MOK and NHL did not share income

The NHL considered that the participation of her players in the White Olympics is not appropriate.

Hockey was included in the list of the Olympic Games since 1920. Competitions among men's teams were presented at the 1920 Summer Olympics, and in 1924 they were transferred to the Winter Olympiads program.

The Olympic Games were then held only for amateur athletes, so until 1998 the NHL players did not have the opportunity to take part in this tournament.

In addition, from 1924 to 1988, the game at the tournament sued according to the rules of IIHF (International Hockey Federation). These rules were significantly different from those used in the NHL. In addition, the tournament operated the rules of the International Anti -Doping Committee , according to which several players who were doping control were randomly selected from the list of leading players. There were cases when these tests gave a positive result and the players were disqualified.

From 1920 to 1968, the Olympic hockey tournament replaced the World Cup this year. The Soviet Union first took part in the hockey tournament of the Olympic Games in 1956 and caught up with Canadians in the number of victories, winning 7 out of 9 tournaments.

At the level of world championships, Canadians were represented by club amateur teams, not by professionals from the NHL. However, in 1964, at the World Cup in Austria, Canada was first represented by the national team of the best players in the country. These were also amateurs, but most of them later became NHL players. This team eventually won only 4th place, while the USSR national team again took "gold".

Famous players of the USSR national team: Valery Kharlamov, Vladimir Petrov, Vyacheslav Fetisov

Meanwhile, it was in 1964 that at the highest Kremlin level, the “good” was given to the fact that Soviet hockey players try his luck in fights with professionals. This permission was given by Nikita Khrushchev two coaches of the Soviet team - Anatoly Tarasov and Arkady Chernyshev at the official reception in the Kremlin in honor of the victory of Soviet athletes (including hockey players) at the Winter Olympiad in the Innsbruck.

And in January 1970, the International Hockey League on Ice decided to refuse Canadians to hold the World Hockey Championship. As a result, the NHL interrupted all the contacts with the hockey of the "rest of the world." Super Series-72 was the result of this complex process, but it did not reach the Olympics. And more than 10 years of NHL, world hockey has no contacts, except for the unique emergency series 72, 74 and 76.

And then, having nevertheless, making sure that the full hockey, like sport in general, cannot develop, in 1986 the International Olympic Committee voted for permission to all athletes to take part in games held since 1988. The NHL was reluctant to allow their players to participate in the Olympic Games because they were held in the middle of the NHL season, but this did not suit the league. However, since 1988, hockey players from the NHL were allowed to take part in the Olympic tournament, the format of which was adjusted to the NHL schedule.

The last time players from the NHL did not participate in the Olympic hockey tournament in 1994 in Lillehammer, after which the strongest League of the World sent their hockey players for games five times in a row, starting from Japanese Nagano in 1998. NHL players took part in the Winter Olympiads in Nagan-98, Salt Lake-City-2002, Turin 2006, Vancouver-2010 and Sochi-2014. Canada won everywhere except Nagano and Turin.

In 1964, at the highest Kremlin level, the “good” was given to the fact that Soviet hockey players try to try his luck in fights with professionals. This permission was given by Nikita Khrushchev two coaches of the Soviet team - Anatoly Tarasov and Arkady Chernyshev at the official reception in the Kremlin in honor of the victory of Soviet athletes (including hockey players) at the Winter Olympiad in the Innsbruck

What happened in 2017? The NHL commissioner Gary Bettman established as the last term of the decision on the participation of players in the Games January 2017, but negotiations lasted until April, but they did not give the result.

The NHL found that in the circumstances of the current circumstances, the participation of her players in the White Olympics is not appropriate, since the league should interrupt the championship at the moment when its main competitors in the American market (NFL and MLB) do not play.

In addition, two more factors worked against the trip of the NHL players to Korea. The owners of the clubs are unhappy with the risk of injuries by leading hockey players, as has already happened with the Alenders captain John Tavarem, who in the quarterfinals of the 2014 Olympics was out of order until the end of the season.

The second circumstance is the time of matches: games in Korea will be held at night for North America, and the target audience will not watch them live.

Given the fact that more than $ 3.5 billion was invested in the NHL hockey players, the NHL expected that it would be called one of the main sponsors of the IOC, and this would give the League the opportunity to make a profit from the participation of players in the Olympiad.

Canadian team at the Olympic Games in Shamoni 1924

The International Hockey Federation (IIHF) at the last moment agreed to take over the multimillion -dollar expenses for the flight of players to South Korea and their insurance. But the International Olympic Committee refused to share income from the games.

Battman emphasized that there was no benefit for the League in the Olympic tournament. They also expected the same in the NHL from Pyeongchang, which is not a hockey market, and in the North American time the games will be broadcast early in the morning, although at the same time the most important matches of the regular championship could be held in the league. He said that the League did so five times. At that time, it seemed a good idea, but the NHL could not extract a profit out of this. In other words, the laws of professional sports turned out to be a decisive factor.

Well, as for the dominant significance of the Olympic hockey tournament - it seems that the NHL has a decisive argument in its favor. In 2016, in Toronto, after a long break , the hockey world was held - a tournament, where all the best players in the world managed to attract. Now, having a trump card of this level in his hands, the NHL can assume that the prestige of the Olympic “gold” will decrease slightly, and the victory in the World Cup will be the main at the level of professional hockey .