On April 7, in Group B of the 2019 IIHF Women's Ice Hockey World Championship, the Chinese team (white clothes) and the South Korean team (blue clothes) competed. China Youth Daily·China Youth Online reporter Cixin/Photo by
During the Qingming Festival holiday, the Shougang Ice Hockey Arena located in the Shougang Park in the western suburbs of Beijing was extremely busy. The 2019 IIHF Women's Ice Hockey World Championship Class A Group B game was being held here. It attracted a large audience, including many children. In Beijing, the city with the best development of youth ice hockey in the country, it is rare for young ice hockey players to watch high-level ice hockey events up close.
The Chinese women's ice hockey team , which plays at home, has won two games in a row so far and has lived up to the audience's expectations. But for Chinese women's ice hockey, if they want to win a medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, they obviously cannot be satisfied with participating in the World Championships, Group A, Group B (Group A It belongs to the third level in the competition system). To this end, Chinese women's ice hockey has taken some measures to improve its level in the past two years, including investing a lot of manpower and material resources to participate in the Canadian Women's Hockey League . However, the league suddenly announced its suspension 10 days ago.
The "Death" of the CWHL
The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL for short in English) officially issued an announcement on March 31, announcing that the league will cease operations from May 1 due to operational difficulties. The CWHL stated in a press briefing that "the league's business The CWHL is far less well-known than the NHL, one of the four major professional leagues in the United States, but in the international women's ice hockey community, it is currently the only two major players in the world. One of the women's professional ice hockey leagues (the other is the NWHL in the United States), many world-class women's ice hockey players play for CWHL teams.
The suspension of the CWHL will undoubtedly have a great impact on the development of international women's ice hockey. There are many reasons for the suspension of the league, but one thing that cannot be ignored is that funds from China may be the many reasons that lead to the "death" of the league. one.
On the one hand, the league officially announced that the league was unsustainable due to operating difficulties. On the other hand, it was said that the intervention of Chinese funds became one of the inducements for the suspension of the league. What is going on with these two seemingly contradictory statements?
This started in June 2017, when the CWHL officially announced that it would absorb Chinese teams into the league.
On June 5, 2017, the CWHL, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association and the Beijing Kunlun Red Star Hockey Club officially announced at the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame that two teams from China will join the CWHL, and the home stadiums of both teams are located in Shenzhen.
In Canada, where ice hockey is the national sport, the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame is the highest hall of Canadian ice hockey. Announcing a matter related to a foreign ice hockey team here is also a rare scene in the history of Canadian ice hockey. It is obvious that this major hockey event that caused a sensation in Canada cannot be separated from the promotion of Chinese funds.
CWHL was founded in 2007. It was originally an amateur women's ice hockey league in North America. Before the two Chinese teams joined, the five participating teams of CWHL (4 teams in Canada and 1 team in the United States) did not have clear player salary standards. The vast majority of participating players are amateur ice hockey players, and only a few star players can receive stable but not very high subsidies from the league.
CWHL has attracted two Chinese teams to join, and the Chinese team's home stadium is in Shenzhen, making CWHL actually a cross-continental league, moving faster than the four major professional leagues in North America. But this was followed by a significant increase in operating costs. China paid a lot of money to CWHL for this.
CWHL also has the economic foundation to pay salaries to all players after the Chinese team joined and received Chinese funds. Starting from the 2017-2018 season, the CWHL will pay each player a salary ranging from 2,000 yuan to 10,000 Canadian dollars (approximately RMB 10,000 to 50,000 yuan) every year based on the player's strength. According to a report by ESPN in the United States, some players said that this salary standard is not enough to maintain the players' basic life. Therefore, the vast majority of players have another job.But from the CWHL's perspective, providing stable income for all players also means it has become a professional league.
However, the wages provided to players by China's two teams (the two teams merged into one starting from last season: Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star Vanke Sunshine Team) are much higher than the CWHL salary standards. According to industry insiders, the annual salary provided by Chinese teams to players is approximately 50,000 Canadian dollars (approximately 250,000 yuan), which has caused a huge gap in player salaries between Chinese teams under the CWHL and other teams. In the short term, the CWHL does not have the ability to bridge the salary gap between teams.
When Chinese teams joined the CWHL in 2017, the CWHL saw this as an opportunity for the league to achieve greater development. China has indeed provided more funds to the CWHL, but after transforming into a professional league, the CWHL must also seek more sponsorships to meet the higher costs required by the league.
Unfortunately, in ice hockey, where men's ice hockey is absolutely dominant, despite the rapid development of women's ice hockey in the world, the attention and commercial value of women's ice hockey are still limited.
In addition, industry insiders said that the CWHL has only been established for 12 years and has been an amateur league before. Its league operation and business development capabilities are also flawed. Some players have criticized the CWHL for not doing enough publicity and promotion.
In addition, there is also competition between the two major women's ice hockey professional leagues in North America. The two major leagues must compete for resources in a limited market space. An Associated Press report last October stated that in the long term, a merger of the two major women's hockey professional leagues in North America will be inevitable.
