End to pay-to-play for Canada’s women?

Canada's women's rugby national side reach the World Cup Final in 2014 (photo:The Province/Getty)

Pay-to-play (where being selected for the national team comes with a large bill attached) has a long history in women's sport – even for the leading nations - but over the past decade the top women's teams in most sports have begun to be treated in the same way as the men. In countries where their sports’ men do not have to pay when they play for the national team it is increasingly rare that women are asked to.

One major exception to this has been Canada. Despite reaching the Women's Rugby World Cup final in 2014, and being higher ranked than their men’s teams, players selected for Canada’s adult and U20 women’s XVs still have to find their own funding.

It has been a cause of friction for some years. Back in 2011 several Canadian players went so far as toboycott the national teamafter been selected to play for Canada at that year’s Nations Cup after – despite the tournament taking place in Canada – they were presented with a bill of $2,900 each to pay for all their training and even their match shirts.

Partly as a result of the publicity that this protest aroused, and the success the team has had since, the cost of playing women’s rugby for Canada has gone down butlast summer it was still $1,200 per player.

But finally a solution may have been found. A new fund, named after former president of Rugby Canada Monty Heald – a long standing supporter of the women’s game – which will the aim to fill the gap between money available from Rugby Canada’s budget and the costs needed to properly fund the women’s national program at the elite level.

“If I don’t have think about raising $1,500 for every tour, on top of all the training I’m already doing, what a difference,” Andrea Burk, who made her Canadian debut in 2009, said. “In the past, players had to buck up around $1,500 for a tour – over the course of a RWC build up cycle, this adds up quick, to somewhere between $7,000 to $10,000 before all is said and done. They’d do fundraising with their clubs, with online crowdfunding campaigns, any way they could, but the well was only so deep. The Fund will end that endless cycle of non-rugby work.”

The target for the Monty Heald Fund is to raise $400,000 by the end of 2016. By the middle of January, after only a couple months-worth of fundraising, $180,000 had already been collected. In addition from now until July 15 any funds donated will be matched by an anonymous donor, meaning Burk and her teammates are really targeting $110,000 over the next four months.

According to the Canadian Rugby Foundation, which is managing the fund on behalf of donors and the players, “Every National Team player representing Canada makes personal sacrifices such as putting education or careers on hold, taking leave from a job, often without pay.  However, it is only the National Senior Women’s XV and the age group teams that are assessed participation fees.  Depending on the number of activities in any World Cup Cycle, participation fees for the Senior Women’s XV have often totalled over $7,000 for a single player.  While Rugby Canada and its members have identified the elimination of the pay-to-play model for this program as a priority for player preparation and participation in the 2017 World Cup, there remains a two year gap where there will be a financial shortfall.”

“By creating a centralised fundraising campaign, players won’t have to worry about where the money for their training programs will come from or how much they’ll have to scrimp to make a tour happen. They’ll be able to just do.”

The Heald Fund came out of discussions last April at the Rugby Canada AGM about how to end the pay-to-play model. Heald and fellow past president Barry Giffen pledged to find a solution, and came up with a plan to create a fund which would seek donations from beyond the coffers of Rugby Canada.

Donations to the Monty Heald Fund can be made through theCanadian Rugby Foundation.