Why The NHL isn`t Olympics Bound

Cobra.....
Today the WCH tourney started with an abundance of NHL "stars" in fold encouraged by the NHL to take part even tho one of the many excuses given by the NHL for not participating in the Olympics was possible injuries to star players.....so I`ll assume that players don`t get hurt in the WHC.....

OR......could it be....



The NHL and NHL Players' Association are expected to split about $65 million in pure profit from the World Cup of Hockey, but the federations that are assembling the teams won't be seeing any of the big money.
So let’s say the SM Liiga in Finland, along with its players’ association, wanted to start a World Cup of Hockey of its own. And let’s say that in exchange for getting NHL and NHL Players’ Association approval and sanction, it was offering each of them $500,000 plus the ticket revenue from one pre-tournament game. Suffice to say that after the negotiators from the NHL and NHLPA got back onto their chairs and recovered from their laughing fit, they’d probably walk out the door, never to be seen again. But that’s exactly what’s happening, in reverse, in the 2016 World Cash Grab of Hockey™. The event is expected to generate about $130 million in revenues and $65 million in profits, which will be split 50/50 between the NHL and the players. The federations that have developed the players and will be allowing the World Cash Grab™ to use their logos and players, meanwhile, will be receiving a pittance. Each country that has a team in the tournament will receive just $500,000, plus the ticket profits from one pre-tournament game. That’s it. The organizers will also pay tournament expenses for each federation for a delegation of 38 people, which includes the 23 players. Hockey Canada and USA Hockey will split the earnings for Team North America because they are jointly assembling the team, and the federations of countries involved with Team Europe will split their proceeds. For some of those teams, the return on those games will be better than others. It’s hard to imagine the Finland vs. Sweden game at the 12,000-seat Scandinavium in Gothenburg will make as much for the Swedish federation as USA Hockey will pull in for the Canada–USA game Sept. 9 at the 18,000-seat Nationwide Arena in Columbus. There will be 12 pre-tournament games, meaning eight of them will be used to pay the participating teams, with the other four going, well, you know where those will go. It’s mind-boggling, really. The organizers of the World Cash Grab™ would not be able to hold a tournament without the federations being on board. Kind of makes you wonder why the International Ice Hockey Federation signed off on it, given the fact that the NHL seems so reticent to participate in the Olympics. So why would IIHF president Rene Fasel not have more leveraged Olympic participation, making it contingent on the IIHF signing off on the World Cash Grab™? Once again, you’re required to follow the money. The World Championship is the IIHF’s single-biggest revenue producer of each year. If the IIHF were to withhold its federations from taking part in the World Cup to pressure the NHL into taking part in the Olympics, the NHL would simply tell its players to stay home from the World Championship. It’s a vicious cycle where the NHL ultimately holds most of the power. So really, the bodies who have the most to gain from growing the game on a global level, the NHL and the IIHF, are all for growing the game, if that’s one of the by-products of them making all sorts of money. The money each federation receives does not include paying those who are members of the support staff. That’s not really a problem in Canada because almost all of them volunteer their time for the event and have only their expenses paid and some of the rest are contracted out. But with the European federations, the support staff is on a full-time wage, which means the minimum four weeks spent on the tournament – training camps open Sept. 4 and the tournament ends Sept. 29 at the earliest – federations will be paying their employees, plus an extra stipend for each day they’re involved in international competition. Doesn’t sound like much of a deal for the federations. But hey, they’re helping to grow the game. At least that’s what those involved in the World Cash Grab of Hockey™ are saying. Despite the fact it will all take place in one city in Canada and there will be two teams competing that don’t even belong to one country, this is going to be a vehicle for growing the game on a global level. Not so sure about that, but one thing that will be growing, thanks in part to a sweetheart deal with the federations, is the NHL and NHLPA’s coffers.

Note
the NHL or the NHLPA don`t make squat in the Olympics.....

The head of ice hockey's international body says there is a strong possibility that NHL players won't be competing at the next Winter Olympics.

International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel puts the chances at 60 percent that the NHL will decline to go to the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, because of a lack of money to cover player insurance.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Fasel said the IOC has canceled its contribution to player travel and insurance costs for Pyeongchang, leaving the IIHF facing a $10 million shortfall and "begging" for money around the world.

