VanGnome Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 16 minutes ago, Dral said: So.... you haven't watched the Olympics in years right? What's confusing about what I said? I still watch the olympics, but professionals participating is not the core reason as to why I watch. Unlike a lot of people who I've spoken to and said they wouldn't watch unless there were professionals playing. Maybe I'm just a rare breed and don't believe that professional athletes are entitled to every international stage event. There's still a huge difference between amateurs who train for olympics as a job through grants and program funding, vs a professional in their sport who are paid in most cases millions of dollars to train, work out and compete in their respective leagues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skolozsy2 Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 13 minutes ago, Dral said: So.... you haven't watched the Olympics in years right? I dont think he implied he/she doesnt watch, i think he implied he doesnt watch solely because the professionals are playing. He/She is gonna watch regardless of whose playing because he enjoys the competition, enjoys the game of hockey, and enjoys cheering on his country. "The name on the front of the jersey means a helluva lot more than the name on the back." Herb Brooks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alflives Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Lots of respect of Ovechkin's comments. Plus, very impressed with his ability to write in English, and still convey his feelings so very well. Still hate all the teams, but our great Canucks, but hate the Caps a bit less than before reading this article. Could we get OV to talk to Tryamkin about coming back here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Biestra Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 I wish everyone would boycott attendance of NHL games for the entire period the Olympics are happening, so there is no revenue for the NHL anyways. Hockey fans get taken for granted like no other fans, and keep coming back to Bettman and his league like a battered housewife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khay Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 12 hours ago, skolozsy2 said: Sure there is a tradition of sending professionals since '98 in Nagano, but there was also a tradition of not sending professionals before Nagano. Its hard to say its okay to break one tradition but not okay to break another tradition. And I'm sure the sports fans around the world watched the gold medal games before the professionals started going. And not everyone found enjoyment out of the 2010 golden goal or Canadian domination of 2014. I'm sure countries like Norway dont get all that excited about watching their team get humiliated on the ice just because it was Canadian professionals doing it. From the perspective of growing the game, breaking the tradition of not sending the NHL players before Nagano was a good thing. Breaking the tradition of sending players, not so good. Norway fans probably didn't enjoy the humiliation of getting defeated 10-0 or whatever the score, but the very same things happened for soccer. Soccer has been the sport for South Americans and the Europeans in the early stages. First non-European/South American team to participate (based on my quick search on Wikipedia) is South Korea in 1954. That team got destroyed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_FIFA_World_Cup) 9-0 to Hungary, 7-0 to Turkey. The 9-0 loss to Hungary is still to date, the worst defeat in the history of World cup. Wonder what happened to Korean soccer since then? They made World cup starting from 1986, for 9 straight times, including qualifying for 2018 World cup. Sure, they are in Asia where the competition is weak, but this is feat that is achieved only by Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, and Spain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_team_appearances_in_the_FIFA_World_Cup). What else did they achieve? They co-hosted their own World cup in 2002 with Japan, and they reached the semi finals that year as well as round of 16 in 2010. As you can see, progression takes time. As can be seen in the case of South Korea, it took them 48 years since 1954 World cup to get past the group stages. The similar process is going to be needed for hockey to grow. But the problem is that hockey is not as easily accessible as soccer and there is no world stage tournament that the people around the world pay attention to other than the olympics. The olympics is the prime stage to sell hockey and just because NHL doesn't have a control over it and the profits generated from it, they are refusing to send the players. I understand the view point from the owners, their greed is already well known to us fans, but man are they short sighted? Sell the game, grow the game consistently, and you have chance to make more money. Think about the potential jersey sales in Asia for example. I think hockey is an exciting sport that has a chance to become popular at the global scale. Probably not at the level of soccer but surely at the level of NBA and MLB. Don't know why NHL can't think big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRick Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Too bad for Ovi. This would have been his best chance to win a Olympic gold medal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skolozsy2 Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 8 minutes ago, Kevin Biestra said: I wish everyone would boycott attendance of NHL games for the entire period the Olympics are happening, so there is no revenue for the NHL anyways. Hockey fans get taken for granted like no other fans, and keep coming back to Bettman and his league like a battered