Gary Bettman says Olympics have no value for the NHL

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman recently explained the negative position of the league on participation in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and from a business perspective, he’s absolutely right. There are a couple of fixes to the situation, however.

In a radio interview with Sportsnet’s Rob Kerr on Wednesday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Olympics in the past have shown zero return on the investment the NHL has made. The NHL is a business first and foremost, and it’s Bettman’s primary job to look out for the best interest of his employers, the team owners, along those lines.

Bettman cites numerous factors in his reasoning:

"“We look at TV ratings, we look at attendance, we look at everything, and it’s been disruptive,” Bettman said. “Is it conceivable that in some places around the world, where they’re watching the Olympics, it might have a positive impact? I suppose, but I think back when we went to Nagano, Japan, the building that we played the event in, the day after the Olympics were over, they ripped out the ice.”"

The league has made a serious investment in the Winter Olympics for the past five games (Bettman gives a figure of $3.5 billion). From the value of player contracts on the ice, to lost opportunities to market those players while they’re in PyeongChang, it doesn’t make sense for the NHL to participate without some significant return on that investment. That’s something that the International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation won’t allow the NHL to do, because the Olympics are supposed to be an amateur event.

"“We don’t even get the opportunity to promote the fact that we’re at the Olympics,” Bettman stated. “We don’t get to use the rings. I’ve said to the IOC, you know, Coca-Cola is a sponsor, they get to promote their association and say proud sponsor of the Olympics. They won’t let us do that…there’s no recognition of the value by the IOC and the IIHF that we bring to the Olympics."

These concerns add to the worry of players getting hurt in the Olympics that teams carry. The NHL also wants the IOC to pay for travel costs and insurance policies against player injuries, a concession the IOC hasn’t made yet. These owner concerns are demonstrated in the case of Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson, who has been informed by the team that if the NHL doesn’t participate in the games, the team will not grant him leave for the Olympics.

This doesn’t mean that the league is dead set against Olympic participation, however. The league recently used the Olympics as a bargaining chip, offering the NHL Players Association Olympic participation in exchange for the PA agreeing to extend the current collective bargaining agreement. A final decision has not yet been made by the NHL, though time is obviously growing short with the games just a little over 10 months away.

The impasse is clear: the IOC and IIHF won’t let the NHL use the Olympics to build its business, the NHL won’t invest its resources without a return, and many players such as Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin have stated their desire to play even if the NHL doesn’t participate. Fortunately, there are some remedies to the situation.

A win-win-win situation for all three parties

The situation could easily be remedied by the Olympics setting a great example for the NCAA in the United States and killing the sacred cow of “amateurism.” None of the athletes who participate in the games treat their sport as a hobby, but rather train for the games full-time for years in advance of the competition. NBC profits off its broadcasts of the games. In addition, the billions of dollars in revenue that the IOC generates are dispersed as deemed appropriate by members of the IOC, including to themselves in unknown amounts. Somehow, very little, if any, of that money goes to the host sites as profit from being a venue for the games, or the athletes who make the games possible (where else have we seen that?).

If the Olympics drops the veneer of pure athletic competition untarnished by corporate profits, it could allow the NHL to use the Olympics to build its business. The marketing possibilities before, during and after the games might be enough motivation to convince the NHL owners that it’s worth the risk to player health and pausing their own schedule of games. Players eager to represent their countries on the ice would also get what they want.

This scenario is unlikely, however. Changing the formal face of the games from an amateur competition to a professional sport entertainment corporation, such as the NHL is, would represent massive change and cut into the personal profits of the IOC committee members. There is another way that the NHL could fix this situation, however, taking the IOC completely out of the equation.

Expanding the World Cup of Hockey

The World Cup of Hockey, last played in 2016 and set to take place again in 2020, is the NHL’s version of MLB’s World Baseball Classic. Expanding and altering the format of the competition would give both the owners and players what they want from an international competition.

The alteration/expansion that could be made is that instead of having Team North America or Team Europe in the bracket, players would represent their native countries and play on rosters completely comprised of their countrymen. Instead of Minnesota Wild right wing Nino Niederreiter taking the ice for Team Europe, for example, he would take the ice for Team Switzerland on an entirely Swiss roster.

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That would create an Olympics-style competition that the NHL could control the timing of, so that it’s not in the middle of its regular season. Additionally, the NHL could milk that cow until it’s dry from a business/marketing perspective. Think of all the new jerseys that could be sold.

There’s still hope for the NHL to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics. The IOC, IIHF and the NHL didn’t come to an agreement on Sochi 2014 until seven months before the games opened. Time is running short, though, and the impasse might actually give the NHL the opportunity to explore other opportunities. For now, however, it’s clear that the league sees no value in the Olympics.