Dreams of Detente

BETTMAN AND FASSEL DURING "HAPPIER" TIMES

At the 2010 Molson Hockey Summit in Toronto, Brian Burke and other NHL execs made it clear that they were not going to rubber stamp shutting down the NHL and all their pro's to go to Sochi to play games at 7 AM Eastern time.  Reasons cited were 1) Insurance Costs, 2) Video  and still photo access to sites like NHL.com, and 3) the unfavorable time zone.  They never said exactly what they wanted in return.  With the Sochi Winter Games less than a year away, negotiations have gotten gritty.  But the sticking point is no longer with Rene Fassel in Switzerland nor Jacques Rogge in France.  It's North Americans and Russians sitting across a table in a tug of war over tickets and passes. Russian hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak told Russian News Agency R-Sport that "They (NHL) are laying down [terms] that can be accepted only at the level of the International Olympic Committee." Fasell told CBC last week that "egos" are threatening the process. Surprised? Anyone? 

"It comes down to NHL owner Perks," said a source with decades of Olympic experience with a prominent federation.  "Things like tickets, passes to events and access," said my insider.  The Cornell sports Business blog said the following: "The NHL also wants access for its general managers and other team personal to interact with its players while in Sochi, as well. The IOC has generally been reluctant to give leagues these rights."   

Now the IOC and IIHF have only so many passes and tickets to hand out, it's the local organizing committee that has the lion's share of passes and tix, which have been treated like gold in recent Olympics, and factored into every bid.  So now SOOC has to assign a value to having the NHLers participate in these games, and measure it against the cost of all those freebies demanded by the NHL "Lords of the Boards."

It's no longer the French (IOC's Jaques Rogge) or the Swiss (IIHF's Rene Fassel) needed to accommodate the hardball North Americans, it's the Russians and the NHL playing hardball over hard currency. Holy Cold War Batman, it's back to the Future!  These negotiations can't be pretty, and it shouldn't surprise anyone that it is dragging out.  

Another note of importance:  Caps owner Ted Leonsis has agreed to release Ovechkin for Sochi regardless of the outcome of the negotiations.  I doubt if Bettman and Co. are terribly pleased with losing such a valuable chess piece.  But Malkin, Kovalchuk and Datsyuk are still in play, and Kovalchuk in particular will be terribly missed in Sochi if the NHL owners don't get their way. Kovalchuk, not Ovechkin, was by far the most popular of the NHL stars playing in the KHL through December.  It's impossible to imagine Lou Lamoriello getting all altruistic and donating Kovalchuk to the Games.

Cause for optimism... Vladimir Putin is a HUGE hockey fan, and is desperate to have his heroes at the Games.  He is the driving force of the Sochi Organizing Committee, and could get this done.

Putin ready to bang heads?

NBC sits in limbo as well...whether their Sochi hockey studios originate from Stamford or Russia hangs in the balance. With NBC committed to the NHL, why would they sacrifice manpower and huge capital outlays to cover amateur hockey players 9 time zones away when their #1 hockey property are playing nightly in prime time? 

To expedite matters, Bettman and Company should go to Russia and meet directly with SOOC, and that ultimately means Putin.  That, my friends, would be Bolshoy theater.