USA women’s hockey to sit out World Championship over wage dispute

This, for lack of better words, is a big freaking deal, and not just because Team USA is sitting out of the biggest worldwide contest besides the Olympics. That has led USA Hockey to reportedly seek players for an “alternative team”, according to a release from the US Women’s National team.

“For us, we’ve gone back and forth with USA Hockey the last 12-16 months”. I don’t think they saw us seriously as a united front asking for equitable support, and now we’re holding out for our home-based World Championships.

The women’s national team is being represented pro bono in its negotiations by Ballard Spahr.

At the center of the debate are players’ wages and The Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act.

“We want to play”, team captain Meghan Duggan told HuffPost on Wednesday.

University of DE junior forward Taylor Lister has been invited to participate in a trial at the USA Field Hockey Developmental Squad’s training camp, which is slated to take place this coming weekend at Duke University. Those developmental programs are not in place for girls.

“We have heard that USA Hockey is attempting to field an alternative team to play in the World Championship games”, the statement reads. Right now, we play only nine games per year, compared to 60 for the men’s team. Currently, players only sign contracts for one year.

The wage dispute mirrors one in women’s soccer. She explained to ELLE.com that their fight is about not just money, but also ensuring that USA Hockey supports young girls interested in hockey the same way they support young boys.

But players said the protest is about much more than their individual circumstances.

USA, the reigning world champions, say they have been consistently rebuffed in their efforts to receive a fair and just pay offer from USA Hockey, so they won’t be reporting to training camp next Wednesday unless a deal is struck. Last year, the World Cup-winning national team filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging wage discrimination by the United States federation. The team was also supposed to start a training camp on March 21, but that might now be up in the air. There’s a lot of time between now and the Olympics, but is the team willing to not participate in Pyeongchang?

The US team has been drawn in Group A, along with Canada, who they have beaten in the previous three gold medal matches, Russian Federation and Finland at the IIHF World Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.

“To be honest, something like this has been in the works since the early 2000s”, said Duggan. “It’s the last thing we want to do – to forgo representing our country – but were are backed into a corner”.

And so it’s clear, Lamoureux-Davidson and her teammates don’t want to be missing the World Championship, they don’t want to miss an opportunity to defend their title in front of home fans and they didn’t want it to come to this.

“In our role as the national governing body, USA Hockey trains and selects teams for worldwide competition”, said Jim Smith, president of USA Hockey.

Preliminary round games involving the United States are slated for 7:30 p.m. March 31 against Canada, 3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 1 against Russian Federation; 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 3 against Finland.