April 1st, 2009
‘The floorball bomb will explode in Canada’
News from Canada again but this time from the west of the huge hockey country. Blair Zimmermann – member of the National Championship committee – sent us detailed answers to our questions. He talks about the exhibition match against India, the National championship in the Richmond Olympic Oval and the development of floorball from a British Columbia perspective. After some years with hard voluntary promotion work and slow growth the number of floorball enthusiasts will explode, he says. Canada will be among the top in registered players in 20 or 25 years time. From his point of view a World Floorball Championship in Canada would do wonders for the growth of the game.
wfn: Which teams can participate in the Canadian National Championship in Richmond?
Blair Zimmermann: Any province that is a registered member of Floorball Canada can compete. Right now, there are four provinces registered; Alberta, British Columbia (BC), Ontario and Quebec. Nationals includes a competition for both Men and Women.
wfn: Did they have qualification tournaments in the different provinces?
Blair Zimmermann: No, right now the format is Provincial teams that are made up of selected players. Players go through a series of tryouts in order to make the provincial teams. In the case of BC, a tournament was used as a main part of the scouting and player assessment.
The exhibition match Canada versus India will be played in the Richmond Olympic Oval (British Columbia)
...as well as the Canadian National Championships
wfn: Why did Floorball Canada choose India as the opponent of Team Canada for the exhibition match in Canada?Team Blair Zimmermann: India approached Canada about playing a series of Friendly Matches. As Canada is over 5000 km from coast to coast, the number of times we all get together in a year are limited. The timing and the nationals being on the West coast made Richmond an obvious choice. Canada is passionate about floorball and is eager to get out and develop floorball friendships with other countries. We are excited to have India come visit.
wfn: What are your Men’s national team’s chances to qualify for WFC 2010 in Finland, as you probably will play qualification against the USA?
Blair Zimmermann: Both USA and Canada eagerly want to have a presence at WFC 2010. At the last WFC, even though USA and Canada were in separate divisions, both countries proved that they have a lot of pride, hard will and a team full of talent. The qualifier is going to be a classic, full out rivalry battle, that will go down to the final whistle. It is too bad (for the USA) only one team can go.
wfn: How long does it take until the Canadian national team can keep up with Sweden and Finland? When will you be able to defeat a Scandinavian team for the first time?
Blair Zimmermann: There is an amazing amount of existing hockey talent in this country that we can draw upon and introduce to floorball. The skill set doesn’t need to be developed, it already exists and just needs to be tweaked. Our challenge is expose the game to these players and have a structure in place to keep their interest. I think Canada can put together a much higher caliber team than we have now and make it into to top 8 in a very short term. However to beat the best, I think we need to grow the sport a generation. If we can get our 14-18 year olds playing now, they should be ready in just over 10 years.
wfn: How many floorball fans fit into the Olympic Oval? How many people do you expect to come?
Blair Zimmermann: The Oval is a huge facility of which the Nationals takes up only a small part. In addition to the Men’s and Women’s Nationals, Team India Friendly matches, we have also included showcase exhibition matches of kids, youth and Hockey Academy players. If we can get the word out as anticipate, we hope to see 250 spectators a day.
wfn: You say that floorball is raising a lot of new excitement in your country. What can you tell us about the development of the game in Canada?
Blair Zimmermann: Floorball is still in the primary infant stage here. Very few people know the sport and there is very little structure. However, the exciting news is that the groups that have been introduced to floorball have been very successful. In some schools, floorball is now among the most popular sport and has one of the highest percentages of student participation.
As we have seen, the success in the development of floorball is with kids and youth. In BC, our grassroots model is to work with a specific community and try to build floorball within that community through schools and community centers. We introduce the sport to a school, develop a club within the school and then get schools to compete against each other. The next step is to get communities to compete against each other and so on. At the same time, we approach community centers to offer a floorball drop in program to give kids another outlet to play.
We have also been working closely with the hockey community promoting floorball as an off ice training tool. For example, Hockey Academy Schools, schools that offer hockey as part of school curriculum, quickly identified the benefits of floorball to hockey players and added it to their programs right away. Floorball Canada has also been working on establishing partnerships with Hockey Canada and the Canadian Ball Hockey Association.
