Olympics: Bettman hints NHL won't play in 2018 and 2022

[Mr Kanadensisk]

Why would the players care whether the Olympics are held in South Korea, Botswana or Russia?

The Olympics are the Olympics.

How many Europeans passed on the NHL before 1998 for that reason? I remember Mats Sundin saying he never thought twice about it. I can't see any players bolting from the NHL just for that reason, especially since the global prestige of the tournament will be greatly diminished if the NHL is not participating.

 

[Rob]

I have ties to South Korea so I really hope they go. Don't expect it to happen though.

However, having an U20 team might intrigue me.

 

[Jonimaus]

How many Europeans passed on the NHL before 1998 for that reason? I remember Mats Sundin saying he never thought twice about it. I can't see any players bolting from the NHL just for that reason, especially since the global prestige of the tournament will be greatly diminished if the NHL is not participating.

And in exchange the only tournament that will "matter" will be the world championship. Goodbye interntational hockey.

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

And in exchange the only tournament that will "matter" will be the world championship. Goodbye interntational hockey.

Maybe so, it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world. Why should the NHL or NA hockey fans care about what "matters" to you?

 

[Jonimaus]

Maybe so, it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world. Why should the NHL or NA hockey fans care about what "matters" to you?

Maybe the NHL or NA doesn't like hockey? Pretty sure it's not in the best interest of the NHL if international hockey dies out. The sport will take a huge blow, and as far as I understand, less hockey players, equals less chance of really great players, which makes the league worse.

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

Maybe the NHL or NA doesn't like hockey? Pretty sure it's not in the best interest of the NHL if international hockey dies out. The sport will take a huge blow, and as far as I understand, less hockey players, equals less chance of really great players, which makes the league worse.

The NHL thrived long before the 1998 Olympics and whether a player is great or not is completely dependant on who they are being compared to. I'll ask again, why should the NHL and NA fans care about what you want?

 

[jekoh]

I have ties to South Korea so I really hope they go. Don't expect it to happen though.

However, having an U20 team might intrigue me.

Why in the world would a country purposely weaken its roster by selecting U20 players when they can choose much better players instead?

There will be no U20 team.

 

[ebis]

Maybe so, it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world. Why should the NHL or NA hockey fans care about what "matters" to you?

Maybe because NHL needs the Euro fans (and most importantly players) too?

 

[Zine]

Why are you guys turning this into a Euro vs NA thing?

Considering that even most North Americans want olympic participation, this is essentially an NHL vs NHLPA/global hockey fans/IIHF/IOC issue.

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

Maybe because NHL needs the Euro fans (and most importantly players) too?

Based on the tone of the posts in this and other threads I would say that going to the last 5 Olympics has done next to nothing in terms of winning over fans from Europe for the NHL. Due to the time zones involved the NHL revenue potential from Europe will always be extremely small relative to North America. Again, based on what I have read here if I were Bettman I wouldn't waste another second worrying about European fans. The league is happy to have any fan, but they certainly do not need Europeans fans to be a successful league over here.

 

[Rob]

And in exchange the only tournament that will "matter" will be the world championship. Goodbye interntational hockey.

This right here is the best reason to keep NHL players in the Olympics.

 

[Jablkon]

Maybe so, it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world. Why should the NHL or NA hockey fans care about what "matters" to you?

NHL certainly does not care so much what happen to him ot to int. hockey. But you should care. Wouldn't you miss neverending discussion about who is the best, how stupid is world championschip etc etc etc. I assume you guys like these discussion pretty much. So why you wasting time with such a "smart" comments.... No one have to care about anybody. Euro federations does not have to send teams to World cup, Canada does not have to send a team to WCH and USA might nuke Russia. Yep boy, that's how the modern world should work.....

 

[xxxx]

NHL certainly does not care so much what happen to him ot to int. hockey. But you should care. Wouldn't you miss neverending discussion about who is the best, how stupid is world championschip etc etc etc. I assume you guys like these discussion pretty much. So why you wasting time with such a "smart" comments.... No one have to care about anybody. Euro federations does not have to send teams to World cup, Canada does not have to send a team to WCH and USA might nuke Russia. Yep boy, that's how the modern world should work.....

