Ice hockey is known in Brazil mostly through the ESPN cable television network. In Brazil, "hockey" usually refers to in-line hockey. In the past, we had several ice rinks in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Nowadays in Rio de Janeiro there is only one ice rink, which, unfortunately, is not suited for ice hockey. In São Paulo there are some arenas but they are also too small for playing ice hockey. The rink is located in the mall. It does not belong to any club but people skating there can still have some fun. The CBHG (Brazilian Confederation of Ice Hockey) had previously organized a team for World Championships but there is currently no national team. Most of the Brazilian in-line hockey players had already played ice hockey (even IHL in USA!!!) and if nationally organized ice hockey arises again in Brazil they will play for a national team again.

It is really a shame that we do not have any appropriate arena to play ice hockey. The cost for its upkeep would be very high. It is of supreme importance for the survival of Brazilian ice hockey to have big companies sponsor hockey teams. Sponsorship money is important in many sports, including soccer, but for those of us who love ice hockey, it is absolutely crucial. In order to play the game, we have to travel to Canada or the USA. Many Brazilian players have already made the journey and play in North American minor leagues. One of our players also played in RHI (Roller Hockey International), the top roller hockey league in the USA (the league has since changed its name to Major Hockey League).
    The largest sport club in the country is Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro. I do not know if you can imagine what Vasco means to us here. Vasco is tops in Brazil. Vasco is the club that have most of the important players in all sorts of sports. In soccer, players from Vasco are the nucleus of the 98 World Championship finalists. Vasco is also widely represented in volleyball, basketball, water polo and many other events. Brazil had 216 athletes to represent their country in the Atlanta Olympics, 70 of whom were from Vasco da Gama. In June, 2000, in-line hockey started to be played in Vasco. Vasco da Gama immediately won immediately the Copa dos Quatro, a championship among the four soccer clubs that also play hockey (Sao Paulo, Ponte Preta, Palmeiras and Vasco da Gama). We hope that other clubs, such as Flamengo, also create their own hockey teams. The popularity of hockey is growing mainly because of the sponsors who support Brazilian clubs. As noted above, our team has been sponsored since June by Vasco. We were lucky enough to get this opportunity because we are one of the best teams in Brazil. It is important that other teams will get the same sort of opportunity.
    Some Vasco da Gama players know the Brazilian reporter who commentates on ice hockey on the ESPN feed we receive here. We e-mail him information about our in-line hockey club and he reproduces the info for TV. It is our big portal to make Brazilians know about the in-line hockey teams in Brazil.
    The Brazilian in-line hockey team will now take part in the World Championships in Amiens. (This article was written before the tournament.) We hope to win some games but we understand that the other teams are all good enough to beat us too. The team was prepared to win but unfortunately many players could not participate because the national team has run out of sponsors. It got very expensive for the players that had to travel every weekend to Campinas for practice. In soccer-dominated Brazil, in-line hockey is not as widely known as in Canada, USA or the Czech Republic. Thus, the first battle for our program is to attract sponsors.
    The popularity of hockey in Brazil is roughly equal to baseball. Hockey is less popular here than soccer, volleyball or basketball. On the other hand, there is no American football to compete with for attention in our country. It is our wish that hockey in Brazilian could someday rival soccer!