Tournaments, like the Nationals are a great promo tool that gives us an opportunity to showcase the sport to any curious parties, including press and TV. Tournaments are also a great time to host floorball clinics. The IFF will be conducting their second clinic in Canada thus far at the upcoming Nationals.
For now, the success rate of the projects is great, but growth is slow as this is all volunteer driven. Our organizations need funding to hire people to go out and introduce the sport to schools on a regular basis. Once this happens, the floorball bomb will explode.
wfn: At the moment there are 1000 licensed floorball players in Canada (according to IFF statistics). How many will there be in 10, 20 or 50 years?
Blair Zimmermann: Once we hit a certain point, there will be a huge growth to the sport in a very short time. The next five years, growth will be comparatively slow but there will be a lot more awareness of the sport. In 8 years, we will be well on our way. In the 10-15 years, the floorball bomb goes off and numbers explode. In 20-25 years, Canada is among the top in registered players.
wfn: Is there a juniors-movement in Canada? Are there many kids playing floorball? What about floorball at school?
Blair Zimmermann: Our biggest growth of the sport is with kids and youth. They love floorball. We will sign up 20 kids in the time it takes to get one adult. At the recent Grand Opening of West Vancouver’s new Recreation Center, a fabulous new facility that is one of the first in Vancouver to get behind floorball and create programs for all ages, we had a lot of interest from parents with kids, even as young as 4-6 years old.
Floorball is works well here because not only does it speak directly to kids who are established in hockey, but it gives kids who are interested in hockey, but don’t play hockey (for a variety of reasons), a chance to take part in a hockey culture. The fact that Floorball has such a wide range of appeal to many different types of kids will greatly contribute to its growth.
Schools currently all have floor hockey equipment and floor hockey clubs. However, once you put a floorball stick and ball in the hands of a teacher, principal or member of school board, along with a quick intro to the rules, they quickly see the merits of floorball, especially the emphasis on sportsmanship, fair play and less injury. There is no argument to stay with floor hockey. It is only a matter of time and exposure that all schools play floorball.
wfn: Can floorball grow although there’s competition from ice hockey and lacrosse? Why should a man, a women or a child play floorball instead of lacrosse and ice hockey?
Blair Zimmermann: Floorball and hockey, along with other sports, can all happily coexist. There is no question that hockey and soccer will take center stage for many years to come, but we are finding many love floorball just as much and many play both.
Interestingly, I think there are a lot of people who struggle with some aspects of hockey, like fighting, dirty stick work, crazy parent in the crowd syndrome, not to mention the escalating cost, but still put their kids in hockey because they feel they have to, it is a part of Canada. Floorball is an exciting, fresh alternative for these people who love hockey but prefer something with a little more sportsmanship. There is an existing need for this product, floorball.
Blair Zimmermann playing floorball
wfn: Is it difficult to find training facilities (sports halls) in Canada?
Blair Zimmermann: Finding sports facilities to host floorball is hard for a couple of reasons. The first is they are simply full, there aren’t enough. Another reason is they have had bad experiences with other brands of indoor hockey, like ball hockey, damaging the gymnasium floor. They automatically tune out when they here floorball is an indoor version of hockey.
Once the floorball explosion happens and we have a much higher number of players, finding enough facilities that can accommodate a full 20×40m will be a real challenge as most gyms here are based on a basketball court and are too small. This potentially could be a real problem to the full development of the game.
wfn: The floorball world is still waiting for the first floorball World Championship for Men played outside Europe. When will Canada be able to organize an event like this?
Blair Zimmermann: Canada is ready and willing. Bringing a talented, showcase event like this would be a great promotional tool and would no doubt do wonders for the growth of the game here. Floorball Canada would jump very high at the opportunity to host a WFC.
wfn: How long does it take until floorball will be an Olympic sport?
Blair Zimmermann: Knowing that ticket sales are a consideration and the fact that floorball championships can attract crowds of 15,000 fans in Europe, I think the odds are looking good. My hopes are on 2016 or 2020. If these Olympics are awarded to a Floorball country, the odds are even better.
visit the bc floorball federation webpage
Pictures BC Floorball Federation
Interview Matthias Dudli
