IIHF Agrees To Pay NHL Player Costs For 2018 Games; Owners Set More Demands

The Int'l Ice Hockey Federation agreed to pay National Hockey League players' travel and insurance costs "to try to lure them to the 2018 Winter Olympics" but team owners "set more commercial demands," the IOC said, according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. The NHL and the IIHF have been "locked in talks over the world's best players' participation" in next year's Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, with team owners "frustrated by the forced shutdown of the season for two-and-a-half weeks." For "handing over a talent pool" with contracts valued at $3.5B, the NHL is "seeking something akin to IOC Top Sponsor status," which would allow the league to market the Winter Games on its platforms. IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said that "talks between the NHL and the IIHF were ongoing but the IOC would not be treating the NHL team owners any differently" than other int'l sports federations it "deals with" (REUTERS, 3/29).