I'm sure you have been asked it a few times. I know you're not the person who can answer that question anyway.
What I would actually like to ask relates somewhat to the corporate sponsorships that Mr. Dykstra had mentioned. It is a two-part question. I'll ask it to both of you.
We've had a lot of the other sport organizations here prior to your being here. I don't think any of them actually mentioned it to us here at the committee, but I'm sure they were thinking about it.
I come from the Calgary area. Canmore is in my riding. A lot of the sports organizations and the training facilities are located in my riding, or close to it, for the winter sports. I talk to and meet with those organizations and also with some of the athletes who live in my riding. Everyone always says to me that they wish they were hockey. The reason they wish they were hockey is the pool of athletes to draw from.
I know it's changing somewhat but I know when I was a kid, everyone played hockey. It was a foregone conclusion that was the sport you played. There were a few other sports available, but not that many. That's really changed over the years, I know. There's that. Obviously the support is there, and I think corporate sponsorship is there to a greater degree than it is with a lot of the other sports.
The first part of the question is this. What can other sport organizations learn from hockey? A lot of kids play hockey and obviously there are some successes. What can other sports learn about how to attract kids and keep them interested? Also, more importantly, the sponsorship that's there may not be to quite the same degree with the women's team, but certainly, what can we do as a government to help encourage...? What can other sports learn from hockey in terms of encouraging that corporate sponsorship?
The other part to the question is the flip side of my first question. Over the last number of years, we've seen more choices for kids in what sports they get involved in. I've heard now, for example, that hockey is below soccer in terms of the number of kids playing the sport. Is there something that hockey needs to learn from other sports now that there's a bit more competition for those kids? What can hockey learn from them to ensure that we continue to have a great hockey program here in Canada?
If you want to answer that from both sides, I would appreciate that.