I'd like to have both World Cup and Olympics, but I would be thankful to have at least one true best-on-best tournament. Both would be better...well, maybe (hopefully) the NHL will go. But WC is better than nothing.

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

NHL certainly does not care so much what happen to him ot to int. hockey. But you should care. Wouldn't you miss neverending discussion about who is the best, how stupid is world championschip etc etc etc. I assume you guys like these discussion pretty much. So why you wasting time with such a "smart" comments.... No one have to care about anybody. Euro federations does not have to send teams to World cup, Canada does not have to send a team to WCH and USA might nuke Russia. Yep boy, that's how the modern world should work.....

I enjoy setting the record straight, not sure if I'd miss it if it wasn't needed anymore, but new misguided people pop up all the time so I can't see us running out of things to talk about.

Thank you also for making my point. By starting best on best international hockey in the first place, by breaking their league for the last 5 Olympics and now trying to organize another World Cup the NHL has clearly shown that they are interested in international hockey. They care more than they should in my opinion.

 

[Jablkon]

I enjoy setting the record straight, not sure if I'd miss it if it wasn't needed anymore, but new misguided people pop up all the time so I can't see us running out of things to talk about.

Thank you also for making my point. By starting best on best international hockey in the first place, by breaking their league for the last 5 Olympics and now trying to organize another World Cup the NHL has clearly shown that they are interested in international hockey. They care more than they should in my opinion.

There are quite a lot of comments in this thread explaining the opinion that breaking the league once in 4 years is not really big commitment to int hockey compare to all other leagues....The way how they thinking about WC so far does not obviously help them. But of course it is a matter of opinion....

 

[Jablkon]

I'd like to have both World Cup and Olympics, but I would be thankful to have at least one true best-on-best tournament. Both would be better...well, maybe (hopefully) the NHL will go. But WC is better than nothing.

It is better than nothing. But the point is - why there should be nothing? Maybe I should better clarify in what conditions is hockey made at least in my country. It is completly uncomparable to NHL, but I just want to explain why a lot of people from Europe don't understand to NHL attitude.

The ussual budget of czech club is around 5 000 000 USD. Not sure if I am correct but there are 4 int tournaments during the season (two are in the middle of the season which means two int breaks, KHL does not interrupt the league but they so far let all the players play there). Then you have int friendly matches after the season and then World championschip. The club is practically obliged to let the player play for national team whenever he is chosen (that's why some of the euro players play same amount of games as NHlers). You can imagine that with so many int. matches, the risk of injury is much higher than in one 14days tourney in 4 years. I do not want to compare it to NHL. But you have to notify that, for example in czech, a lot of clubs are heavily dependend on local town donations (smts. 1/3 of the budget) and play in the league with the relegation system. So hypotheticaly loosing two of your best players could have serious consequences for the hockey in entire region...(once you got relegated, it often takes many years to get back, or it could be complete end) I said "hypotheticaly" because there are luckilly not so many injuries in int. games....but that risk is there... So this is the importance of int. hockey here.

And then you listen Bettman saying that NHL has never been in better shape in terms of income,advertising etc.....With all the informations I mentioned above I guess you understand that when I was reading his comment about OG which is, according to him, such a complicated issue with risk of injuries and loosing income, I almost spilled my coffee and laughed....

I am trying to respect different interests etc...Just clarifying more how it sounds to a lot of european fans.....

 

[Jussi]

It is better than nothing. But the point is - why there should be nothing? Maybe I should better clarify the in what conditions is hockey made at least in my country. To be honest is is completly uncomparable to NHL, but I just want to expalin why most a lot of people from Europe don't understand to NHL attitude.