housewife. Yeah, that's great and all, but i already paid for my season tickets back in May. Is anyone gonna reimburse for those games i'm supposed to boycott or am i just supposed suck it up because some guy on the internet thinks i should stick it to the NHL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Biestra Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 35 minutes ago, skolozsy2 said: Yeah, that's great and all, but i already paid for my season tickets back in May. Is anyone gonna reimburse for those games i'm supposed to boycott or am i just supposed suck it up because some guy on the internet thinks i should stick it to the NHL? If you have season tickets then fine, go. I would just prefer that people don't buy the outstanding tickets for those games. But it's not like I'm able to influence the collective of North American hockey fans. I'm just suggesting the only thing I can think of that fans could do to actually correct the Olympic situation. People are constantly suggesting petitions which Bettman will frame and laugh at in his evil lair, or else mass scale season or lifetime boycotts that are unreasonable and impractical. This is a doable boycott of a small window of games that relates directly to the Olympic window where the league and owners can do a direct and simple calculation on lost revenue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skolozsy2 Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 12 minutes ago, khay said: From the perspective of growing the game, breaking the tradition of not sending the NHL players before Nagano was a good thing. Breaking the tradition of sending players, not so good. Norway fans probably didn't enjoy the humiliation of getting defeated 10-0 or whatever the score, but the very same things happened for soccer. Soccer has been the sport for South Americans and the Europeans in the early stages. First non-European/South American team to participate (based on my quick search on Wikipedia) is South Korea in 1954. That team got destroyed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_FIFA_World_Cup) 9-0 to Hungary, 7-0 to Turkey. The 9-0 loss to Hungary is still to date, the worst defeat in the history of World cup. Wonder what happened to Korean soccer since then? They made World cup starting from 1986, for 9 straight times, including qualifying for 2018 World cup. Sure, they are in Asia where the competition is weak, but this is feat that is achieved only by Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, and Spain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_team_appearances_in_the_FIFA_World_Cup). What else did they achieve? They co-hosted their own World cup in 2002 with Japan, and they reached the semi finals that year as well as round of 16 in 2010. As you can see, progression takes time. As can be seen in the case of South Korea, it took them 48 years since 1954 World cup to get past the group stages. The similar process is going to be needed for hockey to grow. But the problem is that hockey is not as easily accessible as soccer and there is no world stage tournament that the people around the world pay attention to other than the olympics. The olympics is the prime stage to sell hockey and just because NHL doesn't have a control over it and the profits generated from it, they are refusing to send the players. I understand the view point from the owners, their greed is already well known to us fans, but man are they short sighted? Sell the game, grow the game consistently, and you have chance to make more money. Think about the potential jersey sales in Asia for example. I think hockey is an exciting sport that has a chance to become popular at the global scale. Probably not at the level of soccer but surely at the level of NBA and MLB. Don't know why NHL can't think big. I understand what you're saying, and i cant speak for all areas, but where i live, hockey and soccer arent comparable. In my town, travel soccer fees are $200. Travel hockey fees are $4000....and that doesn't include travel costs, tournament fees, hotel accommodations, or equipment. By the end of the season my parents will be spending close to $6000. Hockey will always be tough sport to promote because no matter how much the child may love hockey, if the parents cant afford it, then the kid aint playing. Whether the Olympics has professionals or amateurs wont change that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khay Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 1 hour ago, skolozsy2 said: I understand what you're saying, and i cant speak for all areas, but where i live, hockey and soccer arent comparable. In my town, travel soccer fees are $200. Travel hockey fees are $4000....and that doesn't include travel costs, tournament fees, hotel accommodations, or equipment. By the end of the season my parents will be spending close to $6000. Hockey will always be tough sport to promote because no matter how much the child may love hockey, if the parents cant afford it, then the kid aint playing. Whether the Olympics has professionals or amateurs wont change that. Hard to argue against the cost of the game being the barrier. At the same time, I think popularity of the sport will help bring down the costs associated with the game. As more people want to play the game, it's going to create room for innovation and reduction in cost. Also, I think more kids (parents) in Asia are able to afford the cost. China, Korea, and Japan have quite a lot of rich people and it should be the next market for the NHL to try to break in to. As I said, it will never be as big as soccer but it has chance to grow to the levels of NBA and MLB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skolozsy2 Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 3 hours ago, khay said: Hard to argue against the