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NHL's rift with IOC still a hot topic of World Cup of Hockey gets underway
As we grow closer to the long awaited tournament, the World Cup of Hockey adds another chapter in the throny relationship between the NHL and the IOC. Claus Andersen/NHLI via Getty Images

NHL's rift with IOC still a hot topic of World Cup of Hockey gets underway

At a glance, the transition from the Rio Olympics in the summer to the World Cup of Hockey in the fall seems like a seamless move from one international event to another.

What the casual kick-back hockey viewer might not know is how opposing these two events are—how fractured the relationship between the National Hockey League and the International Olympics Committee has become. Or that the rapidly-approaching World Cup in Toronto could be fans’ best chance to see NHLers on the international stage in a long while, due to the possibility that the league won’t participate in the next Winter Games.

The issue bleeds into the month of September and the World Cup of Hockey event. Will the World Cup of Hockey garner the same international appeal as hockey in the Olympics? Does its success have an impact on the NHL’s decision whether or not to participate in the next Winter Games?

The rift between the NHL and the IOC isn’t new, by any means. The NHL has long disliked halting its season for the Winter Olympics, which are typically held in February. There is the fear of its players getting hurt, and the league itself—surprise, surprise—losing revenue because of the lack of games.

The feud between the two began receiving more attention back in May of this year. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told the media that the league might not let its players participate in the next games taking place in South Korea because the IOC would expect the NHL and International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to foot the bill. As the Toronto Sun summarized at the time, the IOC “has covered costs such as transportation, accommodation and insurance for the past five games, something the organization is threatening not to do for the Games two years from now.” According to Inside The Games, it is believed that the IOC contributed $14 million for the last Winter Games in Sochi, and the IIHF and NHL forked over $18 million.

CBSSports reported in late August that Bettman had no update on the NHL’s stance on attending the next Winter Games, telling the press that “hasn't even really thought about PyeongChang yet” and that “it is unlikely the issue will even begin to be addressed until this winter.”

With that, the focus shifts to the World Cup, set to get underway in just a couple weeks. Revenue and viewership are of course going to be monitored very closely. Can the NHL’s big tournament garner the same attention that hockey in the Winter Olympics does?

It’s fair to wonder, given that hockey is like every other Olympic sport in that it gains its biggest audience during the Games. (CBSSports pointed out that swimming is one of the most-watched events in the Olympics, despite the fact that very few of those viewers watch swimming when outside of the Summer Games.) In terms of hockey, think about the number of fans who were awake at 6am in the States when USA’s T.J. Oshie became a hero by beating Russia in a never-ending shootout at the Sochi Games. That same CBS article logged the stats:

“When the American men played Russia in the preliminary round, the average audience was 4.1 million. It peaked at 6.4 million when T.J. Oshie and Jonathan Quick teamed up for a most memorable shootout, making Oshie a household name overnight. It was the most watched hockey game NBCSN has ever aired. And it was early on a Saturday morning in the U.S. due to the seven-hour time difference with Sochi.”

This will only increase the focus on whether the World Cup of Hockey can garner the large number of viewers—what with the tournament taking place in Toronto, taking away a huge time difference—that Olympic hockey does.

Even if the World Cup of Hockey is more successful than previously projected, there is a strong chance that it won’t have the same widespread appeal and grand stage that the Olympics has built for itself since the 19th century. NHL players will, more than likely, still want the opportunity to represent their country in the upcoming Winter Games in South Korea. There is a very strong possibility that, once the World Cup wraps up, that the squabbling between the NHL and IOC over the cost of transportation and insurance will get worse.

It will have to be on hold for at least a month however, with the World Cup of Hockey getting underway on September 17.

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