The ussual budget of czech club is around 5 000 000 USD. Not sure if I am correct but there are 4 int tournaments during the season (two are in the middle of the season which means two int breaks, KHL does not interrupt the league but they so far let all the players play there). Then you have int friendly matches after the season and then World championschip. The club is practically obliged to let the player play for national team whenever he is chosen (that's why some of the euro players play same amount of games as NHlers). You can imagine that with so many int. matches, the risk of injury is much higher than in one 14days tourney in 4 years. I do not want to compare it to NHL. But you have to notify that, for example in czech, a lot of clubs are heavily dependend on local town donations (smts. 1/3 of the budget) and play in the league with the relegation system. So hypotheticaly loosing two of your best players could have serious consequences for the hockey in entire region...(once you got releagted, it often takes many years to get back, or it could be complete end) I said "hypotheticaly" because there are luckilly not so many injuries in int. games....but that risk is there... So that is the importance of int. hockey here.

And then you listen Bettman saying that NHL has never been in better shape in terms of income,advertising etc.....With all the informations I mentioned above I guess you understand that when I was reading his comment about OG which is, according to him, such a complicated issue with risk of injuries and loosing income, I almost spilled my coffee and laughed....

I am trying to repsect different interests etc...Just clarifying more how it sounds to a lot of european fans.....

They do for the Russian tournament...

 

[Yakushev72]

Maybe so, it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world. Why should the NHL or NA hockey fans care about what "matters" to you?

Because the NHL is totally dependent on Europe to produce enough talent to put a decent product on the ice. As it stands, the NHL is already the most talent-poor of all of the NA professional sports leagues, and it would be far, far worse if Europe stopped producing talent. The US and Canada don't produce enough top-level talent to support a 30-team league, so the NHL would have to make major slashes in the number of teams, thereby scaling back their revenues and market share to a major degree.

Mainly because of NHL over-harvesting, the Czech and Slovak hockey programs have been picked clean, and are showing signs of dying out. You can't pull all of the crops out of a field and refuse to fertilize for the future, and then expect to have bountiful harvests for the future. It doesn't work that way. The NHL is going to shoot itself in the foot by dropping out of international hockey, but it will plow ahead and do it anyway.

 

[garbageteam]

I can certainly see from the perspective of team owners and those who pay the salaries of the players that it would continue to be a contentious issue to allow them to go and risk injury/fatigue. But outside of that, as a fan of hockey it reeks of a myopic never-been-across-the-pond type mentality that many North Americans have of the world. The NHL and North America by extension is only a fraction of the planet's population and cultures. A 2 week hiatus to participate in the globalized version of the game every four years is not a major commitment or a loss in your viewing time and enjoyment of a league that plays 82 regular season games (in which each individual game hardly matters, it's not like they are interrupting the playoffs) every single year. They don't even replace the games... they just delay them slightly!

Some people just need to get out and see the world more.

Debate about the finances, politics, compensation, player's association etc. all you want, but I can't stand any "fan" of hockey thinking it's detrimental to the sport to take a two week break for it to feature to billions of audiences worldwide. It's beyond stupid.

 

[ForumNamePending]

Thank you also for making my point. By starting best on best international hockey in the first place, by breaking their league for the last 5 Olympics and now trying to organize another World Cup the NHL has clearly shown that they are interested in international hockey. They care more than they should in my opinion.

The NHL started 'best on best' international hockey? Like every other party that had some sort of involvement in the original CC tournament they eventually signed off on it but to say they 'started' it is a huge stretch at best... Actually from anything I have read it's pretty much incorrect.

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

Because the NHL is totally dependent on Europe to produce enough talent to put a decent product on the ice. As it stands, the NHL is already the most talent-poor of all of the NA professional sports leagues, and it would be far, far worse if Europe stopped producing talent. The US and Canada don't produce enough top-level talent to support a 30-team league, so the NHL would have to make major slashes in the number of teams, thereby scaling back their revenues and market share to a major degree.

