“We think it’s the right decision for a major break in our season, I’m very comfortable with the decision and I think that for the NHL fans it’s the right decision,” he says.
Yo. Are you serious right now, you little reptilian looking son of a bitch? Buddy go talk to literally any NHL fan right now and ask them their thoughts on the league skipping the Olympics this year. You think any hockey fan in the last 20 years has been bitching and moaning about the league taking a 2-week break once every 4 years for the best international tournament? Who are these NHL fans that Gary Bettman thinks he’s talking about? They simply do not exist. But that bastard decides to just speak for fans league wide when he can’t even get up on a microphone in front of fans without getting boo’d into Bolivian.
The next quote comes courtesy of Emily Kaplan who types words for a certain outlet.
Now this is a point that I kind of understand. I’m assuming that the Olympics and NBC own all the broadcasting rights for the Olympics which leaves the NHL shit out of luck. Considering the majority of the players in the tournament are typically NHL players, you can see why Gary Bettman would want to be able to put the NHL name on what is essentially their product. But let’s not go around saying the league doesn’t get exposure from the Olympics just because they can’t use footage from the tournament. The idea of going to South Korea is to grow the sport of hockey. The more exposure the game gets, the more exposure the NHL will get as a result. They’re the biggest league in hockey. Just because the name/logo isn’t on the product doesn’t mean that hockey gaining popularity wouldn’t directly influence the popularity of the NHL.
This is just a roundabout way for Bettman to bitch about money. He doesn’t want to let the league shut down for 2 weeks to play in a tournament that the league has no opportunity to monetize. And don’t get me wrong, I understand that from a business standpoint this is just Gary Bettman doing his job. But to try to sell it like this is a decision that was made for the fans and not just for business makes him full of shit. Hot, steamy, smelly shit.
And what sucks is that it sounds like the league is focusing on doing everything they can now to have the World Cup replace the Olympics. A product that is their own that they can monetize and not have to create a work stoppage at all in the middle of the season. A great business decision, sure. But for fans, it’s just really tough to get people to care about an international hockey tournament in September/October in the beginning of football season compared to the middle of February. But again, moral of the story is that Gary Bettman doesn’t care what the fans think.