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Fisher: Russians pull power play to participate in Olympics
Even in the case of 2018 many of the events including hockey are being held in the city of Gangneung and as of 2006 it had a population of almost 230,000.
The Winter Olympics have become to big for small ski resort type communities to ever host the entire thing on its own. These types of towns will still be part of bids in the future but they will be paired with much larger cities.
That is correct, even large cities would have to be paired due to geographical constraints. The fact is that the changing technology andtransportation possibilities make this possible.
Without reading the full thread, I think it's really bad advertising for NHL to not to go to Olympics. Comparing to soccer, you people understand why Man Utd goes to places like China? To get more visibility (or what is the word?). People from there buys a load of Man Utd's stuff and the difference naturally is that while everyone knows what is soccer, NHL for sure needs more people to know about hockey. Also, it is a huge opportunity to compete against KHL for people getting interested to see players like Crosby instead (or at least besides) of players like Radulov.
Kids in China will never get interested in hockey just like a lot of kids in the US won't get interested in hockey because of the weather and financial costs. Where in soccer all you need is a ball while in hockey we all know how expensive and specialized it is. Going back to your point, if the NHL shows up in China, all you will hear are crickets. Soccer is actually pretty massive in Asia.
I see Olympic gold > Stanley Cup myself. Representing the country would be such an honour.
That should be that way...I think that "country pride" or playing for your country at big events such as Olympics and especially WC's (where many players decline invitations due to some, mostly, stupid reasons) is much stronger in European countries than in Canada and USA.
For me there is no better and more quality on one place than Olympic hockey finals. Just compare rosters of Canada and USA with rosters from this year's SC...
I really do hope NHL-ers will be in Sochi (but I doubt )
Of course, you don't consider tearing out much of the building so it ca be expanded to meet capacity, media requirements. etc. so it can be used for a very brief period in time. So, it would be basically a new facility from scratch and the costs would easily go into 9 figures. Especially since it was only supposed to cost 75 Million GBP to build the London facilities in the first place.
The Manchester facility cost 32 Million GBP in late 90's dollars.
If you had understood it, you would get why Manchester, long seen as the main Olympic bid city, went the route that they did. They didn't need the Olympics to achieve the same value.
The London bid spiraled because it's London. Tearing out some walls and adding temporary seating to an existing facility is much easier than constructing a new 17,000 seat venue in a market with insane property and labor/materials costs.
Manchester bid for the BOC bid for 2012 and lost. London's bid was widely seen as the result of political and press jealousy over Manchester's growing profile and their successful Commonwealth Games, which kind of says everything you need to know about how stupid Olympic hosting has become.
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Originally Posted by ScottyBowman
Kids in China will never get interested in hockey just like a lot of kids in the US won't get interested in hockey because of the weather and financial costs. Where in soccer all you need is a ball while in hockey we all know how expensive and specialized it is. Going back to your point, if the NHL shows up in China, all you will hear are crickets. Soccer is actually pretty massive in Asia.
Another person who seems to be under the impression that it's totally impossible to grow hockey at all. They only started playing hockey in Russia after World War II, you know... and China has a lot in common with Cold War era Russia in sporting terms. If they have the interest to grow gold medal winning figure skaters out of nothing at all, why not hockey players?
Growth in the US over the past 20 years has been massive and observable... absurd growth in the number of registered players, kids from California, Texas and Florida on the USNTDP (and dozens of kids from California and Texas in the WHL lately). This idea that hockey is struggling to grow in the US is weird, seemingly based on little more than TV ratings for crappy teams in the sunbelt.
Another person who seems to be under the impression that it's totally impossible to grow hockey at all. They only started playing hockey in Russia after World War II, you know... and China has a lot in common with Cold War era Russia in sporting terms. If they have the interest to grow gold medal winning figure skaters out of nothing at all, why not hockey players?
Growth in the US over the past 20 years has been massive and observable... absurd growth in the number of registered players, kids from California, Texas and Florida on the USNTDP (and dozens of kids from California and Texas in the WHL lately). This idea that hockey is struggling to grow in the US is weird, seemingly based on little more than TV ratings for crappy teams in the sunbelt.
