from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,
A litany of VIPs, including NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and players association executive director Don Fehr, plan to gather in Toronto Wednesday to unveil the World Cup of Hockey “countdown clock,” so eager fans will know precisely how many days, minutes and seconds they need to wait until the event starts Sept. 17.
Seriously, that’s actually happening.
One might think that, with teams entering the stretch drive, hockey executives would have better things to do than go on a promotional tour for an exhibition hockey tournament to be played in the fall, but one would be wrong.
That’s how much the success or failure of the World Cup matters to the NHL and its long-term international plan. Unlike the Winter Olympics, the World Cup is a joint venture in which the league and players association control everything from the schedule and training camps to the venues and ticket pricing.
Nominally, the Cup is being cast as an event that serves of interests of hockey fans who crave best-on-best competition.
The reality is it is a big-money, for-profit tournament, and the NHL hopes it will become so popular that, in time, the league will be able to say no to Olympic participation and not suffer any meaningful backlash from the paying public.
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