| You couldn’t tell by looking at Calgary that Canada is a "failed nation" because of its less-than-rabid devotion to soccer.
People here love the sport and play it in droves. That’s why the recent announcement that a new indoor soccer facility will be built in the city’s northwest by next fall comes as such welcome news.
But it won’t come without a price. And the price isn’t only dollars and cents. If the injury rate for indoor soccer is anything like its outdoor counterpart, you can guess at the next hot spot for a sports medicine clinic.
That’s not to say the sport is bad, or even the worst offender when it comes to injuries, but recreational soccer is a real killer on the body. It seems those who play outdoor soccer all summer almost always come home with some kind of strain or pull that will remind them of their last game for days and weeks to come.
Soccer was among the top seven sports with the highest number of injuries in the 1995 Alberta Sport and Recreation Injury Survey. To quote the survey, "... more than half of the injuries were reported in seven activities (ice hockey, baseball, basketball, soccer, jogging, cycling, and volleyball)."
Interestingly, even with soccer's growing participation rate – it is a great game that continues to attract more and more participants here – it still doesn't create as many injuries as hockey or baseball.
Let’s hope the injuries are few and the fun contagious. And maybe Calgary’s continued growth in the sport will develop several players of World Cup calibre and erase this country’s round-ball stigma.
INSURANCE PAINS
Not to belabour the point of injuries, but that leads to a hot topic as of late: insurance rates. Whether it's for your car, your house or a recreational hockey league, the issue never drifts far from mind.
Seems the insurance companies aren't too eager to provide policies for fat-guy hockey leagues these days. Representatives on the board of one of Calgary's longest-running rec leagues recently said they're basically stuck using one insurer because nobody else is interested in writing policies.
If that's the case, what does this mean for the future of adult recreational leagues? Or for the future of other sports with high injury rates, or even high-risk sports?
If the insurance companies pull out completely, or make the policies too narrow, expensive or exclusive, there's likely to be a lot of people who play recreational hockey and other sports who will quit. Who wants to lose an arm and a leg simply paying for a chance to get a bit of exercise? Who wants to be on the hook for a multi-thousand dollar lawsuit?
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out and which sports it begins to affect. Maybe the pathways will get even busier.
SMART MOVE
It's good to see a Feterik associated with the Calgary Stampeders finally make a good on-field decision. Getting rid of fast-mouth Freddie Fateri, who was the team's vice chairman, was the best move team owner Michael Feterik – not to be confused with his son and backup quarterback Kevin Feterik – could have made.
Having a team struggle on the field is one thing. But letting someone like Fateri, who seemed completely uninterested in learning anything about the CFL, repeatedly alienate and infuriate local football fans would have only spelled disaster in the coming years.
While the Stamps won't be drowning in affection from fans by hoisting the Grey Cup this season, at least they will maintain the interest of the fans next season – something that was seriously in jeopardy with Fateri around. |
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