Taking into account the actual environment of women's ice hockey in the world, some people in the industry pointed out that obtaining the team's qualification to participate in the CWHL will help the CWHL transform from an amateur league to a professional league at a greater cost. This move may go against the current situation of women's ice hockey. development rules. However, according to reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Online, Kunlun Red Star is trying to push the CWHL to return to normal as soon as possible, or find other leagues to ensure that the Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star women's team can continue to participate in the international high-level women's ice hockey league.
The Winter Olympics dream of Chinese women’s ice hockey
Ice hockey is the only collective ball event in the Winter Olympics. It attracts high attention and has huge influence. However, Chinese men’s ice hockey is far from the world’s first-class level. The Chinese men’s ice hockey team can be recognized by the international The Ice Hockey Federation's special approval to qualify for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is already a historical breakthrough. However, at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, facing strong teams that are far superior to their own, the Chinese men's ice hockey team can score a goal. It should be victory. Therefore, the fourth place in women's ice hockey at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics has become the hope for Chinese ice hockey to go further in the 2022 Winter Olympics. The earliest goal set by the Chinese Ice Hockey Association for Chinese women's ice hockey was to "secure medals and compete for gold" in the Winter Olympics. Although the current goal has been lowered, international women's ice hockey has developed rapidly while Chinese women's ice hockey has stagnated or even regressed for many years. Against the backdrop of the epidemic, it is also difficult for Chinese women's ice hockey to complete the tasks of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Compared with the world men's ice hockey, which has been professionalized for more than 100 years, the world women's ice hockey has only reached its peak of development in the past 20 years.
The Canadian Women's Hockey League CWHL was founded in 2007, and the American Women's Hockey Professional League NWHL was founded in 2015. They are both products of the rapid development of women's ice hockey in the world in the past 20 years.
A survey in the United States shows that in the 10 years since the U.S. women's team won the women's ice hockey championship at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002, the number of registered women's ice hockey players in the United States increased from 7,000 to more than 70,000. 10 Years have increased 10 times.
The development environment of women's ice hockey in the entire world has undergone earth-shaking changes since the Chinese women's team won fourth place in the Winter Olympics in 1998. However, the Chinese women's ice hockey movement has not changed much in the past 20 years.
Currently, there are less than 100 female ice hockey players in the country. When national teams at all levels are formed, there is basically not much room for choice in selecting athletes because there are only so many people to choose from.China's women's ice hockey still uses professional teams as the main training unit for talent, but insufficient staffing has long plagued local professional teams. When the 2017 Asian Winter Games was held in Sapporo, Japan, more than half of the members of the Chinese women's ice hockey national team at that time did not have staff.
Low remuneration and poor conditions have always been a true reflection of the living conditions of the Chinese women's professional ice hockey team.
Therefore, the fourth place in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics is still the highest honor for Chinese women's ice hockey. After that, with the development of women's ice hockey in various countries around the world, China's women's ice hockey performance in international competitions generally showed a downward trend. In Salt Lake City in 2002 and Vancouver in 2010, the Chinese women's ice hockey team ranked seventh in the Winter Olympics twice. However, in the three Winter Olympics in 2006, 2014 and 2018, the Chinese women's ice hockey team failed to qualify. In Asia, Chinese women's ice hockey used to be the dominant player in Asia. However, in the past 20 years, the gap with Japan's women's ice hockey has become wider and wider. Currently, they are no longer on the same level as Japan's women's ice hockey.
The internal and external environment is so severe. If the Chinese women's ice hockey team wants to achieve ideal results at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, they must come up with some practical and effective methods.
It is against this background that in 2017, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association cooperated with Kunlun Red Star to form two teams to participate in the CWHL by co-building the national women's ice hockey team.
But as Canada’s women’s ice hockey league, why does the CWHL want to admit Chinese teams? Chinese funds are undoubtedly the best stepping stone.
Since the overall level of Chinese women's ice hockey is still far behind Canada and the United States, there are actually only a few Chinese players in the teams participating in the CWHL. After the two Chinese teams merged into one team last year, there were only eight Chinese players in the team, and only two or three of them could play as the absolute main players.
The treatment of Chinese players who can participate in the CWHL has been qualitatively improved. As mentioned above, the annual salary of the members of the Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star team is about 250,000 yuan. Compared with the usual monthly salary of about 3,000 yuan for the members of the local professional women's ice hockey team in China, the salary of the players has increased several times. If compared to Compared with those Chinese female ice hockey players who are not organized, the treatment is even more different. Even comparing players from other CWHL teams, it can be seen that the salary level of Chinese teams is the highest.
According to Sun Rui, a former national player of the Chinese Women’s Hockey Team who worked in the management of Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star after retiring, for Chinese athletes, the process of participating in the CWHL is also to experience and learn the ice hockey culture of developed countries. More advanced hockey concepts, technical and tactical processes. It can be seen from the game performance that in the past two years, the abilities of Chinese players participating in the CWHL, especially the main players, have improved to a great extent.
