Several members of the Canadian women's team have been Tweeting this morning about their travel situation. Here is an example from Melanie Booth:
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
This is not to pick on Booth in particular. As stated, it's just one example of several excited Tweets. And who could blame them? As Canada wakes up to sub-zero temperatures this morning there would be many people excited by the prospect of seeing the Cyprus beach today.Layover in Athens...can't wait to be in Cyprus and see the ocean
Normally such a proclamation wouldn't register to the average Canadian, or even the average Canadian soccer fan. However, this year the women made it register. As most here know the women have announced that they will be boycotting games in Cyprus if their demands of the CSA are not settled prior to the start of the tournament in six days.
It should be noted that the CSA is paying for the women to travel to the ocean today. It should also be noted that they are flying to Cyprus from Italy where they have been since just after they announced the boycott.
Since neither side is talking, it's impossible to truly evaluate the legitimacy of the women's demands, especially as they relate to Carolina Morace's call for more control. However, what we can do is look at the optics of this.
A quick look on Travelocity.ca reveals that it would cost $3,745 return to fly to Cyprus from Toronto for a one week getaway. As a random and reflective example, The Coral Beach Hotel comes in at about $100 a day and you're likely looking at $50 a day for food. So, about $4,795 for the week.
There are 38 people on the trip (25 players, 13 staff). Since two of the 13 staff could be classified as being there on the CSA behalf let's call it 36. That's $172,620 for one week in Cyprus (the CSA likely gets a better rate than what the average Canadian would get, but they were also in Rome for more than a week. Also, the point of this exercise is to demonstrate value).
Even if you cut that estimate in half, you are still looking at more than $80,000 in expenses the CSA is absorbing for the women to "boycott."
You could rent Toronto's Lamport Stadium for eight hours a day for a week for half that. If you think that's a silly example, then compare the cost of training in Florida to Rome.
The point is it isn't much of a boycott if you are willing to take CSA money to spend several weeks in Europe. It would be petty and counterproductive for the CSA to force the women to pay back the money if they do pull out of the Cyprus event, but there would be a lot more Canadians supportive of such a move than the women should be comfortable with.
Bluntly, the women should have refused to travel to the camp until the CSA dealt with their demands. That would have demonstrated that they were serious and willing to make a true sacrifice to the lifestyle they have become accustom to.
They would have also had a better opportunity to keep this story in the news. As it is, the story disappeared off the sports pages about the same time the women disappeared off the shores of North America.