Read the opposing argument from Bleacher Fan.
Again, I write from the perspective of a person who is not a chronic Olymp-a-holic (Editor’s note: We are working on this at TSD headquarters.). Obviously, I know hockey is a big part of the Winter Olympics. But what I did not fully realize until researching this debate argument was that the fact that the NHL collective bargaining agreement is expiring soon. This is sure to be a rather heated topic in the coming month. If the NHL is smart, which sometimes I question, then it will allow its players to continue participating in the Winter Olympics.
The 2014 Winter Olympics are currently scheduled to be played in Russia, and as everyone from diehard hockey fans to casual fans knows, the NHL is filled with Russian players. Even if the NHL’s accommodation is not in the new collective bargaining agreement I think we are going to see a mass exodus of Russian players taking vacations from the league and flying across the pond to Russia. Alexander Ovechkin, one of the premier players in the league and someone that Sports Geek has written about on this website, has openly stated that he WILL be playing in the 2014 Winter Olympics, and he does not care what the ramifications are.
“I’ll go play the Olympic Games for my country,” Ovechkin recently said. “If someone says to me you can’t play, see ya.”
Other Russians are making similar comments. It is hard to blame anyone for wanting to play for their own country, especially when the Games are being held in your country of origin. In a league that is starving for stars, and quite frankly starving for fans, this is not a quote that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wants to read.
As it stands now, the league is essentially shutting down until March 1, with teams being allowed to practice beginning next Wednesday. Is this really such a big sacrifice? The Olympics only occur once every four years. If the length of the season is the main concern, then start the season ten days earlier. Yes, I realize the NHL season drags on long enough as it is, but scheduling is a minor issue. You may say it is extra wear and tear on the players who participate, but even as just a casual hockey observer, I can easily tell that hockey players are some of the toughest players in all of sports.
Most importantly, I think the Olympics provide worldwide exposure to the game of hockey. That can only help the NHL, right? Prime time coverage of the first two nights of the Olympics averaged 30 million viewers. Has any NHL game ever had 30 million viewers? Hahaha… NO! The NHL cannot buy that kind of publicity. And, guess what? They are NOT paying for it!
Maybe the Olympics give a boost to a rookie. Maybe that rookie makes a name for himself and comes back to the league and becomes a star. Maybe a grizzly-old veteran finds one more day in the limelight and goes out with a gold medal. Someone tell me how any of this is a bad thing! Tell me, Bleacher Fan!
Taking a couple of weeks off for the Olympics serves many advantages for the NHL. The league just needs to sit back and enjoy the Olympics with the rest of the world and watch the Games improve the NHL without anyone associated with the league office having to lift a finger!
Yesterday proves my point!
I disagree.
While yesterday may have been good for the sport of Hockey in general, the NHL (specifically) actually needed the United States to win in my opinion.
The NHL already has a strong Canadian fan base. There was nothing to be gained from an NHL perspective (the key point of the debate) by having the Canadians (most of whom are already national heroes) win Gold.
Consider the NFL – if American Rules Football became an Olympic event, but the Americans continued to win every gold medal (as would be expected), would the sport garner any additional support from those other countries? No. EVEN IF the final match was a very closely fought game between the US and Canada, the only way that Canada would buy more into the NFL is if they WON GOLD by beating NFL stars. Otherwise, the mentality is that America was “supposed” to win, but that’s okay, because it’s their sport. The Canadians would then go back to supporting Hockey.
That’s why the NBA has gained so much international appeal – other nations had proven the ability to beat the US. Nobody wants to play a game that they EXPECT to lose, and nobody will support a game if they are always having to cheer “We’re Number TWO! We’re Number TWO!”
Professional leagues who are hoping to build a fan base need to have some fallibility within their ranks. Despite Babe Ruthless’ opinions, the WORST thing for any professional league is a Dynasty. It kills fan support everywhere EXCEPT in the small segment of the market that actually cheers for that Dynasty.
Just like Argentina and Europe were apathetic towards the NBA until very recently, it is the Americans who tend to be apathetic (generally speaking) when it comes to support of the NHL. Once the learned they were just as good as the NBA stars, they started to follow it more, which in turn has helped the NBA internationally.
The American team was made up of a bunch of NHL stars that very few in the US (outside of the loyal hockey fans already in existense) actually knew of. Today, I guarantee you that most ‘casual’ sports fans STILL don’t know the names of those hockey players (with, perhaps, the exception of Ryan Miller, who was far and away the best Goalie of the Olympics).
The NHL needed those American players to become ‘household names’ in order to create US buy-in for the sport. Had they won Gold, there would have potentially been more post-Olympic interest. Silver Medalists, however, rarely become household names.
While the Hockey final yesterday was indeed an exhibition of the very best that HOCKEY had to offer, it fell WELL short of turning most of those American players into ‘household’ names, and probably HURT the NHL from an American perspective, more than it helped it.
I’m a very casual fan so the fact that I even sat down to watch bits and pieces of it was an accomplishment. I actually heard people discussing hockey last night in a public setting. Isn’t that a good thing? Any PR for hockey as a whole is a good thing, right? Yes it certainly would have better if USA had won, but did the NHL improve its standing at all in the past two weeks?
But that does not mean you will start to follow the NHL – will you?!
I agree that the gold medal match was good for the sport of hockey in general. But the basic problem the NHL faces here is that what is good for Hockey as a sport is not necessarily good for the NHL as a league.
The NHL’s top priority is to promote THEIR product, which is NHL hockey. Sure, OLYMPIC hockey had a great success, but OLYMPIC hockey is over now, and the NHL is left with a product that will never compare to the Olympic product, EVEN THOUGH it was NHL players who made the Olympic product such a wild success.
The NHL did all the sacrificing, but will receive none of the reward… THAT’S why it’s bad for the NHL to allow its players to compete in the Olympics.