The International Olympic Committee has made the decision they’re not going to pay necessary costs for NHL players to participate in the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, according to what International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel told Nick Butler of insidethegames. Fasel told Butler the IOC is balking on paying insurance and transportation costs, something they’ve done since NHL players started participating in the games in 1998:
“The IOC took the decision not to pay transportation and insurance costs for NHL and NHL players to come to the next Olympic Games,” IIHF President René Fasel, who has led the body since 1994, told insidethegames during the SportAccord Convention.”
“We had a meeting with the NHL last week and the prognosis is not really good.
“Our wish is to have the best players.
“[But the IOC] not covering the cost as they did at the last five Olympic Games puts us in a difficult financial situation.
“We still have challenges – it is even more difficult than before.”
There have been questions for years about NHL players participating in the event at all, despite many players’ enthusiasm. The IOC had to pay a hefty $8 million insurance fee and approximately $14 million in total in the 2014 Sochi Games, which may have led to them deciding to opt out of paying this time. However, Fasel told Butler he’s confident he can reduce the total costs to around $10 million. Fasel also admitted he understood the decision, but said hockey is ‘incomparable’ because the league stops its season to allow players to participate.
“We are the only winter team sport,” Fasel told insidethegames.
“The NHL has to shut down the league for nearly three weeks which is huge in February.
“There is also a risk of injuries.
“The good point is that the players want to come, they want to be part of the Olympics, so we are trying to find solutions.
“It’s not easy.”
As Puck Daddy’s Sean Leahy reports, the NHL and NHLPA are expected to make an announcement on their participation following August’s Summer Olympics in Rio. It’s notable that the NHL appears more fond of its own international World Cup of Hockey (which it gets direct revenues from), though, and has already announced that there will be a 2020 edition of that tournament before the first one since 2004 is held this fall. There’s still plenty of time for the league to find a way to get its players to South Korea in 2018, but with each passing day, that seems more and more unlikely.
