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Teh One Who Knocks
03-15-2017, 04:07 PM
Pete Blackburn - FOX Sports


http://i.imgur.com/4u727wW.jpg

The United States women’s hockey team announced on Wednesday morning that they will not participate in the 2017 World Championships due to a dispute with USA Hockey over fair wages.

Negotiations between players and the American program have reportedly been ongoing for about a year, but have stalled recently. Barring any sudden and significant progress in those negotiations this month, the USA won’t be represented at a tournament which they are hosting. (This year’s Worlds is being played in Michigan.)

Members of the women’s team tweeted out uniform statements on Wednesday announcing the boycott and calling for more support.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">US WNT will not play in 2017 World Championship due to stalled negotiations over fair wages and support from USA Hockey <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BeBoldForChange?src=hash">#BeBoldForChange</a> <a href="https://t.co/qEXVyoKE6y">pic.twitter.com/qEXVyoKE6y</a></p>&mdash; Hilary Knight (@Hilary_Knight) <a href="https://twitter.com/Hilary_Knight/status/842012615475888128">March 15, 2017</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
According to a piece from ESPN’s Julie Foudy, the USA’s women’s national team players are only paid $6,000 every four years.


“Out of a four-year cycle, USA Hockey pays for only six months out of an entire four years. They pay us $1,000 per month in those six months. So, for the other 42 months we don’t get paid at all by USA Hockey,” says Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, a two-time Olympic silver medalist. “It is a full-time job and to not get paid is a financial burden and stress on the players, obviously. That is the conversation my husband and I are having right now. Is playing going to be more stress than we can handle? Sadly it becomes a decision between chasing your dream or giving in to the reality of the financial burden.”

This is obviously a bad look for USA Hockey, but it’s also a major development in the world of women’s hockey. The United States has won gold at each of the last three World Championships and has been in the gold medal game every year since the tournament’s inaugural competition in 1990.

The World Championships will get underway March 31 in Plymouth Township, Michigan.

Goofy
03-15-2017, 04:24 PM
Awwww :empathy:

Teh One Who Knocks
03-15-2017, 04:27 PM
Wearing the uniform of your country is a privilege, not something you should hold hostage to try and use to extort money :|

Goofy
03-15-2017, 04:33 PM
I'd pay a lot of money to play for Scotland at any sport!

Teh One Who Knocks
03-15-2017, 04:56 PM
And you know, maybe if women's hockey was an actual popular sport, then they would get paid for it. They can't honestly compare themselves to the men's ice hockey team, all of which play in the NHL and are professional athletes. I'm guessing that USA hockey pays the men the same amount ($1,000/month for the 6 months) if they pay the men anything at all, since they have their NHL salaries and don't need the money.

Muddy
03-15-2017, 05:08 PM
Suit yourselves, stinky.

Teh One Who Knocks
03-15-2017, 05:18 PM
Suit yourselves, stinky.

What sucks is though, we (the United States) are hosting the tournament this year. Will look real great if these whores all boycott the tournament and there's no home team even competing.

Muddy
03-15-2017, 05:21 PM
They are missing the biggest opportunity of their lives..

RBP
03-16-2017, 04:23 AM
What sucks is though, we (the United States) are hosting the tournament this year. Will look real great if these whores all boycott the tournament and there's no home team even competing.

“While USA Hockey is disappointed that players from the Women’s National Team program have said today they do not intend to participate in the upcoming IIHF Women’s World Championship unless their financial demands are met, USA Hockey remains committed to continuing dialogue and will field a competitive team for the upcoming 2017 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Plymouth, Michigan,” USA Hockey said in a statement.

Jim Smith, president of USA Hockey, added that it is not USA Hockey’s role to employ athletes.

“In our role as the national governing body, USA Hockey trains and selects teams for international competition,” said Jim Smith, president of USA Hockey. “USA Hockey’s role is not to employ athletes and we will not do so. USA Hockey will continue to provide world-leading support for our athletes.”

Teh One Who Knocks
03-16-2017, 10:58 AM
“While USA Hockey is disappointed that players from the Women’s National Team program have said today they do not intend to participate in the upcoming IIHF Women’s World Championship unless their financial demands are met, USA Hockey remains committed to continuing dialogue and will field a competitive team for the upcoming 2017 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Plymouth, Michigan,” USA Hockey said in a statement.

Jim Smith, president of USA Hockey, added that it is not USA Hockey’s role to employ athletes.

“In our role as the national governing body, USA Hockey trains and selects teams for international competition,” said Jim Smith, president of USA Hockey. “USA Hockey’s role is not to employ athletes and we will not do so. USA Hockey will continue to provide world-leading support for our athletes.”

I hope they do manage to throw a team together. And I don't care if those women lose every single game, at least they will be there for the right reasons and I will be happy and proud to support them.

