The deepening scandal involving Hockey Canada has tentacles that have wrapped themselves around the hockey card collecting season.
In the midst of the annual Tim Hortons NHL hockey card promotion in Canada, the quick service restaurant chain has withdrawn its sponsorship from Hockey Canada. Tim Hortons, a brand more aligned with hockey that any major corporation in Canada, is one of a handful of major sponsors that have pulled their sponsorships from hockey’s governing body in Canada.
Last season, Tim Hortons and Upper Deck teamed up for a second hockey card promotion, which was Team Canada focused and licensed through Hockey Canada. The set featured current and former NHL players who have played for Team Canada, as well as members of the Team Canada women’s program. With Tim Hortons out as a Hockey Canada sponsor, there will be no second set. That was confirmed by Upper Deck hockey brand manager Paul Zickler last week.
“As of now, we do not have any announcements on a second Tim Hortons set for this season,” Zickler said.
That announcement is not surprising, as problems in the relationship with Hockey Canada started brewing several months ago when news of the scandal first broke. Three other major Canadian sponsors have also dropped their deals with Hockey Canada. Canadian Tire Corporation, Telus and Scotiabank have all withdrawn their support of the organization. An estimated 40 per cent of Hockey Canada’s revenue comes from sponsorships.
Scandal Dates Back to 2018
In April of this year, a woman filed a $3.55-million court action against Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and unnamed players regarding an incident that she alleges happened after a Hockey Canada Foundation Gala in London, Ontario in 2018.
The woman alleged that she was sexually assaulted by eight male hockey players. The group of eight included some members of Team Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2018 World Junior Championship tournament. Her lawsuit alleged the Hockey Canada knew of the incident but failed to properly investigate the incident or punish the players.
Hockey Canada settled the case out of court in May. Because it was settled, the allegations were not tested in court. The defendants did not have to file statements of defence. As part of the settlement, the woman signed a non-disclosure agreement, preventing her from discussing the incident and allegations.
Early in the summer, TSN reporter Rick Westhead broke the story. The Canadian federal government then ordered a forensic audit of Hockey Canada. The government wanted to make sure that funding they provided to the organization was not used to pay off the woman involved in the case or any other sexual assault victims.
Two weeks later, Hockey Canada issued an open letter and stated they “have not done enough to address the actions of some members of the 2018 national junior team or to end the culture of toxic behaviour within our game. For that we unreservedly apologize.”
Less than a week later, Canadian Press wrote a story uncovering a separate fund called the Nation Equity Fund, that Hockey Canada from minor hockey membership fees. According to Canadian Press, the fund was used for uninsured liabilities, including sexual abuse claims. The parliamentary committee looking into Hockey Canada then heard that non-disclosure agreements, such as the one given to the woman in the 2018 case, were used for the payouts in 21 sexual assault complaints totalling $8.9 million since 1989.
In a Globe and Mail story this month, it was revealed that Hockey Canada has a second multimillion dollar account called the Participants Legacy Trust Fund. This fund was created using player fees and was used to deal with “matters including but not limited to sexual abuse.”
In August, Hockey Canada board chair Michael Brind’Amour resigned from his volunteer position. His replacement, lawyer Andrea Skinner, resigned last week.
On Tues., Oct. 11, Hockey Canada released a statement that CEO Scott Smith resigned. The entire board of directors also stepped down to make room for a new slate of directors. The statement said that an interim management committee will be put in place, which will guide the organization until a newly constituted Board appoints a new CEO to lead the organization.
“Recognizing the urgent need for new leadership and perspectives, the entire Board of Directors announced it will step aside and pursuant to Hockey Canada’s By-Laws, the Board will ask its Members to select a new slate of directors by no later than the forthcoming virtual election scheduled for December 17, 2022. The Board will not seek re-election and will fulfil its fiduciary duties until such time as a new Board is elected,” the statement read.
World Junior Sponsorship
On Wednesday, Oct. 5, Tim Hortons announced that it was pulling out of sponsoring all Hockey Canada men’s hockey programming, including the World Junior Championships, which are scheduled to being Boxing Day (Dec. 26) in Moncton, NB and Halifax, NS. Losing Tim Hortons as a sponsor hits the tournament hard in the pocket book, and it may also trigger other sponsors to follow suit.
On Tues., Oct. 11, another major partner pulled out, as Bauer pulled its sponsorship from the men’s national team program and the World Junior Championship tournament and other men’s tournaments. Bauer’s decision to pull out of the national men’s team and the WJC tournament came just hours before the resignation of the Hockey Canada CEO and board of directors.
There is speculation that the departure of sponsors may result in the cancellation of the tournament. With Hockey Ontario, Hockey Quebec and other provincial organizations informing Hockey Canada that they will no longer send the national governing body their traditional $3 per play fee, there is also speculation that Hockey Canada will not survive this storm.
On the Hockey Canada website, Tim Hortons, Telus, Esso and Nike are currently listed as the organization’s premier marketing partners. Upper Deck, Fanatics, Nike and Frameworth are among the companies listed as licensing partners.
Cancellation of the World Junior Championships this year would have a ripple effect. Last year’s tournament was postponed due to COVID-19, and was eventually played in August. Attendance and television ratings were down for a number of reasons. Some fans lost interest as initial news of the scandal was already public. Many of the star players opted out of the tournament to get ready for NHL camps. And as hockey-mad as Canada is, particularly for this tournament, it is a tough sell in August.
While the tournament is only on the radar of the die-hard hockey fan in the United States, it is a huge, mainstream event in Canada. Every hockey fan, down to the most casual fan, pays attention to this tournament. It is the only true best-on-best men’s international tournament where Team Canada has a team that plays against other countries. For American readers who aren’t familiar with or don’t follow the tournament, this is our version of NCAA March Madness. The only difference is that there aren’t 68 countries playing, and we don’t have brackets.
For Upper Deck, the challenges have a couple of layers. The optics of being affiliated with Hockey Canada will not likely impact the company at all. Upper Deck is not seen as a company pumping thousands of dollars into an organization that buys its way out of potentially criminal activities by its players or coaches. In fact, the collecting world will be sympathetic to Upper Deck for the fact that the scandals have thrown a wrench into producing hockey cards of young stars who have nothing to do with these scandals.
The Team Canada-branded products will be more of a challenge for the company. Collectors love the Upper Deck Team Canada products as they fill a similar role in the hockey card market as Bowman, Leaf and Panini do in baseball. The big difference is that the uniforms are international and have no digital alterations to remove logos.
Collectors want pre-rookie cards of the young stars in the UD Team Canada product. The question is, however, will distributors and major retailers want to touch Team Canada-branded products right now? Canadian Tire has basically given its answer already through the withdrawal of their sponsorship.
One of the ironic twists of Upper Deck’s predicaments is that the popularity of the inclusion of women’s players has grown in popularity over the past few years. If Team Canada products are put on hold until the Hockey Canada executive enema is complete, the women are negatively impacted. They will not have cards this year because of alleged abuse against women.
It doesn’t seem fair. But with what’s been going on at Hockey Canada, does that even matter?
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