URL: http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/sports/970330SPB1b_SP-FINANCE30.html

JOHN MAHLER / TORONTO STAR
DRESSED FOR SUCCESS: Canadian team member Geraldine Heaney models new
line of women's hockey equipment, a whole new market for
manufacturers. Canadian women hockey players cash in on their success

Women's team finally getting its just rewards

By Randy Starkman - Toronto Star Sports Reporter

Coming soon to a sporting goods store near you: the Geraldine Heaney
hockey stick.

After years of digging deeply into their own pockets to play the game
they love, Canada's women's hockey players are finally starting to
attract some sponsor interest.

Being named an official Olympic sport for the 1998 Winter Games at
Nagano, Japan, will do that.

Young girls across the country soon being able to purchase a brand of
hockey stick endorsed by Heaney - a star on defence who is regarded as
``the Bobby Orr of women's hockey'' - demonstrates how equipment
companies now recognize a whole new market.

``I guess until I actually go into a store and see one there, I try
not to think too much about it,'' said Heaney, one of the key players
in Canada's bid for a fourth consecutive world women's championship
title this week in Kitchener. ``It's exciting. It's good to see and
it's good to see how it's growing.

``A lot of companies want to get involved with the Olympics because
it's such a big event. This is the fourth world championship. The
world championships have helped out tremendously, but with it being an
Olympic sport it takes it a step further.''

Marketing opportunities are definitely new ground for the women's
team. Until now, one of the main means of fundraising has been using
personalities such as hockey commentator Don Cherry to front their
efforts.

Cherry thinks the women have been getting a very raw deal.

``I've been called the chauvinist pig of all time, but the way they've
been treated isn't right,'' he said. ``I wish more corporations would
get behind them. Somebody should take the ball and run with it.

``One of the guys said they expect them (the women's team) to stand
out on the street selling apples. They've got to sell my shirt to make
money. No doubt about it, they've been ignored. Corporate sponsors
don't seem to want to get behind them for some reason.''

Cherry pointed out the different worlds inhabited by the men's and
women's national hockey teams.

``What bothers me is - and I'm not knocking the male Olympic team -
but millions are being spent on them and none of them are going to be
on the team,'' said Cherry, of the touring men's national team.
``They're going around playing and the NHL guys will be on (the team
in Nagano).''

The remarkable thing is the women hockey players don't appear to give
a hoot about the money. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly.

``We don't want too much (money), either, because the reason we're
here is to play hockey,'' Heaney said. ``It's just a bonus. With the
men's hockey, they get paid so much money they're not even out there
to play. They don't play with the heart they probably used to when
they were first trying to make the team.

``I think that's the difference between the female game and the men's
game at the pro level. We play with a lot more heart. We're there
because we love the game. They're there because they get the huge
contracts and that's all they're always fighting about. I would never
like to see that happen with women's hockey with sponsorships.''

As Canadian Hockey vice-president Bob Nicholson noted, ``It's a clean,
interesting attitude, isn't it? It's sport alone that they're
interested in.''

Still, things are developing quickly and it's hoped that increased
sponsorship will help the players offset the financial sacrifices they
must make to chase their Olympic dream, which include losing their
jobs or taking unpaid leaves.

Nicholson said about seven or eight players on the women's team have
sponsorships with hockey equipment companies so far and that number
should rise to 12 by the end of the tournament. Most of the deals are
worth from $5,000 to $10,000.

Those selected for the Canadian Olympic team will assemble in Calgary
in September and stay together through the Winter Games in Nagano next
February. They will receive between $15,000 and $18,000 each from
Canadian Hockey.

Heaney actually took less money than Nike was offering her to sign an
equipment deal with Louisville, because they're the frontrunners right
now in terms of producing hockey equipment specifically designed for
females.

``They're (Louisville) going into it quick, but Nike and Bauer are
coming hard,'' Nicholson said. ``When those companies start to produce
equipment, they do promotion, too, which should also have an impact on
our numbers.''

Those numbers right now are about 30,000 females playing hockey in
Canada compared to about 550,000 males. Nicholson anticipates those
numbers to double for women because of the Olympic involvement.

``There's going to be a huge explosion in the next 12 months,'' he
said. ``We started to see it at the Three Nations Tournament recently
in the Ottawa area. Now, the young kids have role models and have
dreams.

``That's what's been so positive on the men's side. You see kids out
in the driveway wearing the sweaters of Wayne Gretzky, Paul Kariya or
Mario Lemieux. Now, we're starting to see young girls with (Hayley)
Wickenheiser and Heaney and (Cassie) Campbell's name on their
sweaters.''

Keith McIntyre, of the marketing firm K. Mac and Associates in
Mississauga, is working with players such as Heaney, Campbell and
Vicky Sunohara and the national team to develop fully integrated
sponsorship programs.

McIntyre, who worked with Mark Messier and Frito Lay recently on a
successful TV advertising campaign, said there will likely be some
cross promotions with the men's team as well.

``There's not enough female athletes out there to be marketed,''
McIntyre said. ``If you go back and take a look at all the Atlanta
programs all the sponsors ran, there's a real niche for building
programs using women.

``You can educate very quickly because hockey's big. The second thing
is that the female market as a group as a purchaser is very relevant
to a lot of these corporations and this is what female hockey can
deliver. If we can address those two points, we've got a winning
program.''

Sunohara, a centre from Scarborough, knows how difficult the balancing
act can be for players on the national team. She puts in a 40- to
50-hour work week as a lab technician at Cott Beverages in Mississauga
and also works part-time as an instructor at Ice Sports in Etobicoke.

The 26-year-old said her supervisors are pretty understanding about
the time off she needs for major tournaments, but not all her
teammates are as fortunate.

``Some people have companies that are very supportive and even pay
them for the time that they're away and then there's others who have
been working at the same job for years and they may have to actually
resign from their positions or quit and that's just ridiculous,''
Sunohara said.

``It's not just a pickup hockey game or hockey tournament; this is
playing for your country at the Olympics. It shouldn't even be an
issue. But it is. It's just incredible.''

Colin MacKenzie, president of the perennial powerhouse North York
Aeros, a winner of nine of the past 10 Ontario titles, said companies
have a double standard when it comes to female hockey players.

``When it comes to their work, nobody can understand the level of
hockey they play at so they can literally lose a job when they go to a
national championship,'' MacKenzie said.

``Whereas, if it was a guy, they'd throw a party for him before he
left, they'd pay him when he was gone and they'd throw a party for him
when he got home.''

(c) 1997 Toronto Star