As a minor hockey coach for seven years it’s clear to me that Canada’s national pastime is just not catching on with new Canadians. A quick scan of the locker room will show that players are almost exclusively white.
This may be why the projected figures for minor hockey registration in the country, according to Hockey Canada, are so grim. In just one decade they expect to lose 200,000 players.
It’s why the organization is launching a new marketing blitz in 12 different languages, targeting Canada’s ethnic communities and First Nations, both rapidly growing demographics. The organization expects to drop from 560,000 registered players to just 360,000, unless current trends are reversed.
Besides the traditional French and English versions, the brochures will be printed in Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Cree, German, Inuktitut, Italian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish and Tagalog.
Reaching out with brochures in Cantonese, Arabic and a host of other languages is exactly what Hockey Canada needs to do.
But I fear that the organization is trying to stop the flood after the dam has burst.
In the 1950s, Canada was largely a white society, operating in English and French. Marketing that exclusively targeted these two groups was sufficient. But Canada has seen drastic changes since then, opening its door to people seeking opportunity from around the world.
Companies, organizations and governments have adapted to these changes. Bank machines now offer several languages. Political parties run ads in foreign-language newspapers and make efforts to showcase strong minority candidates.
The 2006 census shows that visible minorities make up 16 per cent of the population. But this figure is expected to grow due to much higher birth rates in new Canadians and increased immigration.Why then has Hockey Canada been operating like it’s stuck in the 1950s?
According to Statistics Canada, soccer now is by far the most played sport by Canadian youth, experiencing large increases in the last decade. Competing with the world’s most popular sport will be hard as players need only a pair of shoes and shin pads and they are ready to play. Meanwhile suiting up your child for hockey can easily cost over $1,000 with basic equipment.
And most new Canadians come from countries where the beautiful game is already firmly entrenched in their sporting culture.
Besides their current initiative, Hockey Canada must seek new and innovative ways to win over new players. This could be done through an ambassador program that would showcase junior hockey players from diverse backgrounds that matured with the Canadian minor hockey system in promotional material.
Nazem Kadri – a first-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs and a practicing Muslim – is the kind of player who could court Arab-Canadians who have traditionally not been attracted to hockey in large numbers.
Meanwhile, the NHL and major junior leagues should make greater efforts to gain coverage in foreign-language media outlets. The CBC’s Punjabi broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada has been a ratings success that minor hockey associations in the Toronto-area have credited with boosting participation in the Sikh community.
The upper echelons of the hockey world are a change-averse, old boys club.
But if hockey is to survive as Canada’s premier sport, the leaders will need to change the way they do things. Hopefully the registration numbers will be their wakeup call.