IOC's Pound: NHL skipping Olympics betrays players, fans

The NHL's decision to pass on the 2018 Winter Olympics doesn't sit well with at least one member of the International Olympic Committee.

Dick Pound, a senior member of the IOC, roundly criticized the NHL's short-sightedness in an editorial in the Montreal Gazette last week, noting that skipping Pyeongchang is disrespectful to players, who will remember this move when negotiating the next collective bargaining agreement.

I 'get' the (NHL's) economic argument. But I also believe that there are at least two larger interests in play. The first is a responsibility for growing and promoting an exciting game, which is important for the sport, its players and spectators throughout the world. It is not sufficient for the NHL to be content with plucking the low-hanging financial fruit, but to fail to invest in the future of the game.

Pound expanded on his point Tuesday, telling "Prime Time Sports," "I think ultimately they have betrayed their fan base, their global fan base, and they've betrayed the players that would like to have this unique chance to represent their country in the Olympics. I think that ultimately translates into bad business because there's a price for ignoring your players and your fans and they've got to think about that. I don't think they have."

Pound speaks from experience, as he serves as chairman of Olympic Broadcasting Services and was previously vice-president of the IOC and president of the Canadian Olympic Committee.

"I think (the NHL) was overlooking some elements of the business side of it, which is a fan base and establishing a much bigger, global footprint through the Olympics than they could possibly do through the NHL," he added. "I would have thought from a business perspective, globally, that maybe the two-week period you take a little bit of a hit, but globally, in terms of getting your players known, I would have thought it would have been great business to be there, and bad business not to."

This isn't the first time Pound has spoken out against the NHL. In 2005, as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, he slammed the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs, stating: "You wouldn't be far wrong if you said a third of hockey players are gaining some pharmaceutical assistance."

However, two years later, in an interview with The New York Times, Pound confessed to inventing the one-third figure, saying, "It was pick a number. So it's 20 percent. Twenty-five percent. Call me a liar."

As for Pyeongchang, the 2018 Games will mark the first time in five Olympics where NHL players, who first took to the international ice in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, won't compete. With those players left to watch, the expectation is teams will construct their rosters primarily using players from the KHL and those with minor-league AHL contracts.

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