Kudos To The Women, For Sticking Together, To Make Women’s Hockey Better. Extra KOOL With Chris Allen
I have to give women and hand today. There has been a fight for women's hockey to get what men's hockey get. If you look at the women on paper, they have won maybe more of a percentage of their championship games. They are one of the world powers. They have been asking for the same treatment as the men, and up until now, it hasn't happened.
For some reason the USOC has not treated the women the same, so when the women demanded better treatment they were told no, and that there wouldn't be a way to pay for it. The women don't bring in as much money as the men for fundraisers. Why? The women say they don't have any promotion like the men do. The part I don't understand is why can't they just raise money for HOCKEY, both men's and women's hockey.
I talk about what the women did to get this deal done. I just want to say how impressed I am, this took more than the Olympic/World Champion women's team to get this done. It took women!
From the ESPN.com website here are some of the things the women get with their new deal.
• USA Hockey will allocate $950,000 by the final year of the backloaded agreement to a compensation pool for the players.
Previously, USA Hockey paid each member of the women's national team $6,000 for the six-month training residency before each Olympic Games. The other 3½ years, the players' only financial support came in training stipends that the U.S. Olympic Committee provides athletes.
• Until now, those USOC training stipends ranged from $750 for newer members of the women's national hockey team to a cap of $2,000 per month. Going forward, every national team player will get the maximum $2,000 monthly stipend, regardless of her experience level, with USA Hockey making up whatever monthly difference the USOC doesn't pay.
USA Hockey will also pay each national team member an additional $2,000 per month when the new contract kicks in, making each player's base salary $4,000 per month before any bonuses they earn.
• For the first time, USA Hockey will pay the women's team performance bonuses -- $20,000 for a gold medal, $15,000 for silver -- to supplement the five-figure performance bonuses the USOC pays athletes in all sports.
• For the first time, the women's team will receive the same level of travel arrangements and insurance coverage as the men's team. The women's per diem was bumped up from $15 a day for non-travel days at events to $50, the same as the men's.