Teh One Who Knocks
03-16-2017, 02:36 PM
The bitches on the US Women's National Team are crying that they don't make enough money from USA Hockey, which exists to help with training for the Olympics and other international tournaments, not as an employer for them. They whine about the men getting all the press and advantages and getting paid plenty (of course the women fail to mention that the men are getting paid their salaries by way of the NHL and that they don't need to be paid by USA Hockey). Well, why don't they go out and prove that women's hockey is just as popular as men's hockey and start a professional league? Oh wait, they did, and it sucks. It's in it's 2nd year of existence, there's only 4 teams in the league, they had to cut salaries this year, and attendance is down from the first year (they draw less than 600 people per game this season (according to the NY Times), down from about 1000 per game last year). Meanwhile, the men's game, which they claim they should be treated as equals with, seems to have no problem staying afloat without demanding money from USA Hockey. The NHL had revenues of $4.1 billion USD for the 2015/16 season. It's obvious people like hockey, just not sub-standard women's hockey.

Where Does The NWHL Go From Here? (http://deadspin.com/where-does-the-nwhl-go-from-here-1791350348) Story on Deadspin about the women's league. Hearing these bitches whine makes me actually hate them. :|

Muddy
03-16-2017, 03:02 PM
Economics. They don't get it.

Teh One Who Knocks
03-16-2017, 03:03 PM
The Colorado Avalanche, by far the worst team in the NHL this season, are still averaging 14,916 people per game this year

Teh One Who Knocks
03-16-2017, 04:28 PM
Economics. They don't get it.

http://i.imgur.com/zicEVFK.jpg

Hugh_Janus
03-16-2017, 06:13 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5xRHz8Su6E

Teh One Who Knocks
03-30-2017, 05:41 PM
CNN News Wire


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Members of the U.S. women’s national hockey team have agreed to a four-year labor deal with USA Hockey.

It signals an end to the team’s protest for fair pay, which lasted for more than a week.

The women’s team had vowed to sit out the upcoming International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship games unless it reached a deal.

The games, which the U.S. is hosting, begin on Friday. The team is the defending champion and was supposed to report to training camp last week, but negotiations with USA Hockey faltered.

The women’s players were asking for a $68,000 annual salary as well as benefits such as child care, maternity leave and the ability to compete in more games throughout the year.

The financial terms of the deal weren’t released, but one thing the players got was the formation of a group that will oversee the advancement of girls and women’s hockey.

“We’re extremely excited both sides were able to come to an agreement and compromise,” national team member Monique Lamoureux said after the deal was struck.

“I don’t think either side had to give up major things to make each other happy. USA Hockey is now the leading federation for women’s hockey and hopefully other countries follow suit.”

Fellow teammate Meghan Duggan said the women were confident about defending their IIHF title because the protest had made them that much stronger.

“I feel like it brought a ton of visibility to the sport and woke some people up that women’s hockey is the real deal and deserves to be honored,” Duggan said.

The women, who are ranked No. 1 in the world, also wanted better benefits at IIHF World Championship games. Specifically, they wanted to be able to bring guests to competitions, fly in business class and get disability insurance.

These are all benefits that the male players already get, according to former national team player Anders Lee, who plays for the NHL’s New York Islanders.

Those benefits are also described in player handbooks from 2013 and 2014. The men are ranked fourth in the world.

The deal came a day after members of USA Hockey’s board of directors met to discuss the protest and decide what to do. The board has 91 voting members, 15 of whom are women.

During the protest, the players’ associations of Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NFL and the NHL released statements praising the efforts of the women and encouraging them to stand together.

According to NHL agent Allan Walsh, male pro players were “seriously considering” whether to sit out their IIHF games as well in solidarity with the women.

They also received support from 14 U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Dianne Feinstein, Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, who called on USA Hockey to treat the women’s team fairly.

USA Hockey said from the beginning of the protest that it would field a team to compete in the games — with or without the current members.

However, filling an alternate squad didn’t prove to be easy.

Current team members reached out to alternate players to ask them not to play in the games as a show of solidarity. The women’s team also reached out individually to NCAA coaches and college players to get them on board.

“A lot of people are going to give the 23 people on the roster a lot of credit, but it was really every single person who turned down an invitation and helped spread it on social media,” Lamoureux said.

As USA Hockey struggled to fill a roster for the games, it had to go further down the list to high school players.

On Saturday, two high schoolers, Cayla Barnes and Natalie Snodgrass, tweeted that they’d been approached by USA Hockey and turned down spots on the replacement team.

Barnes is a senior at the New Hampton School in New Hampshire and Snodgrass is a senior at Eastview High School in Minnesota. Both have played on the U.S. women’s national under-18 team.

USA Hockey declined repeated requests for comment.

Teh One Who Knocks
03-30-2017, 05:42 PM
The women’s players were asking for a $68,000 annual salary as well as benefits such as child care, maternity leave and the ability to compete in more games throughout the year.

:facepalm:

Goofy
03-30-2017, 05:45 PM
:yawn:

Teh One Who Knocks
03-30-2017, 05:46 PM
I hope they lose every fucking game, they're a complete and total embarrassment to USA Hockey.

Goofy
03-30-2017, 05:47 PM
Will anyone watch it anyway? :lol:

Teh One Who Knocks
03-30-2017, 05:54 PM
Feminists

Hugh_Janus
03-30-2017, 09:54 PM
I think you'll find they'll be too busy saving the world from men

Teh One Who Knocks
03-31-2017, 10:31 AM
I think you'll find they'll be too busy saving the world from men

:doh: