Bettman: NHL wants to make another world cup, players Association seems to have no interest

[Pookie]

Olympics with Professionals on Eastern time zone friendly continents or World Cup... it’s all a cash grab.

 

[JETZZZ]

With the IOC run by criminals and the NHL non trustworthy enough to organize a non gimmick frivolous tournament, the IIHF should assume the mantle for best v bests.

Considering NHLers are allowed to participate in the Worlds, perhaps once every 4 years it should be held right before the NHL season. Best v best.

Personally, Id like to see the NHL regular season start Sept 1st, and bump everything up a month. Wrap up the playoffs around the middle of May, and start the Worlds on June 1st.
But yeah, between the IOC, NHL, and the IIHF, the IIHF are the only ones that seem genuinely interested in a best-on-best tournament for mens ice hockey.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Canada is in America.

No it's in North America. America is slang for the united states.

I don't get why people give a shit about this.

 

[Faterson]

No it's in North America.

North America is in America...

Imprecise "slang" notwithstanding, what unites "Americans" with Canadians is their overemphasis on money in sports, as if money were more important than sports, rather than vice versa, which appears to be the "European" attitude.

 

[Zine]

What’s laughable is, in this country, the non-NHL olympic final had a higher rating than did the most watched World Cup game (US v Canada). That’s ridiculous considering we werent even playing.

Television Ratings for the World Cup of Hockey
Olympic Ratings: NBCSN, Men’s Hockey, Men’s Curling, Late Night

So more people in the US wanted to watch KHLers/DELers play for gold over their own team USA at the world cup?
That’s freaking outstanding.lol world cup and bettman.

 

[gwh]

What’s laughable is, in this country, the non-NHL olympic final had a higher rating than did the most watched World Cup game (US v Canada). That’s ridiculous considering we werent even playing.

Television Ratings for the World Cup of Hockey
Olympic Ratings: NBCSN, Men’s Hockey, Men’s Curling, Late Night

Check out the NHL playoffs versus IIHF worlds ratings for Canada couple years back.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Well, also money. Crosby and the others gave up like 3 weeks of their off season training to play and the winning side for $100k each?

Most of the team canada guys make that in 4 periods of regular season hockey.

Not really a financial windfall for them for playing.

Does any sport in the Olympics pay their athletes like that?

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

North America is in America...

Imprecise "slang" notwithstanding, what unites "Americans" with Canadians is their overemphasis on money in sports, as if money were more important than sports, rather than vice versa, which appears to be the "European" attitude.

You are completely full of shit.

Professional sports exist because they generate money. It doesn't matter what half of the globe those sports exist in. How much money does Rinaldo make? Pretty sure it isn't an American paying him.

 

[stampedingviking]

I think the entire hockey world would watch the best-on-best & those that watch hockey only at the Olympics would watch the Olympics

Olympic hockey would become like Olympic soccer, meaningless

EDIT - I don't see this scenario as a realistic possibility, just a hypothetical. If I do imagine it I'd think the NHL (and the IIHF) running a competing tournament might make the IOC drop hockey (assuming the winter Olympics are still being held)

For most hockey fans (excluding Can/US), the Olympics is the top ice hockey competition in the world.

Just because North American ice hockey want their own competition to milk the saps, sorry fans, in NA doesn't mean it will be better than the Olympics. The Olympics has history, something NA lacks.

 

[Nino33]

North America is in America...

Imprecise "slang" notwithstanding, what unites "Americans" with Canadians is their overemphasis on money in sports, as if money were more important than sports, rather than vice versa, which appears to be the "European" attitude.

Strange that when it comes to the best European hockey players in the world the "European attitude" doesn't exist as they're all focused on the money and none of them choose Europe over the NHL

I think the "European attitude" you're describing is just a hate for NA/the NHL

P.S With the European fixation of people over money, do the European football/soccer players need to borrow some money from NA athletes? Are you teams not making enough money? Or is the overemphasis of money something that exists outside of NA? Maybe the football/soccer players could participate in the Olympics to make increase their worldwide popularity...you know, for the people and the sport

 

[stampedingviking]

Why are you comparing an Olympic gold medal game with a regular season NHL game? The 2018 SCF averaged almost 5 million viewers (the gold medal game 1 million) Stanley Cup Finals television ratings - Wikipedia

NHL hockey is doing just fine for significance (5th highest league in revenue worldwide) List of professional sports leagues by revenue - Wikipedia and the NHL already has the best players in the world.

Best-on-best is what's meaningful, not really how many people watch (the bulk of the Olympic audience that pays attention once every 4 years is definitely insignificant to hockey & their watching doesn't do anything to make it meaningful/significant)

You really believe that?

Really?

I suppose you do, actually, because that's the only way to try and convince yourself that the Mickey Mouse Cup is better than the Olympics.

 

[Nino33]

For most hockey fans (excluding Can/US), the Olympics is the top ice hockey competition in the world.

You're describing fans of the Olympics (not hockey) or rabid nationalists, not "most hockey fans" - the 2018 gold medal game had similar ratings to a regular season NHL game (and 3-5 times less than recent SCF games)

 

[stampedingviking]

North America is in America...

Imprecise "slang" notwithstanding, what unites "Americans" with Canadians is their overemphasis on money in sports, as if money were more important than sports, rather than vice versa, which appears to be the "European" attitude.

North America is seen as both Canada and US. America is slang for US.

As for the rest of the post,

 

[stampedingviking]

You're describing fans of the Olympics (not hockey) or rabid nationalists, not "most hockey fans" - the 2018 gold medal game had similar ratings to a regular season NHL game (and 3-5 times less than recent SCF games)

That's North Americans, not all hockey fans.

Easy to get that wrong when N Americans are so insular and believe they are/have the best of everything.

 

[Nino33]

You really believe that?

Really?

I suppose you do, actually, because that's the only way to try and convince yourself that the Mickey Mouse Cup is better than the Olympics.

No one does that. I hated the 2016 WC format, only watched a bit of a couple group games, and refused to watch Team NA/Team Europe on principal....none of the criticisms against the 2016 WC make the Olympics relevant on their own...best-on-best matters, not the Olympics

As Hanji's link said, for NBC the 2018 Olympic hockey gold medal game ratings were down 74% from 2014! and they were down 96% from 2010! Also, they Olympic gold medal game barely beat a regular season NHL game that weekend (1 million viewers to 966K viewers) and fell far below the NHL SCF

My understanding is NBC is the single largest advertiser to the Olympics, and about 50% of all Olympic advertisers are American...losing 74/96 percent of your audience probably matters a lot more than you think!

 

[PattyLafontaine]

Gee the guy who will not admit that CTE is a problem in hockey will not admit that people don’t give a crap about the World Cup andcwant NHL players in the Olympics,

quelle surprise.....

 

[Nino33]

That's North Americans, not all hockey fans.

Easy to get that wrong when N Americans are so insular and believe they are/have the best of everything.

Again, you're confusing fans of the Olympics with fans of hockey

And North Americans don't think they have the best of everything.
The hockey world, including North Americans, does know that NA actually does have has best hockey players/league in the world (that seems to really upset those who support the Olympics and bash NA/the NHL...but it's reality)



Fans of the Olympics can continue to watch and cheer and think they're more important than anything else...go ahead, nobody's stopping you (that's how it was before 1998)...I hope you and other supporters of the Olympics really enjoyed 2018 and the NHL not being involved as that may be the way of the future

 

[Nino33]

The Olympics has history, something NA lacks.

Olympic gold for hockey started in 1920, Stanley Cup in 1893

And the Olympic history for hockey prior to 1998 is basically meaningless to anyone outside an Olympic fan (the Olympic history of Canada winning with senior men's amateur teams, or Soviet professionals playing against lower amateurs from the rest of the world and achieving dominance by treating their players like prisoners, this is not good/positive history).....plus there's the more recent history of financial/drug cheats and cities not wanting the events anymore (and those that did host them greatly suffering for doing so)...LOTS of negative history with the Olympics

 

[Hanji]

Olympic gold for hockey started in 1920, Stanley Cup in 1893

And the Olympic history for hockey prior to 1998 is basically meaningless to anyone outside an Olympic fan (the Olympic history of Canada winning with senior men's amateur teams, or Soviet professionals playing against lower amateurs from the rest of the world and achieving dominance by treating their players like prisoners, this is not good/positive history).....plus there's the more recent history of financial/drug cheats and cities not wanting the events anymore (and those that did host them greatly suffering for doing so)...LOTS of negative history with the Olympics

Meaningless to anyone outside an Olympic fan? 1980 begs to differ. The 1980 tournament is, arguably, the greatest sports victory in the history of our country.

(Meaningless non-NHL) Olympic hockey in 1980>>>>>>>>>>>>>> every Stanley Cup combined. It's not even a contest. Not remotely close.

