As I understand it, the WJC makes money in Canada and nowhere else. It's viewed a success because it has a lot more purposes than just being a hockey tournament. also, the leagues don't pause during the WJCs. They make do without the participants. Ask the NHL to do that and see what happens.
A Canada vs. USA series; do both the men and women alternating nights. Swedish and Finnish NHLers can have a series, too. Russia vs. Europe.
Instead of sending NHL teams to China or Europe for early season games, do it as part of these tournaments.
Either way, I dont really care. If I were an owner or investor or a director of the NHL I'd be adamant that the NHL run their own show and tell the IIHF and IOC to go pound sand.
They can deal with the Spengler Cup, the WJHC and the WHC. All fine and well.
All of those Tournaments deal with players who are not tied to their NHL teams at that particular moment.
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Either way, I dont really care. If I were an owner or investor or a director of the NHL I'd be adamant that the NHL run their own show and tell the IIHF and IOC to go pound sand.
They can deal with the Spengler Cup, the WJHC and the WHC. All fine and well.
All of those Tournaments deal with players who are not tied to their NHL teams at that particular moment.
The NHL could work with the IIHF to come up with a World Cup but they choose not to. So the IIHF continues with their annual world championship structure.
Like the Bundesliga works with FIFA. World Cup is a money tournament. If Germany does well the Bundesliga gets more.
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I've said this many times on here. I should try to find an old post where i put it in detail. The NHL got conned by Olympic fever. They had the perfect tournament with the Canada Cup which turned into the 1996 World Cup. Perfect tournament, held both in Europe and North American and the Americans won. Couldn't have scripted it better to push American hockey with new expansion teams. 2000 World Cup should have been held in the sun belt. Miami, Tampa, Dallas...
But they threw that all away for what? A trip to Japan? Games at 4am? Having your whole tournament run by the IOC where you don't get the money or can't choose the location? The NHL got excited about the 92 US Dream Team in basketball but that worked because basketball didn't have a great best on best tournament. But even no, the Olympic Basketball tournament is now an afterthought. The newly rebranded Basketball World Cup is becoming bigger.
It's Brazil who decided to build white elephants, not FIFA. They just give the bid. Like in 2026, Canada could build a stadium in Whitehorse and we'd have to pay for it.
FIFA doesn't really have a say. Qatar are only using 5 cities
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
Either way, I dont really care. If I were an owner or investor or a director of the NHL I'd be adamant that the NHL run their own show and tell the IIHF and IOC to go pound sand.
They can deal with the Spengler Cup, the WJHC and the WHC. All fine and well.
All of those Tournaments deal with players who are not tied to their NHL teams at that particular moment.
Totally. Every player should have an NHL crest and their teams logo on their National Team sweater
Really it's in the best interest of the NHL/NHLPA to get out of the Olympics, and just fully invest into the World Cup of Hockey. Consistently have it go every 4 years, and make it a stable brand to replace the Olympics hype in due time. Therefore they have complete control, and actually get profits off of it.
Wonder if the IOC would be open to just playing the Olympic Hockey Tournament on North American soil.
The TV money is the most important part anyways, and not like the gate for the games in China is really going to drive a lot of revenue (or might not even be possible due to potential covid restrictions).
Just play the tournament in the New York area. I'm sure between MSG, Prudential Center, and the new rink in Long Island they can find enough ice time to play the games.
Wonder if the IOC would be open to just playing the Olympic Hockey Tournament on North American soil.
The TV money is the most important part anyways, and not like the gate for the games in China is really going to drive a lot of revenue (or might not even be possible due to potential covid restrictions).
Just play the tournament in the New York area. I'm sure between MSG, Prudential Center, and the new rink in Long Island they can find enough ice time to play the games.
At this point it would make a ton of sense. 12 mens teams probably means 400+ people (and 10 womens teams = ~300)...for a COVID Olympics it makes sense to have them separately bubbled.
Every other sport is teams of 4 or less, and hardly any involve close contact with competitors. Short track is probably the next 'riskiest' since it's indoors, otherwise ski-cross, xc races, and curling are the only events with anything resembling close contact.
Wonder if the IOC would be open to just playing the Olympic Hockey Tournament on North American soil.
The TV money is the most important part anyways, and not like the gate for the games in China is really going to drive a lot of revenue (or might not even be possible due to potential covid restrictions).
Just play the tournament in the New York area. I'm sure between MSG, Prudential Center, and the new rink in Long Island they can find enough ice time to play the games.
The answer would be Vegas. Since they are already there for the All-Star break and have the hotel accommodations.
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
There’s no way the NHL doesn’t make gobs of money off World Cup tournaments.
In this age of mega-sized TV rights deals, there’s no reason to not figure something out that starts maybe before main training camp and concludes before the end of pre-season, and occurs at a regular interval.
Or what about this, as a one-off - a Canada vs the World seven-game series.
We’re the only country that can run four #1 lines with three #1D pairings and two Vezina goalies.
Make it a challenge.
I can already see the promotional images of Team Draisitle vs Team McDavid.
#barf
