Fehr questions NHL’s Olympic motives
NHLPA boss says dispute over league’s involvement in PyeongChang comes down to money
Don Fehr is not making any promises. But he’s also not making any threats. With presumably one month to go until a decision has to be made about NHL participation at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, the head of the NHL Players’ Association sounds hopeful a deal can be worked out in time.
If it cannot, well, the fallout likely would involve more than just a twoweek tournament.
“I’ve been in this business too long to make predictions either on timing or anything else,” Fehr said in a phone interview on Monday. “I think at this point we have to wait and see how it plays out. I think, however, if we end up not going, the reaction from the players’ side — across the board — is not going to be a good one. And my guess is it’s going to last for a very long time.”
With the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire in September 2022, it’s pretty clear what Fehr might be hinting at. And while we’re far from this bleeding into another labour impasse, the ramifications of Olympic participation could be serious. Part of this is posturing. While Fehr is insistent the league benefits from going to the Olympics, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is making it seem as though going to PyeongChang would be a giant nuisance. Maybe Bettman is playing hardball. Maybe it’s his way of pressuring the NHLPA to extend the current CBA by another two years. Maybe he’s trying to get the International Olympic Committee to upgrade the NHL into top-sponsor status, thus allowing the league to market the tournament on its various platforms, including NHL.com.
After all, we’re still weeks — if not months — away from the 11th hour in the negotiation process, so there’s still time for all sides to come together. Four years ago, a decision on going to Sochi wasn’t finalized until June. But this, said Fehr, feels different. “Obviously, there’s a lot of comparables,” Fehr said of negotiations for Sochi versus PyeongChang. “You look at the travel expenses and you consider the insurance costs and the IOC and IIHF know what it takes for the players to get there. But the position of the NHL, so far, has been different. That’s what the difference is. (The NHL is) looking to receive something in return for allowing the players to participate. Based on the proposals to us and the suggestions to the IOC, they don’t care who pays them. They just want somebody to.
“I think it’s disappointing more than surprising. The opportunity to participate at the Olympic Games is a different thing than just another hockey tournament. There’s a patriotic element to it and it means something to the guys. It means quite a lot.”
When Fehr says the Olympics are not “just another hockey tournament,” he’s referring to September’s World Cup of Hockey. The World Cup wasn’t the Olympics. With two gimmicky teams and not every major country represented, it often seemed like a joke. But it was successful from a financial standpoint.
In some ways, the tournament — from the coming-out party of Brad Marchand to the speed and skill of Team North America’s young stars — was more memorable than anything that happened in Sochi.
“It’s the old joke in the States at this point,” said Fehr. “You talk about something that happened and somebody says, ‘Well, that was only 45 days ago.’ And you say, ‘Oh my God, given everything that’s happened, it feels like 45 years.’ Whenever you’re involved in sports, anything that’s happened a season or two ago seems like it’s a long time ago, because so much has happened in the intervening period — new faces, new games, new events, the World Cup in our case. The world moves on. But I don’t think that diminishes in any way the significance of the events that are involved or the opportunity to participate in it. And that’s true of any Olympic Games.”
Fehr believes something special could be waiting in South Korea, even though the NHL seems more excited about Beijing in 2022. In fact, representatives from the NHL and the NHLPA were in Beijing Monday preparing to announce that exhibition games will be played in China next season.
Still, Fehr believes South Korea offers potential as a hockey market, even if it’s on a lower scale.
Certainly, there will be attention if the NHL is there. If not, get ready for a much bigger fight, because it doesn’t sound like the NHLPA is going away quietly.
“On the record, that’s a bridge we’ll cross when and if we get to it,” Fehr said on the possibility that players will participate in the Olympics regardless of the NHL’s decision. “And I’m hoping we don’t.”