NHL given deadline to participate in Olympics

IIHF head wants answer by summer

OSTRAVA, CZECH REPUBLIC The president of the International Ice Hockey Federation still has no inkling if NHL players will take part in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games at Beijing.

But he has affixed a deadline to find out.

“We want to have an early answer from the (players’ association) and NHL,” Rene Fasel said on the final day of the world junior championship Sunday in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

“The (organizational) demands are very high. We’re going to play the final qualification (Aug. 27-30 this year) for the last three teams. “We need to know before that.” If not, they will likely look to the same roster makeup as Pyeongchang in 2018 — mostly players from European pro leagues — and regret another missed best-on-best opportunity. Fasel, as usual, implored NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to remember that Asia comprises two thirds of the world population and that the game would benefit from the exposure.

“There is a market (with 1.5 billion Chinese and the rest of Asia) and I consider Gary as a smart person,” Fasel said. “He is a very good businessman. He’s grown (the NHL) from $600 million to nearly $5 billion in the last 20 years. For the hockey fans and for our game, it will be so good to have best-on-best. As a smart person, he should (want to go), but I know Gary as a smart person. He wants to negotiate.

“It’ll be a lot of fun in the next six months.”

The Czech Hockey Federation, meanwhile, believes their bottom line would finish around the breakeven point for the world junior tournament. They are estimating 175,000 in total attendance, short of the European event record of 215,000 set in Helsinki four years ago.

“It’s unbeatable, unfortunately, for us,” Czech Hockey general-secretary Martin Urban said. “They had bigger arenas and played to 60 per cent (capacity). We used 80 per cent (of seats). Ticket (prices) are lower than usual. Our main goal is filling the stands.”

They wouldn’t have come close to doing that without about 3,000 Canadian fans making the long trek to watch the tournament in person.

Did the travelling Canucks save the Czechs from leaking red ink?

“I would like to say yes, but it’s not true,” Urban said.

“I appreciate this support from Canadians and they are welcome. They’re wonderful people, but it’s about ticket prices. They’re fairly cheap. Ticket price is maybe 25 per cent of the budget.”

Fasel was encouraged by the Czech fans’ response and commended the federation for moving the event from its usual Prague haunts to a city with steel mill roots and a “hockey soul.”

“It’s a tough break-even year, then you go to North America (Edmonton and Red Deer in 2021),” Fasel said.

“It’s coming (in Europe). We have this product now. I remember times we could greet every fan in the arena.

“It’s changing.”