Olympics Deadline set (August) - Balls in Bettman’s court

[khay]

2 hours ago, Fanuck said:

There's heavy speculation that the NHL is seriously considering expansion to Europe within the next 5-10 years.  If true it would be absolutely ignorant of them not to participate in the Olympics imo.  That's the only time the NHL is truly,  in its own way, on a global stage getting marketed to future fans/ownership. 

I agree, Olympics is a great place to sell the game and I would love to see NHL players in the Olympics... yet they shunned the previous one without much of a justification. 

 

If expansion to Europe is their justification, then why did they not go to the pervious one? Surely, this idea of expanding to Europe is not new. 

 

[6string]

38 minutes ago, luckylager said:

Didn't mean to come across that way. It's just a topic worth discussion.

I can't wrap my head around how they'd pull it off.

 

I feel like they'd have to have an entirely new division over there for it to work. 

Imagine drafts, trades and a playoff format omg?

 

They would fail us by always having a Europe rep vs. N. American annually for a SCF - what would that prove?

[luckylager]

42 minutes ago, 6string said:

Imagine drafts, trades and a playoff format omg?

 

They would fail us by always having a Europe rep vs. N. American annually for a SCF - what would that prove?

Seems like a crazy dream.

Like how do they introduce just one or two Euro teams at a time? I don't see the NHLPA going for it. 

Edited January 6, 2020 by luckylager

[Fanuck]

16 minutes ago, luckylager said:

 I don't see the NHLPA going for it. 

I don't believe the NHLPA has any say in expansion decisions,  if that's what you are referring to? 

But I don't know that for sure. 

 

Something tells me that if you dangle 30-60'ish full-time NHL jobs/contracts more per season along with a share of increased league revenues (larger cap), I'm certain the PA would look long and hard at that and worry about schedules/playoff formats after they count their money. 

 

Owners are definitely not the only greedy benefactors of this sport.

[luckylager]

3 minutes ago, Fanuck said:

I don't believe the NHLPA has any say in expansion decisions,  if that's what you are referring to? 

But I don't know that for sure. 

 

Something tells me that if you dangle 30-60'ish full-time NHL jobs/contracts more per season along with a share of increased league revenues (larger cap), I'm certain the PA would look long and hard at that and worry about schedules/playoff formats after they count their money. 

 

Owners are definitely not the only greedy benefactors of this sport.

The CBA includes things like travel, rest, days off etc.

They'd have a say to some extent. 12hr flights and the jetlag.

[Fanuck]

2 minutes ago, luckylager said:

The CBA includes things like travel, rest, days off etc.

They'd have a say to some extent. 12hr flights and the jetlag.

I hear you on those points, they are valid concerns from a PA perspective. 

I'm  just going on the fact the PA had no real decision making voice on both Vegas and Seattle expansions recently. 

But yeah,  Europe would be somewhat of a different concept. 

[iinatcc]

It's quite embarrassing for the league to not want their players to participate in the Olympics considering how much these players want to play in these games. Where as in other sports pro-players would rather opt out from playing in the Olympics.

 

The NHL should be greautful 

[BabychStache]

2010 was the single greatest hockey of my lifetime. Nothing comes close to that tourney. 
 

Bring it back already. Put it on NHL Network or whatever streaming service and I’ll put my money where my mouth is. 
 

Players want it, fans want it, let the NHL stream it so the owners get compensated.

 

I want to see Sid lead McD, Mack and Co. Canada is likely the 2 or even 3 seed in that tourney! 

 

 

 

 

[Ghostsof1915]

10 hours ago, luckylager said:

You'd need to land 5 or 6 European teams in the first expansion for it to make sense. And even then the travel, on the Euro teams especially, would be ridiculous.

 

Trying to wrap my head around the scheduling and travel logistics, but I can't. How's that supposed to work in the regular season?

It wouldn't. We might see an NHL Europe league. But it would be two different leagues. Unless the NHL is building a hyper loop to London or Paris. 

Or they are buying a fleet of these? Even with a Mach 2.2 jet. How are you going to play a trip to Europe in the middle of your season?

 

https://boomsupersonic.com/overture

 

[PlanB]

36 minutes ago, BabychStache said:

 Canada is likely the 2 or even 3 seed in that tourney! 

Imo, at the very least, if every player is available,  we're co-favorites in a worlds 'best-vs-best' tournament.   But 3rd seed, that's a stretch unless you're predicting injuries to McJesus, Crosby, MacKinnon, Drouin and Marner as well as some key defenders at the same time.  

[Lancaster]

I remember one of the excuses for not allowing NHL players to go to the previous Olympics was that South Korea was too far... yet it's not an issue now, lol.  

[timberz21]

17 hours ago, grandmaster said:

I have no faith in Bettman doing anything good for the game. All he cares about is his greedy owners and himself. 

Kind of contradictory don't you think?  If Bettman doesn't grow the game, it doesn't serve his greedy owners nor himself. 

 

Sadly, it's not a game anymore, it's a business and as much as I hate Bettman also, you can't argue he hasn't serve the business well (not to say, extremely well).  Vegas' and Seattle's expansion fee is a good evidence of that.  Without the NHL or the "business", the game would be an afterthought, it would be competing against the CFL or curling, instead of the MLB, NBA and NFL.

 

With that said, I do think Bettman has taken the game as far as he could, and the league could benefit from a new voice, just like the NBA and MLB has with Silver and Manfred in recent years.

[grandmaster]

35 minutes ago, timberz21 said:

Kind of contradictory don't you think?  If Bettman doesn't grow the game, it doesn't serve his greedy owners nor himself. 

