No more usa hockey!!!!

[GoRangrHky]

Just got this in an e-mail:


USA Hockey and USA Roller Sports Come To An
Agreement To Strengthen The Inline Hockey Industry

In an effort to strengthen the inline hockey industry and focus on its primary role as the national governing body for ice hockey in the United States, USA Hockey announced today it will not offer an inline membership program after the 2010-11 season.

USA Hockey will continue to offer inline registration online through May 31, 2011, for the 2010-11 season, but beginning June 1, 2011 will no longer accept inline registration. Instead USA Hockey encourages its inline members to register with USA Roller Sports, the national governing body for roller sports, including inline hockey. All current inline members of USA Hockey will continue to receive member benefits until August 31, 2011 at which time membership will expire.

Wow. Wonder if this means that they won't put a team in the IIHF tournament after this year either. In all, I think it's a shame. I've always had a great deal of respect for what USAHIL was trying to get accomplished and what they offered their members, and to me USARS has always seemed to not quite get it when it comes to their events, their training, and what they offer their members.

[Jon Niola]

Ugh this sucks. Kinda makes me wish they never took over NIHA years ago.

[kevinsmithAZ]

Just got this in an e-mail:



Wow. Wonder if this means that they won't put a team in the IIHF tournament after this year either. In all, I think it's a shame. I've always had a great deal of respect for what USAHIL was trying to get accomplished and what they offered their members, and to me USARS has always seemed to not quite get it when it comes to their events, their training, and what they offer their members.

This is great for the sport though. I agree with what you said but that just means we need to get the right people in place to offer certain benefits, training, etc. If we all demand it then it will happen.

Also, this eliminates one governing body and leaves just RHA and USARS, making the eventual unification in the sport even easier and closer than it may seem.

[quick_dry]

and to me USARS has always seemed to not quite get it when it comes to their events, their training, and what they offer their members.
IMO you could level that at any of the FIRS affiliated associations, it is at least a step towards unification.

I also wonder whether this signals anything about IIHF pulling out of inline hockey in general, not just the USA body.

[stevepona]

Hockey is one game played on two different surfaces. As the NGB for the two games, USA Hockey should be the single uniting force drawing the two games closer...not dividing them. This is absolutely, positively, without debate, a regrettable strategic decision that will negatively affect player development for generations.
For 20 years, neither USARS nor AAU has shown they are ready, capable or even interested in the management of inline hockey at the NGB level. Why now?

[GoRangrHky]

Agree completely. The differences between ice and inline hockey are substantially smaller than the differences between inline hockey and roller derby, speed skating, and figure skating on wheels (which is what USARS manages).

[quick_dry]

I agree - the differences are smaller between inline and what IIHF cares about, than between inline and the other branches of FIRS (or USARS/Skate Australia/etc). But we're a different sport to ice hockey, IMO neither FIRS or IIHF really care about inline except as extra membership.

IMO the better situation is our own federation, but unification under one banner is at least a step in that direction.

I don't think it quites works simplifying it down to 'hockey on different surfaces' - shouldn't we then BOTH be subdivisions under the field hockey governing federation? (probably a bigger sport in more countries than either ice or inline). Would we lump all versions of football together? e.g. rugby league and rugby union.

[GoRangrHky]

As soon as the remaining 99% of America figures out what rugby league and rugby union are, we'll let you know what we think about that ;-) You tell Americans you're lumping both versions of football together, and we think NFL and Arena Football.

Field hockey in the USA is nearly exclusively a women's sport, and even at that does not really progress past the collegiate level. That being said, I've managed events for USA Field Hockey, and they do a great job. USA Hockey is still #1 for anything hockey related though. I'm sure it's different from country to country; something that might work down under might be what's best for you, but probably not for us. In our case, I feel that USA Hockey, who has the understanding and frankly the better people in place is better suited for it than USARS.

[kevinsmithAZ]

USA Inline is definitely a better option than USARS.. but let's take a look at what we have now in North America.

USARS
RHA

Hmm.. people that actually care about the sport of roller hockey (even if part of that is profit-driven) or an organization who puts multiple sports ahead of our game? Seems like a no-brainer to me. The issue is getting RHA around the world.

[zipyaj]

I surmise that with the sport of roller hockey in an overall decline and with, mostly, players aging up to create heightened interest at the 18+ level, that USA Hockey InLine's (USAHIL) withdrawal may be a business-based decision. Consider:

2007 The Sporting Goods Manufactures Association (SGMA) reports (last) roller hockey participants at 1.2 million, down from 4.2 million in 1995

June 2008 AAU Hockey announces the creation of the American Inline Hockey League (AIHL)

Jan 2009 PIHA registers as a business in PA

Jan 2009 The Roller Hockey Alliance (RHA) announces its creation
(then) NARCh, STATE WARS, TOHRS, PIHA and NCRHA (per Charley Yoder)
(today) NARCh, State Wars, USA Clinics, Tour Cup, TORHS, PIHA, NorCal Cup (NARCh), and NIHA (per RHA site)

2009 Gary Del Vecchio, Jr. leaves USA Hockey InLine (USAHIL). Jeremy Kennedy writes one or two Inline articles in USA Hockey magazine since.

Jan 2010 The Anaheim Ducks announced a partnership with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) to bring the AAU Junior Olympic Games to SoCal

May 2011 USA Hockey announced it will no longer offer an inline membership program after the 2010-11 season.

Next?
2011-12 NCRHA and AAU

[quick_dry]

The issue is getting RHA around the world.
If RHA became a genuine IOC recognised body that'd be great - but without that, in many places we're beholden to whoever else has an official recognition with a higher power, since that is our path to funding from govt sports commissions (at both a grassroots, and elite level). I'm not saying that as a "we'll have a shot at going to Olympics one day" (I'm not, if that was a serious dream I'd have switched to speed skating or skeleton) - its because it is what lots of sports commissions want from the NGBs before they'll give them money.

I'm not doubting that USA Hockey can run a better event than USARS, but I think we all need to get under one federations banner - not forever fragmented under a thousand different ones. Imagine if soccer had this issue, but they don't, you want soccer - you're under FIFA (via the local FIFA affiliated NGB)

[GoRangrHky]

The other reason to go with USA Hockey- http://www.iihf.com/channels1011/inline/pictures/top-division/page/2/team/USA.html those look soooo much better than http://usarollersports.org/multimedia/photo_gallery/1707/photo/37076#gallery-header

[Mlrhnorthfan]

those are LAST years USARS Jerseys