 

[Hanji]

No one does that. I hated the 2016 WC format, only watched a bit of a couple group games, and refused to watch Team NA/Team Europe on principal....none of the criticisms against the 2016 WC make the Olympics relevant on their own...best-on-best matters, not the Olympics

As Hanji's link said, for NBC the 2018 Olympic hockey gold medal game ratings were down 74% from 2014! and they were down 96% from 2010! Also, they Olympic gold medal game barely beat a regular season NHL game that weekend (1 million viewers to 966K viewers) and fell far below the NHL SCF

My understanding is NBC is the single largest advertiser to the Olympics, and about 50% of all Olympic advertisers are American...losing 74/96 percent of your audience probably matters a lot more than you think!

This doesn't help your case. The NHL regular season game you cite was one of the highest rated in years, yet the American public still chose to watch KHLers instead.

I agree though, best v best is what matters. However, within the context of best v best, global viewership is generally a reflection of legitimacy.

 

[Nino33]

This doesn't help your case. The NHL regular season game you cite was one of the highest rated in years, yet the American public still chose to watch KHLers instead.

It was regular season game against the gold medal game!.....trying to pretend that's a fair/relevant comparison doesn't help your case

The vast majority of the American public choose to ignore the Olympics and hockey altogether...the Olympic gold medal game and the regular season NHL game had basically the same interest from the US viewers

A more relevant comparison to a gold medal game would be a SCF game...and any game from the 2018 SCF dwarfed the 2018 Olympic gold medal game viewership

I agree though, best v best is what matters. However, within the context of best v best, global viewership is generally a reflection of legitimacy.

For me how many people are watching doesn't affect whether it's best-on-best, the level of competition does

 

[Nino33]

Meaningless to anyone outside an Olympic fan? 1980 begs to differ. The 1980 tournament is, arguably, the greatest sports victory in the history of our country.

(Meaningless non-NHL) Olympic hockey in 1980>>>>>>>>>>>>>> every Stanley Cup combined. It's not even a contest. Not remotely close.

I suspect the average American couldn't name a single player of the 1980 team, nor would they know the game against the Soviets wasn't shown live, wasn't shown in it's entirety, and wasn't a gold medal game

For me any continued shouts of "USA! USA!" are still all about politics (and the rabid nationalism I dislike) and have nothing to do with the relevance of hockey competition (the mighty Soviet professional slaves lost to college kids at a particular time in history politically is the story, not the meaningfulness of Olympic competition/hockey)




If Olympic hockey matters as you're claiming (rather than the 1980 story being about politics/etc) then why are NHLers needed to be involved in the Olympics?

Let the NHLers stay in the NHL, and the US battle OAR in the Olympics like the US battled the Soviets in the past, where one victory can be worth more than every Stanley Cup combined!

 

[Hanji]

It was regular season game against the gold medal game!.....trying to pretend that's a fair/relevant comparison doesn't help your case

The vast majority of the American public choose to ignore the Olympics and hockey altogether...the Olympic gold medal game and the regular season NHL game had basically the same interest from the US viewers

A more relevant comparison to a gold medal game would be a SCF game...and any game from the 2018 SCF dwarfed the 2018 Olympic gold medal game viewership

For me how many people are watching doesn't affect whether it's best-on-best, the level of competition does

Keep in mind, it was a game without American participation. That Americans chose to watch KHLers over the NHL regular season is quite foretelling.

Considering as such, a more apt comparison for the SCF is when Team USA is in contention for gold at the OG. The last time this occurred (with non-NHL participation), olympic hockey viewership outdrew every Stanley Cup Final game, quite easily.
"In 1992, the United States-Unified Team’s semifinal game in Albertville, France, was seen by 11.7 million."
Minor Miracle on Ice: A Stunning Audience

 

[Nino33]

Keep in mind, it was a game without American participation. That Americans chose to watch KHLers over the NHL regular season is quite foretelling.

Considering as such, a more apt comparison for the SCF is when Team USA is in contention for gold at the OG. The last time this occurred (with non-NHL participation), olympic hockey viewership outdrew every Stanley Cup Final game, quite easily.
"In 1992, the United States-Unified Team’s semifinal game in Albertville, France, was seen by 11.7 million."
Minor Miracle on Ice: A Stunning Audience

I look at the numbers of regular viewers of hockey (week in and week out, year after year) and compare them to the Olympics (once every 4 years) and what immediately comes to mind is the vast majority of Americans watching Olympic hockey aren't hockey fans

I know so many Americans need it to be about them to be interested (as you pointed out) and I'm not a fan of such American egocentrism, and it doesn't make the Olympic hockey more relevant as a best-on-best competition just because more Americans will watch for such reasons