 

Sadly, it's not a game anymore, it's a business and as much as I hate Bettman also, you can't argue he hasn't serve the business well (not to say, extremely well).  Vegas' and Seattle's expansion fee is a good evidence of that.  Without the NHL or the "business", the game would be an afterthought, it would be competing against the CFL or curling, instead of the MLB, NBA and NFL.

 

With that said, I do think Bettman has taken the game as far as he could, and the league could benefit from a new voice, just like the NBA and MLB has with Silver and Manfred in recent years.

The Olympics is a display of the worlds greatest athletes and is enjoyed by every hockey fan when our best are in there. 
 

The business side of of delivering the NHL to China for those couple weeks is not cost effective for them. The good of the game I speak of is doing what the fans and players want, not just the damn dollars. 
 

I think a lot of what Bettman has done is a natural progression of what was already going to happen. He is a little snake lawyer type who has absolutely no emotional ties for the game of hockey. 

[grandmaster]

4 hours ago, Lancaster said:

I remember one of the excuses for not allowing NHL players to go to the previous Olympics was that South Korea was too far... yet it's not an issue now, lol.  

Well I’m the eyes of Bettman and the owners and still is. They may not have said it but when they say disruptive to their schedule, this is definitely a factor in their minds.

Edited January 6, 2020 by grandmaster

[Lancaster]

Just now, grandmaster said:

Well I’m the eyes of Bettman and the owners and still is. They may not have said it but when they say disruptive to their schedule, this is definitely a factor in their minds.

If that's the case, they shouldn't go to Beijing either.  

China isn't any closer.  If it's about "marketing", then they're just saying it's all about money, eg. "Larger, money-making Olympics" - Yes to NHL players.  "Smaller Olympics with limited financial opportunities" - No to NHL players.

[grandmaster]

7 hours ago, iinatcc said:

It's quite embarrassing for the league to not want their players to participate in the Olympics considering how much these players want to play in these games. Where as in other sports pro-players would rather opt out from playing in the Olympics.

 

The NHL should be greautful 

We the fans are grateful.
 

Hockey players are also generally very patriotic people and come from several power house hockey countries that they can represent. The NBA for example is predominantly US players, so it makes no sense in having a country rivalry anywhere near the scale of what is in the NHL.

[timberz21]

1 hour ago, grandmaster said:

The Olympics is a display of the worlds greatest athletes and is enjoyed by every hockey fan when our best are in there. 
 

The business side of of delivering the NHL to China for those couple weeks is not cost effective for them. The good of the game I speak of is doing what the fans and players want, not just the damn dollars. 
 

I think a lot of what Bettman has done is a natural progression of what was already going to happen. He is a little snake lawyer type who has absolutely no emotional ties for the game of hockey. 

Isn't that one of the best recipe for business?  These businessman aren't rich for nothing.

 

Bettman isn't stupid.  They've been doing promotional tour in China, they know it's an important market.  With the main revenues now from TV rights and brand, rather than box-office, he knows what the China games represent in terms of marketability.  IMO, the NHL will be in China for the Olympics games, but he's too good of a snake lawyer to let that out in the open right now.  He will bluff until the last minute.  South Korea wasn't the same opportunity in marketability than China is, so negligible to miss it.  Chinese Olympics committee is also richer than South Korea, wouldn't be surprise they front the money to make sure the NHL is compensated for their participation.  That's just how I see it.

Edited January 6, 2020 by timberz21

[MikeBossy]

I think before any talk about expansion or even the Olympics ol Uncle Gary really needs to let go of his Arizona dreams and move the damn team - with how well they are playing they still only average 14,602 fans a game or a capacity of only 85.3% - then there's Florida as well operating at a whopping 13,518 fans or 79.3% - then again is it just a stadium issue as the Islanders and Sens are lower in attendance and it seems like location is an issue - at least with the Islanders. 

 

Anyways i don't see the benefit in it for the owners to stop the league for the amount of time to participate and the risk of injuries to players. Canada needs to go back to developing an Olympic hockey program like we had in the old days. Let the young kids in college hockey etc have a chance on the big stage.

[apollo]

20 hours ago, nuckin_futz said:

They're not going. The owners hate having their season disrupted.

 

Plus it's in Beijing. That's a hell of a flight. If it was somewhere in North America maybe, but I still doubt it.

Yup. I have no problem with this. There's absolutely no reason the NHL should go.

 

The Canucks would be one of the top teams negatively impacted by this... we would probably have 10+ olympic athletes and I'd rather they don't go risk injury.

 

Could care less about beijing seeing NHLers... they have TVs to watch NHL games if they want to see NHL talent whats the big deal?

 

It's a crucial year in our cup window and I see 0 reason to risk it.

 

These players all make top dollar and should abide their contracts. Leave it for the lower tier players to get a chance they wouldn't otherwise get to play for their countries.

 

[apollo]

4 minutes ago, MikeBossy said:

I think before any talk about expansion or even the Olympics ol Uncle Gary really needs to let go of his Arizona dreams and move the damn team - with how well they are playing they still only average 14,602 fans a game or a capacity of only 85.3% - then there's Florida as well operating at a whopping 13,518 fans or 79.3% - then again is it just a stadium issue as the Islanders and Sens are lower in attendance and it seems like location is an issue - at least with the Islanders. 

 

Anyways i don't see the benefit in it for the owners to stop the league for the amount of time to participate and the risk of injuries to players. Canada needs to go back to developing an Olympic hockey program like we had in the old days. Let the young kids in college hockey etc have a chance on the big stage.

Exactly. Why not let other guys shine in hopes of them potentially getting NHL contracts?