Sunday, October 26, 2014

Toronto Star: Junior hockey players deserve to be paid decently: Editorial

This subject has been coming to a head in the Canada. I have been following the story a little and frankly this same argument has come up from time-to-time in college sports.

The NCAA has talked about giving their athletes stipends as well. Obviously, that's not a weekly check, but some college are going to hand out a lot more money than $35.00-120.00 a week.
Toronto Star Editorial -- Still, CHL President David Branch argues the players “are amateur student athletes” who are paid an allowance and are eligible for university and college scholarships for their participation in a hockey program.

Really? A hockey “program”?

This isn’t cub camp. The reality is that these are young people (typically 16 to 20 years old) being taken advantage of by an organization that is the main funnel of talent for the enormously wealthy National Hockey League. (The average NHL team was worth $413 million in 2013, according to Forbes.)

Asking the players to work for $35 to $120 per week is like asking managers to work for free until they make the corner office. Their hard work on the way up earns the NHL its profits down the road — never mind the revenues the CHL earns immediately.

Even the promised scholarships are a point of dispute. The claim suggests the conditions to receive one are so onerous that the CHL pays out scholarships for only four players a year, totalling $30,000. The CHL disputes that. It says the Ontario Hockey League alone paid out $2 million in scholarship funding last year.

Loose Pucks an CHL blog is taking issue with the Toronto Star article.

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