FIRS World Championships/ World Games

[Dean Portman]

My first question is how does AAU own the rights to picking the team to send to FIRS and World Games?

Secondly. I heard a few interesting facts about trying out for the FIRS team. You have to pay for your flight to Colorado. You have to pay like 300 for tryouts and to stay at the Olympic Training Center. Then, you have to pay for your flight to Philadelphia for the practices before the tournament. You have to pay for a hotel and food in Philly while the team practices. Then you go to Italy. When you get back you have to pay for your flight home.

Then you have to fly to California for practice before World Games. You have to pay for your flight, hotel, and food in California. Then you go to Taiwan. The team gets back from Taiwan and then you have to pay for your flight home.

I mean lets be serious. The people that tryout and don't make the IIHF team still get their flights reimbursed. It is supposed to be a huge honor to play for your country. It is the highest achievement in our sport to play for your national team, and AAU is expecting a commitment of thousands of dollars for the players to do so. I just don't understand it. I know there are AIHL and PIHA teams out there that take care of their athletes better than this. Why can't a organization that calls themselves the NGB open its pocketbooks for an international competition that they have won so many times. It just doesnt make sense to me.

[PGHhockey]

When you say you "heard" this information - how credible was the source?

I'm absolutely not saying I don't believe you, I'm just thinking that you'd almost have to call the team "Team USA Rich Kids" if all of this is true and there are no AAU/USARS contributions, corporate sponsorships, or fundraising opportunities.

Certainly there has to be some contribution from AAU/USARS.

It's also rare that any travel team has zero corporate sponsorship or fundraisers.

I know a lot of people on this board love AAU, a lot of people hate AAU, and a lot of people couldn't care less - and I don't fall into any of those categories. But, I'm certain that there's more to the story.

[Dean Portman]

Ive heard from multiple people around rinks in a couple different parts of the country in the past two or three weeks. Ive heard that the international flights, hotels and meals are taken care of, but as far as the tryouts go, if you want to play you essentially have to book 3-4 domestic round trip flights and take care of hotels and food on your own (except for the stay at the training center.)

I'm not really pointing fingers.. I'm really just looking for some clarification on the things I've heard... If it is true, I think that its really asking for a HUGE financial commitment from the athletes.

[ianmackie]

Did you try contacting the actual people that will answer this? That may get you the answers you need.

Are you trying out this year Dean?

[Mlrhnorthfan]

I have been at the WC's the last two summers and I can say that USARS takes care of the US athletes for men and women in the most professional and caring manner.

The accomodations etc are top notch and equivalent or better than most other countries.

In addition, most other countries have to pay for EVERYTHING. Canada mens and womens, Finland, Signapore, and others all have their athletes pay in full for the trip.


Do you think that maybe requiring that athletes arrange for transportation to the Olympic training center and to the leaving site is a way to ensure that only the most dedicated/serious individuals will attempt to try out for the team?

What if USARS booked flights for 100 men/women for tryouts and 20 of them canceled and didnt show up? USARS would be out the tickets, the $ paid for room and board at the training center, etc.

even worse, what if, on the day of the flights to the games, players dont show?

maybe this is a way of USARS making sure that interested athletes have a stake in the process.

As I said, i dont know how it all works but I have seen it in action first hand and FIRS/USARS is a class at with its team members at the WC's.

[Hockeydevil29]

Matt I don't know where you get all of your info from or what you base comparisons to. I do know from reading almost everything you post on here that whenever AAU, AIHL, or now FIRS comes up your one of the new little foot soldiers who comes running to the rescue.

You are right however that players need to be committed, I agree with you 100%. And I don't see anything wrong with players paying for their flights to the tryouts. I do think there could be rooms set up for attending players however. But for players that already make the team to have to pay for their flights to practice and then pay for their hotel stays...come on that has nothing to do with commitment. I know plenty of players here from Missouri that have played for this team or the one through USAHIL. Obviously both are a great honor. I also know last year the FIRS team won first place and magically there was no prize money when in the past there always was. Definitely some weird stuff going on lately...

