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NHL avoiding Olympics to build World Cup of Hockey brand, not for stated concerns

By Derek Helling

January 28, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman speaks to media before the 2017 NHL All Star Game skills compeition at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
January 28, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman speaks to media before the 2017 NHL All Star Game skills compeition at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /
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The NHL has made it official that it won’t be taking a break during the regular season and sending its players to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea. While the league has listed a few points as its motivation to skip the games, the real reason isn’t hard to decipher.

The reasons that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman gave for his stance against NHL participation in the PyeongChang games were valid from a business perspective. Putting a halt to the regular season and risking injury to players for the small boost to the sport that the Olympics offer wasn’t a good return on investment for the NHL.

Spinning those as the only factors keeping the NHL from participating in the 2018 games is misleading, however. The NHL sees a golden opportunity that it isn’t passing on.

Why the NHL is really ending its relationship with the Winter Olympics

If the return on the investment was really the main motivation, then part of those fears should have already been quelled. The International Ice Hockey Federation agreed to cover insurance and travel expenses for NHL players participating in the Olympics, which was one of the main demands of the NHL for participation.

Bettman and other league executives have to have been aware of what damage to the relationship between the NHL, the IIHF and the Olympics not sending players to PyeongChang would have. As IIHF President Rene Fasel stated in an interview with insidethegames.biz:

"I consider Gary Bettman as a smart person so he knows that not coming here would then put in danger participation in Beijing (the site of the 2022 Winter Olympics)."

There’s only one reason that the NHL would be willing to risk forever severing its relationship with the premiere international ice hockey product in the world; they are looking to replace it with their own product.

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The World Cup of Hockey, which both the NHL and the NHL Players Association can take revenue from, was a success in 2016. By essentially killing the World Cup’s most robust competition, Winter Olympics hockey, the World Cup could become extremely more valuable.

This gives the NHL and NHLPA the opportunity to sell broadcast and merchandising rights to parties interested in the next World Cup at a higher price, as it could easily now be considered the premiere international ice hockey event in the world. The same could be said of sponsorships. The stated concerns about players getting hurt outside of NHL regular or postseason competition evaporate when it’s an event that the NHL is getting millions of dollars of revenue from.

It seems that the NHL has learned from the ongoing success of the World Cup of men’s and women’s soccer as well as the recent success of MLB’s World Baseball Classic. The NHL has a prime opportunity to give its own international product a huge boost, and they’re taking it.

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