(ATR) A decision on whether the world’s best men’s hockey players will be participating in PyeongChang 2018 could be made sooner rather than later.
International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel says the National Hockey League needs to let the IIHF know by the end of April if the league will shut down next February to allow its players to compete in Korea. Fasel revealed the deadline in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.
On Tuesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told Reuters "As things stand now, people should assume we are not going." The statement does appear to leave the door open to get a deal done.
Bettman, though, has not met with the other principals in the negotiations since early February, when he was joined by Fasel, IOC president Thomas Bach and NHL Players Association executive director Donald Fehr at the NHL offices in New York. Bach said it was only a "courtesy visit".
The IOC has stood firm about not paying out of pocket transportation and insurance costs for the elite league players to come to Korea, something that has been provided at every Olympics that the NHL has participated in since Nagano 1998. Fasel has worked diligently to find a means to cover the expenses, although some details remain unknown.
Fasel tells the AP the push for an end of April deadline comes from the national teams, who want ample time to assemble their Plan B rosters in the event the NHL passes on the Olympics.
Speaking with Around the Rings a month ago, Fasel insisted there was no steadfast deadline for the NHL to make its final decision. The league waited until July 2013 before agreeing to allow its players to make the trek to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Games.
Fasel tells ATR that the NHL would be missing out on a great opportunity to grow the league’s brand in Asia if it chooses to pass on PyeongChang.
"I consider Gary Bettman a very smart person with what he has done with the NHL in the last 20 years," Fasel said. "I would not understand if he doesn’t go to PyeongChang and then it would be really difficult to come back for Beijing [in 2022] because people will be very disappointed."
"I hope they do not make the mistake not to come."
Written by Gerard Farek
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