As for the cost of equipment, one has to remember that the overwhelming majority of ice hockey equipment is now made in China. Very low labour costs, negligible transportation issues balanced against the incredible potential of a home market that is untapped and not subject to external competition.
As for the cost of equipment, one has to remember that the overwhelming majority of ice hockey equipment is now made in China. Very low labour costs, negligible transportation issues balanced against the incredible potential of a home market that is untapped and not subject to external competition.
With those factors included, perhaps by 2030 can they actually attempt Olympic qualification in hockey and put up a fight. As it stands today, their hockey team is treading Division II water, no more. And, even if China bore a lot of resemblance to Cold War-era Russia in sporting terms, Chinese hockey is mostly a two-city affair (Harbin and Qiqihar) so Chinese hockey is, at best, in its infancy stage.
If the NHL are not interested it's probably because they think it's not worth it financialy.
That said, personaly if say the Winter Olympics would be in Quebec city and the NHL would not be there it would disappoint me a great deal.
Now as far as AO and the Russian players, I guess they like to get humiliated? Remember "they came at us like Gorillas in a cage"? Well next time will be the same. j/k
there's never going to be an agreement on what the pinnacle of the sport is and we should all accept that and stop arguing over it. The fact that a large number of hockey fans of any nationality feel that international competition are as or more important than club competition means that definitive statements one way or the other can never be correct. Everything else is just a personal opinion.
Well the pinnacle is the hardest to win. Olympics are always the same 5 teams that compete for the honors and most of the time Canada beating everyone. It's almost unfair. The Stanley Cup is the hardest championship to win, not only in hockey but in all sports.
Well the pinnacle is the hardest to win. Olympics are always the same 5 teams that compete for the honors and most of the time Canada beating everyone. It's almost unfair. The Stanley Cup is the hardest championship to win, not only in hockey but in all sports.
FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Champions league disagree with you.
The London bid spiraled because it's London. Tearing out some walls and adding temporary seating to an existing facility is much easier than constructing a new 17,000 seat venue in a market with insane property and labor/materials costs.
Easy for you to go around boasting about how things would be better if done your way.
If you had even bothered looking at the pictures, you know full well that the costs expected in the nine figures would be well justified for such a plan of yours.
Adopting the "its London" excuse doesn't cut it. No city is immune from such increases in material. Saying it wouldn't happen in Manchester is nonsense.
You would be spending the same amounts to tear apart the whole facility (if you had checked before, you know full well ts not a pool), build new permanent structures, add the temporary seats, and put the roof over top only to reverse it all when the games come to and end. That isn't cheap and has been acknowledges as part of London's plan for the facility from the start.
In addition, you would have to tell the community they can't use the facility, which was why it was built in the manner in the first place. the "Sorry, but Brodie said this is the only way so sod off!" shows a lack of consideration on your part.
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Originally Posted by Brodie
Manchester bid for the BOC bid for 2012 and lost. London's bid was widely seen as the result of political and press jealousy over Manchester's growing profile and their successful Commonwealth Games, which kind of says everything you need to know about how stupid Olympic hosting has become.
Sure.
I also belie that the earth is flat.
Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
and that Bieber is actually a girl.
The UEFA Champions League isn't that exclusive given the range of winners since its inception. Much of doing that you don't need to win your league in many cases to qualify.
You are definately right about the time zone. Alot of the luster will be lost in N.A. when everybody knows the score of the game before watching.
The degradation of the NHL game is what is a problem. Shutting down the league for 3 weeks and re starting with a condesned schedule does not make for the greatest hockey.
I think that the NHL benefit from great Olymopic hockey is overrated. Being in the US many of my freinds who are passionate sports fans but casual hockey fans came away from the Vancouver olympics saying..."The NHL sucks compared to that. We would watch if the games were played that way". I know a ton of people who watched the gold medal game and not a single one of them became a more avid fan of the NHL after watching that game.
Then maybe The NHL should change their game to be more like the IIHF?
The Stanley Cup is the hardest championship to win, not only in hockey but in all sports.
