The NHL on Saturday announced the return of the World Cup of Hockey for September '16 in Toronto, when eight teams "will vie for global supremacy in a tournament that could end the league’s participation in the Olympics," according to John Vogl of the BUFFALO NEWS. The U.S., Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland and Czech Republic "will field national teams, while the remaining European nations will combine for a seventh team." The eighth will be a “'North American Youngstars' squad consisting of Americans and Canadians age 23 and younger." Each team "will play three exhibition games before beginning a three-game round robin." There will be "two one-game semifinals, followed by a best-of-three championship." All tournament games "will be held in Air Canada Centre." Training camps "will be conducted in the location of each team’s choosing, and each team will be permitted to host at least one exhibition game at a site of its choice." NHL training camps "will be held at the same time as the tournament, which could conclude as late as Oct. 1" (BUFFALO NEWS, 1/25). The AP's John Wawrow noted the overlapping of training camps could "push back the start" of the NHL regular season to the second week of October. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman "foresees holding the World Cup every four years and adding more countries" (AP, 1/24). NHL COO John Collins said an announcement on World Cup TV rights will be made “soon” (TORONTO STAR, 1/25). ESPN's Barry Melrose said, "It's a great format. The NHL will control everything. I think that will make everything better. The players are going to love to play because it doesn't take ... away from the NHL season. It’s going to be done earlier, so the season will be full. I think it's a great thing for the NHL” (“NHL All-Star Skills Competition Preshow,” NHL Network, 1/24).
YOUTH IS SERVED? ESPN.com's Scott Burnside wrote the event "might turn out to be a one-time thing, but there is little doubt" its inclusion of "two collaborative teams will dominate discussion" heading into the tournament. Burnside: "Gimmick or not, one of the two collaborative squads ... could actually win the thing." Bettman said the event "promises to be one of the best competitions in hockey history." Burnside: "You'd have to go a long way to rival the 1987 Canada Cup or the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, but there's also no doubt there is potential for great drama." The Young Guns squad "provides another set of challenges for Hockey Canada and USA Hockey, in that they will have to collaborate on a management team." That means two hockey federations "have to come together, not just while picking the players but also when deciding on a management team, a coaching staff and support personnel" (ESPN.com, 1/24). However, YAHOO SPORTS' Greg Wyshynski wrote if there was "one word shared by most NHL All-Stars in Columbus when asked about that World Cup format, it would be 'awkward.'” Kings D Drew Doughty joked, "I don’t think Canadians like to play with Americans too much. I don’t know how that’d work." Oilers C Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: "It would be a little ... different. But you play against these guys all the time. Still, seeing the Canadian logo coming at you all the time would be a little weird” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/23).
DOLLARS & SENSE: Collins noted the NHL has "grown to a $4-billion business" and the "question now becomes, where does the next billion come from?" In L.A., Helene Elliott noted given that Bettman said that the league is "playing to 96% capacity, that next billion won't come from ticket sales but from events like the World Cup, whose rights -- unlike the Olympics -- will be controlled by the league and the NHLPA." Games will be "played on NHL-size ice with NHL rules and officials" (
L.A. TIMES, 1/25). The CP's Stephen Whyno noted all profits from the event "count outside of hockey-related revenue and is split 50/50 between the league and NHLPA." Collins said that the '04 tournament "made less" than $34M, while the '96 event brought in less than $20M. This time, the tournament is "all in Toronto, though future World Cups could be up for bid and moved around" (
CP, 1/24). The GLOBE & MAIL's Cathal Kelly writes the return of the event is "transparently about money." The "obsession with box office numbers ruined the movies," and annual revenue numbers are "going to do the same to hockey." Kelly: "Short of the league going broke, why should a fan care about how much money the NHL makes? Because it’s a way to show off, and they’re failing at it." It would be "more fun and even greater if we only did this once every four years, in a venue that welcomes the world under their own flags, rather than just the few countries that pass the NHL’s arbitrary bar for relevance" (
GLOBE & MAIL, 1/26).
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE: SPORTSNET.ca's Chris Johnston wrote the NHL is "pushing boundaries and thinking globally and dreaming in a way that it has never quite dreamt before" with the revived World Cup. It is basically a "newly created Ryder Cup event to guarantee a big international event on the calendar every two years." Couple that with "plans to resume playing regular-season games in Europe and the distinct possibility of holding training camps overseas and what you have is an aggressive strategy intended to take the NHL to a whole other level." The "absolutely vital part of the equation is the players are fully on board with the plan." The return of the World Cup represents "outside-the-box thinking and ensures that all of the league’s top stars will be involved" (SPORTSNET.ca, 1/24). ESPN.com's Burnside cited sources as saying that the format for the World Cup with its two made-up teams is "likely to be dramatically altered" when it returns in '20. It is "expected that the NHL and the players will have designed a qualifying format that will make the 2020 version of the World Cup of Hockey a true global tournament with teams such as Switzerland, Slovakia and Germany getting an opportunity to qualify for the big tournament in a separate event." It is "believed the league and players will develop a set of regulations more relaxed than Olympic or IIHF rules, allowing players to play on teams based on heritage, etc., and not necessarily place of birth." It also is expected the "second in this reborn World Cup of Hockey rotation would include a much heavier European presence." Sources said that the World Cup "could see gross revenues" of $120M. What is "key about the 2016 World Cup event is that it is seen as a stepping-stone to other international events, including what could be a fascinating Ryder Cup-style event pitting the top players in North America against the top European players in a European-based event." The event, "very tentatively slotted into the fall of 2018, would fill a void created when the NHL stopped sending teams to Europe to start the season" after the '11-12 campaign. That initial event "would likely be held in London or Berlin, which both happen to have arenas owned by AEG" (ESPN.com, 1/24).
END OF THE OLYMPICS? In N.Y., Brett Cyrgalis wrote the return of the World Cup "could have been the death knell for NHL players participating in the Olympics." It surely is "looking like the league doesn't want its players to go" to the '18 Pyeongchang Games. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said, “I have a gut feeling on it, but ultimately, the decision we make we want to make jointly with the Players’ Association. So I know what their gut feeling on it is, too. I’m not sure it is (the same)” (N.Y. POST, 1/25). Daly added, "The World Cup may be influential in terms of how we ultimately decide, because if it's as successful as we hope it'll be and we think it'll be, the Olympics becomes far less important, to the players, even. If the World Cup's a big deal, best-on-best tournament, why do we need to go to the Olympics?" (CP, 1/24). THE HOCKEY NEWS' Ken Campbell wrote, "Don’t talk about growing the game globally if you’re going to limit your international participation to the World Championship and an exhibition tournament, then leave out the Olympics." If NHL stars want to keep playing in the Olympics, they have to "put this on their agenda and push really hard because the NHL is prepared to throw the Olympics down the sinkhole in the name of the almighty dollar" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 1/24). SI.com's Allan Muir wrote, "Now comes the fun part: Convincing the fans and the players in a post-Olympic world that this tournament matters" (SI.com, 1/24).