Chinese female ice hockey veteran Bai Wei, who plays for Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star, told reporters that she has gained a lot in the past two years of participating in the CWHL, and it is indeed valuable to train on such a high-level event platform.
However, since most domestic female ice hockey players are not in the Shenzhen Kunlun Red Stars, they do not have the opportunity to enjoy high salaries and get training in the CWHL. On the one hand, this is because the CWHL is still a relatively high platform for most domestic female ice hockey players, and they cannot get sufficient competition opportunities in the CWHL at their level; on the other hand, it is also because each local team and training team has its own training and Game plan. However, in terms of improving the overall level of Chinese women's ice hockey, the actual effect of China's huge cost in promoting Chinese teams to participate in the CWHL will be compromised.
How to Dance with Wolves
Two years ago, the CWHL announced the joining of the Chinese team at the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame. Many people at the scene still recalled that China brought funds to the CWHL, and the Chinese team won high-level competitions. tickets, but who would have thought that in just two years, the CWHL would come to an end due to money problems.
A person in the domestic ice hockey industry told a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Online that whether it is evaluating the overall benefits of Chinese women’s ice hockey due to Chinese teams joining the CWHL, or looking at the reasons and results of the forced suspension of the CWHL, The Chinese Ice Hockey Association, related companies and even the entire Chinese ice hockey community should reflect on the fact that the healthy development of a sports project requires funds, but not all desired results can be achieved with money. The development of sports requires respecting the objective laws of sports. .
China's ice hockey has a weak foundation and poor foundation, and athletes' salaries are generally low. However, in recent years, youth ice hockey training has become popular in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and the income of youth ice hockey coaches can easily reach a monthly salary of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. Therefore, many athletes in their prime or with great potential for development have retired early, and the ice hockey team has suffered a serious brain drain. I believe this was the original intention of the Chinese Ice Hockey Association and related companies to retain people with high salaries.
Not only does Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star offer higher salaries to its female ice hockey players, but the Kunlun Red Star men's team also uses high salaries to try to attract athletes from other domestic sports teams.
However, the development of a sports project cannot only have one team. When Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star was famous for its high salary in CWHL, in the end, the operation of the league was unsustainable. The entire league collapsed. How could Shenzhen Kunlun Red Star survive alone? ? When the Kunlun Red Star men's team "poached" players from other teams in China with high salaries, the talents that other teams had worked hard to cultivate for more than ten years were lost. How could these teams be willing to continue to cultivate talents? If there are fewer and fewer talent training units, it will be Chinese ice hockey that will suffer in the end.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is approaching day by day. As ice hockey is the most watched sport at the Winter Olympics, one can imagine the performance pressure on the Chinese men's and women's ice hockey teams.
In order to improve the strength of the team as soon as possible, it is also a feasible way for Chinese ice hockey to adopt the "Dances with Wolves" method commonly used in international sports exchanges, but it must be targeted.
For example, how to determine a standard for improving athlete treatment that can be achieved on a larger scale, how to ensure that more Chinese athletes can get training, and how to smooth the relationship between the "Dances with Wolves" team and domestic local teams. relationships, how to choose the most suitable foreign event platform and truly achieve a win-win situation for both China and foreign countries.
In fact, there have been many Chinese sports teams that have come in and out in recent years, and some teams have achieved staged success. For example, the Chinese women's softball national team jointly established by the China Softball Association and Shougang Sports has become a national team. The women's softball team went to the United States to participate in the National Professional Baseball League (NPF). It has achieved good results in terms of the overall benefit of the team and the promotion of Sino-US sports exchanges.
But "Dances with Wolves" is, after all, a short-term method. If a sports project wants to develop in the long term, it also needs to establish a long-term strategy. 2022 should not be the ultimate goal of Chinese ice hockey.
Li Taimin, the former Korean head coach of the Chinese women’s ice hockey team, told the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Online in Beijing during the Women’s World Ice Hockey Championship: “The fundamental problem of Chinese women’s ice hockey is the need to establish a healthy development system. Just focusing on providing individual players with opportunities to participate in high-level leagues cannot solve the root cause. "
Li Taimin said that in fact, there is a very good example in Asia, and the development experience of Japanese women's ice hockey is worth learning from. .
Japanese ice hockey, including women's ice hockey, starts from the establishment of a 10-year development plan, including the most grassroots ice hockey promotion plan, youth ice hockey sports development plan, establishing and improving the school ice hockey league, and then providing training for the highest level ice hockey players. and competition opportunities, etc. Such a development plan is difficult to see results in the short term, but it can give real vitality to a country's originally backward sports projects. At present, the Japanese team has left the Chinese team, the original hegemon of Asian women's ice hockey, far behind. It is the only team in Asia to enter the top group of the Women's Ice Hockey World Championship. In fact, the rise of Japanese women's ice hockey only took more than ten years.
This newspaper, Beijing, April 8
China Youth Daily·China Youth Online reporter Cixin Source: China Youth Daily
