‘Unfair’: Local soccer teams on hook for extra $15K in travel costs
Soccer association’s cost sharing regime is now ‘at least’ 70-30, up from 50-50
The Whale Cove U18 girls’ team, seen after bringing home gold at the Kivalliq Regional Futsal Championships in Rankin Inlet this March, may be sidelined from the territorial tournament in Iqaluit in November because of rising travel costs. (Photo courtesy of Sheila Nattar)
The head coach of Whale Cove’s girls’ soccer team says her players could be sidelined from a major territorial tournament in Iqaluit this fall because of funding woes.
Sheila Nattar, who also serves as representative for the Kivalliq Region on the Nunavut Soccer Association board, says the association’s new travel policy is the culprit.
She said her group was informed in May that local teams must cover “at least” 70 per cent of the travel costs, with the soccer association covering the rest. Previously, the cost was shared 50-50. That’s on top of registration and membership fees of $275 per player.
Whale Cove hopes to send boys’ and girls’ teams of nine players each to the Iqaluit tournament. That means Whale Cove has to provide roughly an extra $14,000 — from $35,000 to about $49,000 — for its portion of the estimated $70,000 total cost.
“It’s pretty hard to fundraise in a small community where the population is around 500 people,” Nattar said.
“We’ve been doing bake sales and soon we’re gonna do bingo, but I know that it’s not even enough.”
Iqaluit’s tournament, scheduled for Nov. 20 to 23, will also serve as a selection camp for the 2026 Arctic Winter Games.
Alex Makin, a former Whale Cove coach and former board member with the soccer association, said the cost-sharing expectation is “absurd” and “discriminates against smaller communities.”
“Whale Cove doesn’t have an economy or a population to come up with 20 to 25 grand per team per year,” he said. “Where’s that 40 to 50K going to come from? It doesn’t exist. We thought that was pretty unfair.”
Makin and Nattar contacted the soccer association in early August to ask if any departments or organizations could provide support.
“The email that we got back from the Nunavut Soccer Association held the assumption that while it’s really hard on coaches, the solution is hard work,” said Makin.
“There’s no amount of hard work that Sheila can do to fundraise 40 to 50K in Whale Cove. It’s terrible that they think that’s the solution.”
Both Makin and Nattar suggested alternatives, including adjusting the percentage each community is expected to cover based on population and local economy, or giving smaller communities more time to raise money.
Nattar said her teams have already spent more than $10,000 to attend a regional tournament in Rankin Inlet in March, leaving their account almost empty. So she’s reached out to the hamlet to help.
Hamlet council will discuss the request on Aug. 28, but Whale Cove SAO Brian Fleming said the hamlet is “not in the position to donate $50,000.”
Other communities are voicing similar concerns.
Kayla Jones, a soccer coach and middle school teacher in Coral Harbour, which has a population of over 1,000 residents, said the new policy brings the hamlet’s share for travel to Iqaluit to $50,000 as well.
“Probably not,” she said when asked if her players could attend.
“We have very talented athletes here, but it’s very hard for us to try to fundraise or get funding,” she said, adding that it is difficult to raise money in the summer when people are out on the land.
“I think that tournaments should be hosted in different communities,” said Jones.
“Whale Cove and Coral Harbour have turf and good gyms.”
While providing enough accommodation may be harder in smaller communities, Jones noted teams can stay in schools.
Back in Whale Cove, Makin said the situation is about more than finances.
“It’s so important to have something to look forward to and be part of a team. There’s a lot of kids who take part and look up to the older players who go to tournaments as role models,” he said.
“It would be heartbreaking and devastating if they didn’t attend this.”
Nunatsiaq News contacted Nunavut Soccer Association and NU Sport Federation for comment, but did not receive a response.
A Facebook post from the association blames rising travel costs for the change in policy.
This is unfortunate but we know travel costs in Nunavut is prohibitive. Why don’t shift the tournament by region? Meaning all Kivalliq region being hosted in for eg, Coral who has a good turf. Baffin region hosted in Iqaluit and Kitikmeot in Kug or CamBay, whichever one with the facility. This MIGHT just save on cost a bit. The kids who are in consideration for AWG, can then have their coach send the head coach a video so then a main team can be formed. Unfortunately team sport is a BIG hurdle in Nunavut due to cost and geography. Weather plays a huge role as well, as I remembered a territorial where the whole of the Kivalliq region didnt make it to Iqaluit due to a blizzard.
This is absured.
All sporting events should be held outside of Iqaluit in smaller communities to give their children chance of playing too.
Or the total travel costs should be charged equally and evenly to all teams. So lets say 10 teams go to the tournament, all travel costs get split evenly including the host community pays the same travel costs.
Always Iqaluit teams never have to travel or fund raise because the events are usually held in Iqaluit so they never have travel costs.
If the travel costs for the tournament are $100,000 for all teams to attend, all teams should be required to pay the same amount in travel……or stop hosting these tournaments in Iqaluit to be fare to all the other kids in the territory.
What ever happened to fund raising? I remember as a kid we would have bake sales, sell Tim Donuts, Actions for labour for the day..etc….
In the article it says that it’s hard to fund raise in a small town like Whale Cove.
Expensive
Our youth are our future as long as it does not cost us anything KIA spent 70 million on an unfinished prefab plant, and Calmair who will make 250,million with this big merger gives a discount on airfares, AEM, and all their French company’s are sucking billions out of Nunavut. But that’s ok, they can do whatever they please,
This is a constant issue with sports activities in Nunavut. We have multiple gifted children who are not able to participate in events due to high rise travel cost. I cannot say who are responsible for allocating funds but clearly and it is evident, there are no funds available to support the children.