Mainly because of NHL over-harvesting, the Czech and Slovak hockey programs have been picked clean, and are showing signs of dying out. You can't pull all of the crops out of a field and refuse to fertilize for the future, and then expect to have bountiful harvests for the future. It doesn't work that way. The NHL is going to shoot itself in the foot by dropping out of international hockey, but it will plow ahead and do it anyway.

I think if all the best players were North American and played in the NHL it would actually help the league domestically and make it even more popular in NA and thus more profitable. People do want to see the best possible players competing, but if Europe did not produce any hockey players then the best would just be North Americans and fans would be none the wiser. It actually would stretch the talent gap between the best player in the league and the worst and thus make the star players look even better and more marketable. It is the stars that sell the league. Also it is easier to market domestic kids than foreign one. For example look at the NFL which is the highest grossing league in NA and is virtually all domestic players. By comparison the LPGA has had a very tough time marketing all the new players from Korea to an American audience. I get the angle you are trying to spin but unfortunately your statement that the NHL is dependant on players from Europe just isn't a logical one.

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

The NHL started 'best on best' international hockey? Like every other party that had some sort of involvement in the original CC tournament they eventually signed off on it but to say they 'started' it is a huge stretch at best... Actually from anything I have read it's pretty much incorrect.

What league were the founders of the CCup associated with?

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

There are quite a lot of comments in this thread explaining the opinion that breaking the league once in 4 years is not really big commitment to int hockey compare to all other leagues....The way how they thinking about WC so far does not obviously help them. But of course it is a matter of opinion....

Actually I would say most of these comments don't explain anything, other than that come from a place of resentment and jealousy.

 

[Jonimaus]

I think if all the best players were North American and played in the NHL it would actually help the league domestically and make it even more popular in NA and thus more profitable. People do want to see the best possible players competing, but if Europe did not produce any hockey players then the best would just be North Americans and fans would be none the wiser. It actually would stretch the talent gap between the best player in the league and the worst and thus make the star players look even better and more marketable. It is the stars that sell the league. Also it is easier to market domestic kids than foreign one. For example look at the NFL which is the highest grossing league in NA and is virtually all domestic players. By comparison the LPGA has had a very tough time marketing all the new players from Korea to an American audience. I get the angle you are trying to spin but unfortunately your statement that the NHL is dependant on players from Europe just isn't a logical one.

North america does have a tendancy to only like sports that aren't popular anywhere else (basket excluded), maybe Canada wants to turn hockey into american football or baseball?

Actually I would say most of these comments don't explain anything, other than that come from a place of resentment and jealousy.

Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there. Most of us are perfectly fine with most of the best players playing in the NHL, hockey is not a big enough sport to have the talent split, us wanting to see international tournaments we actually care about has nothing to do with jealousy. Most people here, Canadians included, are smart enough to realize that if the sport of hockey is supposed to survive outside of Canada (and I guess USA?) they would be beyond stupid to pull through with this. It's beyond short sighted, but why should Bettman or the owners care, when the sport of hockey died everywhere except Canada they will be retired.
The only country which wouldn't see a huge drop of interest would be Canada. No other country in the world cares even 10% as much about hockey as they do.

But hey, "why should Canada/NHL care what anyone thinks?", right?

 

[Urbanskog]

I think if all the best players were North American and played in the NHL it would actually help the league domestically and make it even more popular in NA and thus more profitable. People do want to see the best possible players competing, but if Europe did not produce any hockey players then the best would just be North Americans and fans would be none the wiser. It actually would stretch the talent gap between the best player in the league and the worst and thus make the star players look even better and more marketable. It is the stars that sell the league. Also it is easier to market domestic kids than foreign one. For example look at the NFL which is the highest grossing league in NA and is virtually all domestic players. By comparison the LPGA has had a very tough time marketing all the new players from Korea to an American audience. I get the angle you are trying to spin but unfortunately your statement that the NHL is dependant on players from Europe just isn't a logical one.

You'd actually prefer the talent pool to be smaller? Right, who needs players like Kopitar, Jagr, Lundqvist, Selänne, Chara, Malkin, Datsyuk, Ovechkin, Rask and Zetterberg anyway?