for you as there should be,” Darnell said. “If you don’t want to play by these rules, then there’s no place for you, and then you go and play another sport.”
Stop the slide
Another concern: Are there enough rinks to make hockey a source of entertainment and character development for children? Canada’s population, now nearly 40 million, has doubled in 50 years, and the International Ice Hockey Federation says there are still just 2,860 indoor skating rinks across the vast country. Renting ice can cost hundreds of dollars for just 1-2 hours.
As another cause for concern, Kinnaly pointed to Ontario Parks and Recreation’s 2019 plan to invest $2 billion over the next two decades in 45 new soccer fields, 30 basketball courts, 18 indoor swimming pools and a single hockey rink.
“The number of rinks that are in disrepair or closed further reduces the availability of ice time,” Kinnaly said. “If people don’t have a place to play, that will continue to be a headwind and a real problem.”
Programs like First Shift and Scotiabank’s Hockey for All are among the steps being taken to stop the slide. Kinnaly said Bauer’s program has been “extremely successful” in not only getting kids into hockey but also retaining them (retention rate is about 60%) and discussed ways to attract new Canadians to the game, such as the equipment included in the welcome package when signing the contract. for the current account.
But there are still systemic problems: from the collapse of infrastructure and a shortage of new skating rinks to inflationary pressure on pricing.
Problems are not observed at the NHL level, where income continues to grow and fan interest is growing. In the United States, the number of youth hockey players has gradually grown to nearly 400,000 registered players, surpassing Canada in 2021.
Instead, an existential crisis for the home of hockey exists in places like the Brampton rink, where the players and fans of tomorrow are being groomed. There are encouraging signs, such as hockey continuing to be the sport of choice for Indigenous youth and nearly 40% of First Shift participants being girls as the women’s game receives more attention, but the overall trend is a thorny question that needs to be answered.
“I don’t think hockey can stay where it is the way it has been, and part of me agrees with that,” said Darnell, the Toronto professor. “I think if we’re going to invest in hockey in Canada as being somewhat representative of Canadian culture, it makes sense to think about what does Canadian culture look like and is that reflected in hockey? Because that’s not the case now.”