Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - [News] IOC and IIHF make big Olympic concessions

getbak · 02-09-2020, 05:49 PM

This is the kind of success the NHL was anticipating they'd see after Olympic participation: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...bal-nba-fandom

If that sort of global success had materialized after Nagano, the league probably wouldn't care if they could put Olympic highlights on their website. Hockey didn't catch on the same way that basketball did after Barcelona, and it most-likely never will for a variety of reasons (cost and weather being two of the biggest factors).

The differences between 1998 and today are that back then the owners looked at the NBA and the impact of the Dream Team and thought they could get their own piece of the international pie. After attending 5 Olympics, they know that Golden Goose doesn't exist (although, they still hope for something to materialize in China), so if they are going to shut down for three weeks in the middle of the season (something the NBA doesn't need to do for the Olympics), there needs to be something tangible in it for them. Being able to use Olympic content to promote the NHL would be a big deal. The fact that the IOC is willing to move on that is massive.

From the players' perspective, in 1998, most of the players had grown up during the Cold War and events like the Summit Series (about a third of the players in the NHL in 1998 would have been old enough to remember that) and Canada Cups were considered the ultimate in international hockey -- with NHL rules and referees. International hockey tournaments were pretty bad back then, with bad ice, big ice, and biased or just poor referees. Today, the vast majority of players likely have no memory of the pre-NHL Olympic tournaments, and for them, it's the World Cups that are poor quality tournaments.

02-09-2020, 05:49 PM	#32
getbak Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Calgary, AB Exp:	This is the kind of success the NHL was anticipating they'd see after Olympic participation: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...bal-nba-fandom If that sort of global success had materialized after Nagano, the league probably wouldn't care if they could put Olympic highlights on their website. Hockey didn't catch on the same way that basketball did after Barcelona, and it most-likely never will for a variety of reasons (cost and weather being two of the biggest factors). The differences between 1998 and today are that back then the owners looked at the NBA and the impact of the Dream Team and thought they could get their own piece of the international pie. After attending 5 Olympics, they know that Golden Goose doesn't exist (although, they still hope for something to materialize in China), so if they are going to shut down for three weeks in the middle of the season (something the NBA doesn't need to do for the Olympics), there needs to be something tangible in it for them. Being able to use Olympic content to promote the NHL would be a big deal. The fact that the IOC is willing to move on that is massive. From the players' perspective, in 1998, most of the players had grown up during the Cold War and events like the Summit Series (about a third of the players in the NHL in 1998 would have been old enough to remember that) and Canada Cups were considered the ultimate in international hockey -- with NHL rules and referees. International hockey tournaments were pretty bad back then, with bad ice, big ice, and biased or just poor referees. Today, the vast majority of players likely have no memory of the pre-NHL Olympic tournaments, and for them, it's the World Cups that are poor quality tournaments. __________________ Turn up the good, turn down the suck!