Make Hockey More Inclusive

There is a ton of issues surrounding the sport of hockey. A lot of these issues have been around for many years, and nobody wanted to do anything about it. One of the main issues that can be changed is to make hockey a more inclusive sport for everyone around the world. Hockey is a fascinating sport that should be enjoyed by anyone who wishes to. Over the years, hockey has gotten the sour nickname "an old boys club" which honestly is painfully truthful. The main demographic of people that are able to play hockey is boys who come from families who do not have to worry about financial issues or never have to. Over the past recent years, there has been pushback to include everyone in hockey that wishes. including people of color and the LGBTQ community. One of the main things that needs to change with the glorious sport is the pricing on everything about it. It needs to be less expensive. I played the sport for a long time, so I know how financially exhausting it can be on families who do not exactly have the financial stability as others. Equipment needs to be a lot cheaper. Hockey is the sport where the player wears the most equipment in the world. You would think because of this the equipment would be cheaper, but that is just not the case. Here is an example, suppose you have a kid that hit a growth spurt and is in dire need of every article of new equipment. This would cost over 1500 dollars and possibly range closer to 2000 dollars. Keep in mind this is just for the equipment alone. This does not allow for a certain wealth demographic to allow their children to try something new because of how insanely expensive it is. That is not even the worst part. If your child wants to be a goaltender, the equipment is almost double the price as the gear for a skater. This is just appealing for any average parent what so ever. Secondly, the cost of enrollment for hockey is extremely expensive as well. I understand that for a team to rent ice every week is pretty expensive, but the price to play is just not acceptable. For the lowest level league in Illinois, the average cost to enroll a player in the organization is around 1500 dollars. When the average parent thinks this, they do not know how to break it to their child that they cannot afford for them to play hockey. Now take the price of equipment plus the price to enroll a child in the sport with an organization. For the average American, this is not financially feasible, and it is very sad to see. If we want hockey to be more inclusive, something has to change drastically with the pricing of the sport. It is just insane how the cost of a new stick is around 300 dollars just for a stick! Another way to make hockey more inclusive is to ensure every group of human beings feels safe and comfortable playing the sport that is loved around the world. Over the past couple of years, the National Hockey League has been launching an initiative that is called "Hockey Is For Everyone". Basically, they are trying to be more inclusive while telling members of the LGBTQ community that there is no shame if they want to play the wonderful sport. I can say this campaign has for sure motivated some members of the community to come play the game. It has been very powerful. It has also allowed some players to finally be who they are. It was not really accepted in hockey that is why part of the reason hockey had the nickname "the old boys club" I mentioned earlier in this. Players at the pro and semi pro level have been finally comfortable to come out with their sexuality being role models for hockey players who are too timid to do the same because of the culture hockey has. In addition to this initiative, the National Hockey League has seen an eight percent growth in viewership over the course of about two years. We can say the sport is starting to feel inclusive. Finally, another way we can solve the exclusivity issue in hockey is to combat any racism. Hockey in its history has been predominantly played by the Caucasian ethnic group. This can be intimidating for other groups who want to try out the sport. The National Hockey League has done a good job by trying to combat racism in the sport and ensure that it is known the league and the sport will not stand for it. Racism in the sport is there at all levels not just the pro level. When I was younger, I had a teammate who came from a Latino heritage. Over the course of our season, he would hear a lot of rude slurs about his ethnicity that were meant to emotionally hurt him. When the referees of the games heard it, those players would receive misconduct penalties. But the officials rarely heard these slurs being tossed around. Although he would not let the comments get to him, I know there are kids around North America who have received similar slurs about their race and it impacted them negatively. Leagues all around North America need to have more strict punishments for those who decide to be evil and make fun of someone for their ethnicity. We have seen some semi pro players receive lifetime bans for some terrible racial remarks they have made. I do believe people deserve a second chance, but there is no room for racism in hockey. Overall, inclusivity in hockey is on the rise as it should be. Every kid should get the chance to play the game without issue if they wish. To make hockey a more inclusive sport, we need to make the cost of the game cheaper and let everyone know that the sport is for everyone to play.

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) --> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-MTCGXWF89Q"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-MTCGXWF89Q'); </script>