United States women’s hockey team gets new contract

Fast forward to this month, when a highly controversial boycott by the US women’s national team – with potential replacement players also strongly on board with the stance – threatened to take plenty of air out of the tournament balloon when games are slated to begin Friday with a 12 noon contest between the Czech Republic and Switzerland at USA Hockey Arena. “This process has, in the end, made us better”.

The players thought they had a deal last week but USA Hockey’s executive committee backed off it and the organization sought to find replacement players for the upcoming championship, adding more fuel to the fire.

“We are asking for a living wage and for USA Hockey to fully support its programs for women and girls and stop treating us like an afterthought”, Duggan said in a press release on March 15.

“Our sport is the big victor today”, women’s team captain Meghan Duggan said.

“We didn’t want to settle for something that wasn’t going to push women’s hockey as far as we thought it was able to go”, USA captain Meghan Duggan said by phone. And while the lockouts by the National Basketball Association in 2011 and the NHL in 2013 happened in the social media age, they came before activism of both the real and hashtag varieties became a major part of modern American life. The U.S.is the defending champion after winning the gold medal last. This deal could mean six figures for the players if they win Olympic gold.

While the issue is not yet resolved, the fact that U.S. Senators have now stepped in to back the women’s team push for equitable treatment will hopefully help ensure that the team’s proposal for equitable treatment is quickly approved.

The women’s team had vowed to boycott the tournament if USA Hockey wouldn’t address the players’ concerns over what they felt was inadequate compensation and support.

The quarrel focused a bright spotlight on USA Hockey from all corners of the sports world, bringing attention to the disparity in resources afforded to the men’s and women’s national teams. Among other issues, the women note that USA Hockey expects female players to “train full time and compete throughout the year”, yet pays them only $6,000 every four years, an amount that would put them far below the poverty line.

USA Hockey allowed the men’s team to have guests, even paying for the guests’ transportation costs and allowing guests to stay in player hotel rooms, according to a CNN Money report. In the letter, Senators unequivocally backed the players, and said they were “disturbed” by the pay disparity between the male and female teams.

The North American rivals are the only nations to reach a women’s world ice hockey final. “It’s now time to turn the page”. “We decided after a long period that we wanted to get some lawyers and really start fighting for some equitable support and wages for women in our sport”. “We want to come to an agreement that USA Hockey and ourselves can both be on board with”. The U.S. team immediately jump into action with a game on Friday against Canada that countless more Americans will care about because of this boycott.

That, in effect, is what they will do.

USA Hockey’s 15-member executive committee also has the authority “to amend, alter or repeal rules and regulations only in the case of an emergency when a vote of the board of directors can not reasonably be obtained”. But the evening ended without a resolution.

USA Hockey president Jim Smith initially resisted the demands of the players.

In the end, the agreement highlighted the power of the women’s commitment to the boycott, and its ability to stretch beyond their sport.