Nike officially ends Hockey Canada sponsorship in wake of sexual assault scandals
Category: News & Politics
Via: sparty-on • last year • 3 commentsBy: Kyle CantlonWriterMon, Jul 17, 2023, 12:40 PM·2 min read (Yahoo Sports)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Nike has officially cut ties with Canada's governing body of hockey, ending a partnership established nearly 25 years ago.
Kyle CantlonWriterMon, Jul 17, 2023, 12:40 PM·2 min read1
Nike has permanently ended its sponsorship of Hockey Canada, The Globe and Mail's Susan Krashinsky Robertson reported on Monday.
Nike, along with several other major sponsors like Telus, Esso and Tim Hortons, originally paused its partnership with Hockey Canada in 2022 amid heavy backlash over how the top governing hockey body in Canada handled multiple allegations of sexual assault over the years.
"We will continue to provide on-ice product for Hockey Canada athletes as part of our partnership with the International Ice Hockey Federation, but our individual partnership with the federation has ended," Nike's statement said.
Monday's move finalizes Nike's decision to cut ties with the organization and ends a partnership that was established in 1999. Bauer, another long-standing sponsor which halted its partnership in the wake of the scandals, reinstated its deal with Hockey Canada earlier this month following the organization's hiring of Katherine Henderson as CEO and president.
Nike and Hockey Canada are going their separate ways. (Getty)
This all stems from an incident involving some of Canada's 2018 world junior team members, who allegedly sexually assaulted a woman during a Hockey Canada Foundation gala in 2018. Hockey Canada — which re-opened its investigation into the alleged assaults after immense public scrutiny — has been under serious fire over its handling of the allegations and has seen a huge drop in funding and sponsorship dollars as part of the fallout.
Since the 2018 claims were revealed, several other organizational transgressions have come to light, including sexual assault allegations against several unnamed players from the 2003 Canadian world junior team. It was also uncovered that Hockey Canada kept multiple, secret "slush funds" to pay out sexual assault lawsuits with registration fees, and owned a luxury condo in downtown Toronto for executives to stay at when travelling.
Hockey Canada's executives were grilled by parliament, and even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, over their handling of the sexual assault allegations, and the organization's government funding was temporarily frozen.
The entire board, along with former president and CEO Scott Smith and interim chair Andrea Skinner, eventually resigned last fall.
Most players from the 2018 Canadian WJC team have released statements, while some have yet to speak publicly on the matter.
In March, as part of its rehabilitation efforts, Hockey Canada ruled that "no players from the 2018 National Junior Team will be considered for participation for Team Canada" until its investigation into the sexual assault allegations had been completed.
According to Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli, NHL teams are bracing for the result of the investigation and how it could impact their players moving forward.
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Holy Waaa!
Dem Canadians can get pretty frisky eh?
Hard to fathom an organization being too shady for Nike
Lol …. True dat but one never knows with corporate America these days …..