"It's always difficult to get (to) the Olympics, the games," he said. "And now with some problems on our side, 50-50 is very positive. I would be more 60 percent that they are not coming."

Negotiations and brinkmanship over finances are common in the lead-up to Olympic hockey tournaments. For the 2014 tournament in Sochi, Russia, the NHL's participation was assured only in July 2013, seven months before the games.

The IOC's refusal to cover player insurance adds an additional dimension for 2018.

The NHL did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, but Commissioner Gary Bettman has made it clear costs are a key factor.

"There are real costs to us going, including insurance, including transportation because we're losing part of our season, we've got to get in and out quickly," Bettman said last month at a meeting of the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York. "The players for the last five Olympics in particular have been accommodated in a certain way as far as it relates to their families. Those are issues that would once again have to be resolved. ... I'm not sure that there would be a lot of appetite for us on top of that to have to pay for the privilege. We don't make money going to then Olympics."

Bettman said he didn't expect a decision until after the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto in September.

While the IOC gives the IIHF around $40 million of revenue each Olympics, Fasel insists that money is earmarked for developing hockey and wants national Olympic committees and hockey federations to plug the gap.

The IOC pulled its extra subsidy because its leaders are "a bit scared that other (sports) federations will come and also ask for some compensation for traveling and insurance," said Fasel, who is also an IOC member and serves on its rule-making executive board.

"I think my idea is to work closer together with the national Olympic committees, as they have normally to pay transportation and insurance for the athletes when they come to the games, so I can imagine that some of the NOCs are also ready to spend some money there, so we have to go around and do some begging," he said.

Fasel said the end of this year is the deadline to reach a deal because of the NHL's need to draw up a calendar for the Olympic season.

"If you don't have the best, (the Olympics) will be a different competition for sure," he said, but warned: "At the end somebody has to pay. That's the question. On my side I will do everything possible to make it happen."

Fasel dismissed the suggestion that the World Cup of Hockey could offer some players less incentive to demand to be allowed to play at the Olympics.

"There is nothing like the Olympics," he said. "I think for an athlete to win the gold medal is so different from winning the Stanley Cup. You can win the Stanley Cup every year."

In Pyeongchang in 2018 and Beijing in 2022, the Winter Olympics move to Asia and away from the North American and European nations that have historically been the bedrock of hockey.

South Korea, which has built a team mixing import players with locals, plays in the second level of the IIHF's world championship and hopes not to be a walkover in 2018. China is far less competitive. China will be in the fifth tier for next year and in 2022 could become the first Winter Olympic host not to enter a hockey team — a situation that worries the IIHF, given China's potential to become a huge market for the sport.

"One thing they do not like is to lose the face, so they cannot do that," Fasel said. "I hope and I think they will have a Chinese player, Chinese team in Beijing in 2022. We cannot put them on the ice and they will be beaten 15, 20-nothing. We cannot do that."

Things are looking up for China, with increased government interest and the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League due to open a team there this year, but Fasel said the NHL is key to unlocking potentially vast commercial rewards in China.

"A North American brand in China has a very special taste. We can see that with the NBA," he said. "I think what we need is to have a Chinese NHL player, like Yao Ming with basketball."

I wonder how many hockey fans the world over still believe one word out of the mouth of Bettman and the owners. Do you get the sense that even if Fasal came up with every penny requested on the table and every demand made by the NHL that they would come up with something new to block their participation??? Fasal and the IOCC cannot give what the owners want....a monopoly on the game of hockey at it`s highest level. The NHL already has that and refuses to share it with the world for even once every 4 years.....unless of course the NHL runs the show and reaps in the profits. The NHL is saying....."if you want to watch hockey at it`s best you`ll pay us to do it or you won`t watch it at all".......hence the NHL run WCH.
In short the NHL wants $$$ on every sweater, beer, box of popcorn, hat, ticket in every and any game played.....they can`t get that in the Olympics so they shut the fans out and create their own "Olympics" and call it the WHC.


I love Bettman saying..." he didn't expect a decision until after the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto in September" because once again it`s an NHL scoop so no one get`s hurt here.