National Hockey League Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has put to rest any hopes and ambitions Tampa Bay Lightning, and other NHL Players, have of participating in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Every four years, the National Hockey League ceases operations so their players achieve their hopes and dreams of valiantly helping their native countries achieve international greatness. Unfortunately, when the 2018 Winter Olympic Games kick off in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the competing nations will have to formulate a new plan.
Back in April, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the matter of the NHL’s participation in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games was a closed issue and the league would not allow its players to represent their native countries in the international competition. As you can imagine, this incensed many NHL players.
Despite the Commissioner’s bold and steadfast stance on the matter, some people still held out hope the league would change their minds and allow players to participate in the event. The league did say they were open to alternative suggestions, after all.
Unfortunately, it seems as if any hopes the players had of representing their proud nations in Olympic competition is officially dead. According to Ken Campbell of The Hockey News, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has said in no uncertain terms there is no alternative schedule in place to allow Olympic participation.
"“There is not an alternative schedule. Having NHL Players participate in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games is not an available option. All of the international federations are planning appropriately for constructing teams that will not include NHL players. I anticipate there will be Federation announcements in the coming days that should eliminate any and all continuing doubt or skepticism about the issue.” – NHL Commissioner Bill Daly via The Hockey News"
As with everything else in this great world of ours, there are two sides to every story. The most glaring of these is the NHL. Let’s look at this from a business standpoint. Every four years, the NHL completely ceases operations while a number of their players head to the Olympics to represent their native countries.
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While the players get to live their dreams and help their respective countries achieve greatness, there are no NHL games to be had, no tickets to be sold, no games for advertisers to spend millions of dollars during, and (for the most part) no merchandise sales to be heard of. (Other than Olympic gear, that is.)
As you can imagine, the absence of dollar signs makes people like Commissioner Bettman, Deputy Commissioner Daly, the NHL Board of Governors, and quite a few team owners sour on the idea of Olympic participation. The unfortunate side to this is some people can actually see beyond the dollar signs.
The obvious opposition to this idea is the players. Many players have dreamed of the day they could lace up their skates and represent their country on one of the grandest international stages, the Olympic Games. They don’t care about the merchandise sales or revenue numbers. All they want to do is play hockey.
At the same time, there are the fans. What is the sole reason for hockey fans to watch the Winter Olympic Games? At least for this hockey fan, the sole intention of watching the Olympics is to watch their favorite players, regardless of team affiliation, come together as one to represent their country in spirited competition.
Of course, regardless of whether the NHL Commissioners want to see it or not, there is an aspect of this situation that actually does equate to dollar signs for the NHL. There are millions of sports fans who will tune into the Winter Olympic Games for one of the many other sports. What happens when they just happen to tune into the ice hockey competition?
We’ll tell you what happens. There is a very good chance that someone who may never have thought of watching the sport in their entire lives just happens to tune into a game and realizes just how great the sport really is. At that point, they will more than likely fixate on the player who impresses them the most and potentially start to follow that team.
Just like that, Boom! You have a new fan who is willing to spend their hard earned money on things like game tickets, jerseys, t-shirts, and the other millions of options out there in terms of hockey memorabilia.
Regrettably, despite the fervent disagreement from the players and fans alike, the final decision has been made by the powers that be. Any hopes fans had of watching their favorite players participate in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea have officially been dashed.
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The biggest question in the hockey world right now is, how will the players react when the time comes for their country’s respective rosters to be selected? Will there be some sort of player uprising when the time finally comes for the Olympic camps to start? It’ll definitely be interesting to see how things play out this season.