Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister F
Business as usual in Bettman's world. Nope, you're not the only one who thinks this tournament is a joke. Could you imagine the FIFA World Cup doing something like this? The response among my friends and coworkers has been a resounding "meh". To me it's three things. First, the obvious gimmick teams. Then there's the fact that the tournament isn't held on any kind of schedule, just whenever the NHL feels like it. And finally, as long as NHL players are going to the Olympics that will be the only international hockey tournament that matters.
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But that's the thing: This World Cup is entirely a test, both for interest and for revenue. How much does the NHL really benefit from the Olympics? We all know the IOC benefits, but what's the net benefit for the NHL in going? If the WCH does well my wager would be that NHL doesn't go to Seoul or Beijing, neither of which are in good timezones for viewership anyway.
The WCH is being put on by the NHL and NHLPA and that's all that anyone should need to know. It's a money-grab, eyeball-grab and not much more than that. There's no IIHF involvement, so it's not an official international tournament, which means they can't use flags or association logos or any of that stuff.
The gimmick teams are give and take. Team Europe is awful, Team North America is exciting and interesting. Team NA is like fantasyland for a lot of hockey junkies and should settle (or intensify) a lot of debates over how good younger players actually are and how useful (or not so much) hockey
intangibles are (age, grit, experience).
The response among your coworkers might be meh but the arenas haven't been empty and there have been people watching, which is better than there being no hockey at all this time of year. I'm all in favour of international hockey being played
way more often, it's just that this venture is being done from a revenue standpoint by the NHL, which is their entire goal in the end anyway.