It will come as no shock that Canadians like hockey. They leave the birth canal donning a jersey – Habs, Buds, Sens, whatever. For most, hockey is more than just a game, not so dissimilar to how Americans feel towards the NFL – and to a lesser extent but still significant, baseball.
It’s unfortunate to note that while the game is still at an all-time high in the country in terms of popularity, the growing expense of playing the game at all levels is quickly escalating, and has been for some time. The cost of ice time, travel expenses and of course rising equipment costs are souring many young parents on putting their kids in the sport at a young age. It’s hard to argue unless you have had the burden of putting a tot through hockey in the recent past.
I, myself, played hockey my entire childhood as many of you fine folks did. I woke up at 6am with my dad ushering me off in the mini van (well, mini vans came later – station wagons and hatchbacks were the thing at the time) on the way to Tim Horton’s to grab his caffeine fix that would see him through the next 60 minutes of watching me and my comrades fall all over the ice. It was fun for me, and he has admitted in later years it was some of his most memorable moments in his life too.
Hockey wasn’t cheap then – not like t-ball (baseball, but the ball rests on a pipe and… oh, nevermind) or soccer – but it was at least affordable. But those escalating costs have created quite the burden, and now I, as a 35-year-old father of two boys ages 2 and 4, am faced with the decision: hockey or not?
I’m leaning towards “not”, as un-Canadianlike as that may be. It’s not really the money necessarily as I won’t complain about my income when so many are starving, displaced, etc. It’s not even the waking up early and driving to the arena – that, I would look forward to. It’s become part and parcel of a much larger issue I see that perhaps not everyone shares, and I’m willing to accept finger-pointing. Hockey has changed.
This might sound strange, but if you are reading this and are over the age of, oh, say 20 years old, I bet you dollars to cents that you have seen a dramatic shift in how many kids play hockey. Better yet, if you are reading this and have kids of your own, think back to your own childhood and ask yourself this important question: do kids still play street hockey?
I don’t know about you, but as a kid there were numerous street hockey games in the neighbourhood I grew up in. The area I live in now is a newer neighbourhood, about the same level of affluence, the same age of houses, yet for whatever reason I have not seen one single street hockey game in my neighbourhood in 2 years living here (with the exception of the kid down the street who looks to be a lock for the junior hockey- this kid can fire a puck! He shoots on his net every day still). Honestly, not one.
Is my neighbourhood the exception, both then and now? Perhaps. Perhaps I am in left field somewhere in a t-ball game I didn’t know I was a part of.
Look, I didn’t mean this diatribe to be anything more than a discussion of the fact that my kids got Team Canada zambonis in their Happy Meals last week (not sure if Canadian girls also get the zamboni. If so, comment below). I was happy. Very happy. I felt quite nostalgic, hence this 10-minute long wordy bit. I love hockey, as you do. I always wanted my kids to play the game, and to an extent I still do. But I just wanted to highlight the battle parents today are facing regarding the sport.
So, next time you hit a McD’s, consider ordering a Happy Meal, just for the zamboni.
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