[Dean Portman]

I don't have an issue with paying to get to the tryouts or even paying for the tryout. But when you stack 3 other round trip flights plus hotels on top of that $600+ that is when I feel its getting a little ridiculous. Youre really shelling out a lot of cash...

and Ian, I guess well just have to wait and see.. ;)

[quick_dry]

In addition, most other countries have to pay for EVERYTHING. Canada mens and womens, Finland, Signapore, and others all have their athletes pay in full for the trip.
definitely true, it is costing us (Aussie team) around 5-6k AUD each to go to Milan, we pay the full way every year.


As I said, i dont know how it all works but I have seen it in action first hand and FIRS/USARS is a class at with its team members at the WC's.
well..... the tournament transportation last year was a shambles, similarly the lack of a tournament director at the rink all the time wasn't good enough.

I don't know the funding that USARS/AAU gets, but IIHF kicks money down to the inline world championship teams - FIRS doesn't.

Don't most otehr fringe sports pay for their trips away? (I'd love it if we were all fully covered, but I don't think we're in the minority)

[Mlrhnorthfan]

Matt I don't know where you get all of your info from or what you base comparisons to. I do know from reading almost everything you post on here that whenever AAU, AIHL, or now FIRS comes up your one of the new little foot soldiers who comes running to the rescue.

You are right however that players need to be committed, I agree with you 100%. And I don't see anything wrong with players paying for their flights to the tryouts. I do think there could be rooms set up for attending players however. But for players that already make the team to have to pay for their flights to practice and then pay for their hotel stays...come on that has nothing to do with commitment. I know plenty of players here from Missouri that have played for this team or the one through USAHIL. Obviously both are a great honor. I also know last year the FIRS team won first place and magically there was no prize money when in the past there always was. Definitely some weird stuff going on lately...


As far as where and what I have to compare to, I have the letter with the info that set this whole topic off in my hands. The statements appear to be true that players are required to pay for x and y. but no one except usars-firs-whoever knows the what and the why. regardless I have seen the people involved in usars at the WC's and they do a great job of making the experience great for the athletes-ands thats what it should be about.


as for what I have it to compare to, I was co-owner of a piha team for two seasons. I have an insight into player motivations, etc when it comes to paying for stuff/traveling and the nightmares around player commitments and I have played with and against players on the team on many occasions.

I loved playing in piha and my prior experiences with AAU were not good. But my team went with aau this year and I am happy with the result and it would serve no purpose to expunge on the reasons why.

However, I am certainly not a little footsoldier for AAU.

you can call me a foot soldier for roller hockey if you want.

Myself and my teams play in all torhs, narch, statewars and aau events regardless of who runs it. the rink that I play at(zrink) is not usa or aau or rha or any-thing affiliated.

I want the sport to succeed and i want people to post things that they have first hand knowledge of. (not accusing you of any thing).

my purpose was to provide some more informaiton on the situation from what I knew and saw myself and say 'lets not bash it becuase it could be worse.'

this is why roller hockey will never go anywhere becuase it always becomes about who people think you are 'associated' with.

[GoRangrHky]

Easiest way to prevent what you are saying, Matt, is to reimburse people after the tryout/tournament. If they don't show, they don't get the money.

I agree that they should be doing what they can to get the most talented athletes. However, if I'm a quality DI NCAA player, or just got out of playing Major-Junior,or whatever, and have had all of my expenses taken care of for the past few years, I would be MUCH less inclined to go play roller knowing that it's going to cost me thousands of dollars. Or, if I'm just a guy who isn't independently wealthy but am extremely talented, it is going to be much more difficult for me to be able to stop working AND spend all of this money to compete.

[quick_dry]

with all this talk about reimbursing money to players - is there actually enough money to go around like that?

[GoRangrHky]

Probably not. But I think the point is more that they SHOULD be finding ways to.