I know that's what we tell ourselves as hockey fans, but I don't think that's true at all. For starters, the World Series is harder, because fewer teams even get the chance, and Champions League is harder because it is against the finest collection of talent on the planet, and takes damn near a full year to complete.
If that's how you feel, then that's how you feel, it's cool, but it isn't a universal belief even amongst hockey fans, nevermind people who enjoy other sports.
The UEFA Champions League isn't that exclusive given the range of winners since its inception. Much of doing that you don't need to win your league in many cases to qualify.
Much like The NHL,where you don't have to win your division to participate in the SC,no`?
I know that's what we tell ourselves as hockey fans, but I don't think that's true at all. For starters, the World Series is harder, because fewer teams even get the chance, and Champions League is harder because it is against the finest collection of talent on the planet, and takes damn near a full year to complete.
If that's how you feel, then that's how you feel, it's cool, but it isn't a universal belief even amongst hockey fans, nevermind people who enjoy other sports.
Nope, when I consider all aspects of a sport NOPE. Hockey is the hardest and it's not all about talent, we have all seen it. It's Heart. By the time your in the Cup Final you you have had to suck it up a dozen times due to BIG HITS and BIG ILLEGAL HITS both. Black eyes, half torn shoulders, semi-wreaked knees, Head shots and then you get to play the hardest 7 games of you life. Point to any sport you wish. No sport has that physical aspect added to the worlds top talent. It's darn near a WAR. We all know that to win a cup you need a ton of grit to go with a ton of talent. You need some players that will have the balls to stand up to some BIG MEAN GUYS no matter what the personal cost and do it for 4 complete series. No other sport allows such intensity in such a short space of time. 3-4 Games a week for 4-5 weeks no matter how bad you injury is, keep going, don't stop, and win those hard fought games.
I have NEVER ever heard a player in any other sport get back into the game after he has suffered a broken foot,hand,head,ribs, a quick 5 minutes to the clinic and right back to the action. Never saw this kind of commitment form any other sport.
Not saying other sports are not great and the other sports reward the true talent and that's great, but you add the word " Hardest " and you have only " ONE " sport.
HOCKEY ( NHL STYLE )
It actually wasn't "my" idea, it's been posed in numerous books over the years on why the Olympic "movement" is a failure and how to make it work properly.
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Originally Posted by DoyleG
(if you had checked before, you know full well ts not a pool)
I have NEVER ever heard a player in any other sport get back into the game after he has suffered a broken foot,hand,head,ribs, a quick 5 minutes to the clinic and right back to the action. Never saw this kind of commitment form any other sport.
Then you aren't paying attention. It happens all the time. Athletes in all contact sports (and yes, soccer and basketball are contact sports) are warriors. Football players especially are renowned for completely demolishing their bodies, and playing anyway.
You want tough? Ali continuing to box through a broken jaw. That's ****ing tough. Curt Schilling having his tendons stapled together so he could make his next start, sparking the biggest comeback in history, that's tough. Kerri Strug, an itsy bitsy girl, *vaulting* onto a mangled ankle in search of an olympic medal, that's tough.
Hockey has no monopoly on tough.
And of course there is Jack Youngblood...
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Late in the second quarter of the first game of the 1979 playoffs, defensive end Jack Youngblood was knocked over and got his leg stuck in the ground. He heard his leg snap above the ankle. X-rays showed it was broken but Youngblood pleaded with the trainers to tape it up and send him back in.
So they did. After missing the first few minutes of the second half, he was back in the game. He went on pick up a sack as the Rams upset the Cowboys.
A brace was made for his leg which he wore in the NFC Championship game and Super Bowl, which the Rams lost to the Steelers. But what really put him over the top is he wasn’t content playing three games on a broken leg. He played the next week in the Pro Bowl also. Not even the players with unbroken legs care about that game.
A "broken leg" in hockey means something quite different than a "broken leg" in soccer. Nobody, in either sport, is coming back on the field/ice after one of these...
)
Remember "they came at us like Gorillas in a cage"? Well next time will be the same. j/k