cost of the game being the barrier. At the same time, I think popularity of the sport will help bring down the costs associated with the game. As more people want to play the game, it's going to create room for innovation and reduction in cost. Also, I think more kids (parents) in Asia are able to afford the cost. China, Korea, and Japan have quite a lot of rich people and it should be the next market for the NHL to try to break in to. As I said, it will never be as big as soccer but it has chance to grow to the levels of NBA and MLB. In Chicago, unfortunately, the popularity of the sport has only driven up the price. In 2009, before the Hawks started winning Cups, we had 18 squirt teams in our league. This year we have 78 squirt teams in the league. We went from 11 high school teams in 2009 to 56 this year. There is such a demand for ice slots that we went from getting $150 for an hour of ice to now getting $450 for an hour of ice. We're not even asking for it, organizations are offering that because they just flat out cant get ice anywhere. And all that is doing is driving up season's fees higher and higher. It sucks, but unfortunately the growing popularity has only made the sport even more expensive. Unfortunately, i dont see that trend ending anytime soon, atleast not around here. I hope its different for other countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBatch Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 Read this a few days ago on NHL.com. Reading it he's obviously upset that the NHL has successfully blocked any players from actually getting invitations. He also saw it as an opportunity to win a gold medal given that if they were allowed, just banned from the NHL he was going anyways. If KHLers went and he joined them they surely would beat Canada right? Bettman is a disgrace for this, IMO worse than taking the players to task on the salary cap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBatch Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 16 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said: If you have season tickets then fine, go. I would just prefer that people don't buy the outstanding tickets for those games. But it's not like I'm able to influence the collective of North American hockey fans. I'm just suggesting the only thing I can think of that fans could do to actually correct the Olympic situation. People are constantly suggesting petitions which Bettman will frame and laugh at in his evil lair, or else mass scale season or lifetime boycotts that are unreasonable and impractical. This is a doable boycott of a small window of games that relates directly to the Olympic window where the league and owners can do a direct and simple calculation on lost revenue. Bettman knows after three lockouts including an entire season, that he can do whatever the owners want him to do the NHLPA, and whatever he wants to the fans, we always come back and spend our money, even when the going gets tough during the housing crisis people still spent enough money for salaries to rise. Personally I'm for retraction, the league is too big, the franchise talent too thin, and best hockey is decades gone. 20-22 teams was perfect, every team could have several stars, some like MTL, ISL and EDM an embarrassment of riches. The league under Bettmans watch has become a well oiled machine with money as it's goal, not on ice product. I bet he has hopes to expand into Europe once he runs out of the remaining viable North American cities, and we have two Conferences, one in North America, the other everywhere else, and they play each other for the cup in an 70 team league. Evil lair for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyoung Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 On 15/09/2017 at 4:17 PM, skolozsy2 said: I understand what you're saying, and i cant speak for all areas, but where i live, hockey and soccer arent comparable. In my town, travel soccer fees are $200. Travel hockey fees are $4000....and that doesn't include travel costs, tournament fees, hotel accommodations, or equipment. By the end of the season my parents will be spending close to $6000. Hockey will always be tough sport to promote because no matter how much the child may love hockey, if the parents cant afford it, then the kid aint playing. Whether the Olympics has professionals or amateurs wont change that. Yup hockey costs are an absolute joke. I'm really Hoping my kid doesn't give a $&!# about playing lol. I loved it but looking back.... If I was my parents I would have never spent all that money on me and all my sisters playing haha (koodos to them). Money is harder to come by now days anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmetts Posted September 24, 2017 Share Posted September 24, 2017 On 2017-09-15 at 1:47 PM, VanGnome said: What's confusing about what I said? I still watch the olympics, but professionals participating is not the core reason as to why I watch. Unlike a lot of people who I've spoken to and said they wouldn't watch unless there were professionals playing. Maybe I'm just a rare breed and don't believe that professional athletes are entitled to every international stage event. There's still a huge difference between amateurs who train for olympics as a job through grants and program funding, vs a professional in their sport who are paid in most cases millions of dollars to train, work out and compete in their respective leagues. The only difference is the sport that has million dollar contracts is a publicly watched sport and the sports that have grants and public funding are rare sports that few watch or care for most years. If 10 million people in canada watched rowing those atheletes would also be millionaires paid by someone on a large contract. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.