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p
K
I
D
S
 
I
N L
anet
H
ockey
every year a handful of TalenTed young
college field hockey is a big ticket
item in the united states with the top
women head across The aTlanTic To combine
teams having million-dollar budgets.
sporT and sTudy aT us colleges. Tom cooper
and when the stadiums fill and the
cameras roll, British and Irish players
asks whaT do They find when They geT There?
are usually in the thick of the action.
UNC Athletic Communications Trans-Atlantic players are right at
the forefront of college hockey (we
are dropping the 'field'now!). This
season's prestigious All American
selection featured three players with
UK backgrounds (including the national
top goalscorer) and two English players
made the 'All Rookie' selection. So
what exactly is happening here, why
are the girls going and how are their
American dreams working out?
The sheer scale of US college sport
is something that often evades
non-Americans, but it is a massive
industry. Hockey is by no means at the
top of the money tree. Even so, the
amount of cash flowing into hockey
programmes is staggering. In 2008,
three universities had annual field
hockey budgets in excess of $1million
(£600,000) – and bear in mind they
are generally running one squad of
around 20 players. In the same year the
combined field hockey budgets of the
top-five-spending universities topped
$5.5million (£3.4million). That is almost
half-a-million pounds more than
England Hockey's elite performance
budget for the same period – see Big
Spenders on page 33. In the same year,
the total hockey expenditure by the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) Division I colleges was
$44.6million (£27.5million) four times
England Hockey's totaL expenditure
for the same period.
For some truly mind-blowing figures
though you have to turn to college
football (that's American football of
course). Here, again in 2008, the total
Division I college expenditure was
$1.7billion – yes that is billion (or
about £1billion) generating revenues
of $2.7billion (£1.7billion). That is only
just under the total FA Premier League
club revenues for 2007/8 (£1.9billion or
$3.2billion).
The surplus in American football and
other revenue sports helps support less
profitable competitions – to compete in
31
the prestigious, and lucrative, Division
a
GE
I football and basketball conferences, P
nothing finer – katie ardrey in carolina
colleges must compete in at least seven
H
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