ICE HOCKEY issues in Canada. It's the official winter sport and nationwide pastime. Canada has gained extra Olympic medals for it than every other nation. Totally half of Canadians tuned in to look at their crew win gold within the males’s ice hockey closing on the winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, making it the most-watched broadcast tv programme within the nation’s historical past.
However the probabilities that a Canadian crew will win on the video games in Beijing, which begin on February 4th, are trying dismal. Equally the USA, the game’s different powerhouse, seems to be unlikely to win gold, regardless of the 2 nations internet hosting the Nationwide Hockey League (NHL) through which 32 groups of the world’s greatest gamers do battle each week. This yr the league bosses have forbidden gamers from competing in China.
The NHL blames the disruption wrought by covid-19. Certainly, the pandemic has meant that the league has postponed greater than 100 video games this season, which began in October. Earlier than Christmas greater than 15% of gamers (or 119 individuals) have been out for the depend due to the virus.
Some followers cry foul, nevertheless. The league additionally pulled out in 2018, after a dispute with the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) over who ought to pay for gamers’ journey, lodging and insurance coverage. The NHL loses cash from lending out its gamers, so it has few incentives to take action. It additionally can't use footage from the video games for its adverts.
In 2020 gamers negotiated to go to the Olympics as a part of their collective-bargaining settlement with the league. However even earlier than the Omicron variant, few thought the NHL would stick with its phrase. “I believe they might have seemed excessive and low for an excuse to not ship them,” says Ryan Lambert, a hockey author.
Canada and the USA now have only a few weeks to scrape collectively groups from junior leagues and school gamers. Russia’s males, who gained the gold medal in 2018, are virtually sure to take action once more (although below the Olympic flag, slightly than their very own, due to a doping ban). China’s crew, which certified for the primary time this yr and confronted potential humiliation on the skates of Canada and the USA, could also be spared some blushes.
The league is betting that followers care extra about their home-city groups. Previous Olympic glories haven't translated into rankings bumps for the NHL. Its choice to overlook the earlier video games did little to harm the league’s recognition in North America, in line with Cliff Grevler of the Boston Consulting Group. Gary Bettman, the NHL’s commissioner, has urged that ice hockey be moved to the summer time video games, through the league’s low season, however the IOC put his concept on ice.
The NHL could really feel it's tapping into a bigger feeling in Canada. The Canadian authorities has been one of many loudest proponents of the diplomatic boycott of the Olympics. The latest Pew world attitudes survey, from 2020, confirmed 73% of Canadians had a frosty view of China, a historic excessive.
Post a Comment