Olympic Dilemma for NHL Could Result in Heavy PR Damage

It is a common theme in this blog that anticipating public relations issues and acting before the crisis occurs is an extremely important strategy and a necessary action for any sports organization.

As I had quoted in a previous post, “The best offense is a good defense” (or is it the other way around?).

There is a potential PR crisis slowly creeping up on the NHL that if not dealt with soon things could get very ugly for the league and its commissioner, Gary Bettman.

Since the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, the NHL has gone on a two-week hiatus during each Winter Olympics to allow its players to participate in the Games and represent their respective countries.

But beginning about two years ago, the commissioner began making statements implying that in the near future the league would no longer go on an Olympic hiatus and, evidently, not allow its players to participate in the Winter Games anymore.

“It is a strain. It is a strain on the players, on the schedule and on our fans here,”commissioner Bettman was quoted saying at the Reuters media summit in New York in November 2007. “It has an impact on the momentum of the season and the benefits we get tend to be greater when the Olympics are in North America than when they’re in distant time zones.”

With the NHL looking at another two-week interruption this season in February due to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, the issue of NHL players participating in the Olympics has risen again in the media and Bettman seems even more adamant about discontinuing the hiatus in the future – beginning in 2014 when the Winter Games will be hosted by Sochi, Russia.

“Going to the Olympics is a balancing act. The benefits versus the burdens of doing it have to be weighed.”Bettman said to the Associated Press in early October 2009. “Taking the break in the season deals with a loss of momentum. It’s also a competitive issue, because teams with a more diverse international roster come back a little more tired for the stretch run than teams who didn’t have very many players participate who had two weeks off.”

Commissioner Bettman makes a valid point.

However, there now appears to be a growing movement by some NHL players that their participation in the Winter Olympic Games will continue regardless of any change in policy by the league.

Leading this charge is Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, the NHL’s top player and also a Russian.

“Nobody can say to me you can’t play for your country in the Olympic Games,” Ovechkin said. “I don’t care. I’ll go play in the Olympic Games for my country. If somebody says to me you can’t play, see ya.”

And Ovechkin is just one of many prominent players, primarily Russian, speaking out and threatening to play in the 2014 Winter Olympics no matter what. “I completely agree with Alex,” Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin said last month. “I would rather pay fines and still go.”

Ilya Kovalchuk of the Atlanta Thrashers, a Russian like Malkin, says, “We’ve declared that we are going to Sochi in any case.”

Also joining the players’ plight is Canadian superstar Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the league’s most marketable player.

“To see the Olympics on TV and to see the way our country comes together and the support they show is an amazing thing,” Crosby said. “To be a part of that would be a great opportunity and should continue to be an opportunity that NHL players have. Hopefully they find a way to make it work because I’m sure a lot of players feel the same way.”

Along with the players, the NHL Players’ Association also supports participation by the league in the Olympic Games.

So the way it stands now, with just under five years until the Winter Games in Sochi, the league will remove the two-week Olympic hiatus (beginning in 2014) and prohibit players from participating in the Olympics while, on the other side, many NHL stars are openly challenging the “no Olympics” rule and saying they’re going to Sochi regardless.

Obviously this situation has the potential to grow into an enormous public relations disaster for commissioner Bettman and the NHL. Although the situation in question would not occur until 2014, questions and media attention will begin to percolate as both the 2010 Winter Games approach and the current collective bargaining agreement is scheduled to expire in 2011.

So the NHL has to act now.

Maybe the players’ threats are empty and when push comes to shove they’ll honor their contracts before their countries, but the league can absolutely not take that chance.

Commissioner Bettman needs to open communications with the Players’ Association and the league’s top players (specifically the Russians) and work together on messaging points that are delivered to the media.

Players, as well as league officials, need to recognize the potential danger to the NHL’s brand and image if the rift continues to widen.

Most likely this issue won’t get solved right away. So the league and its players have to act in concert regarding the Olympic dilemma to squash the media stories that would embarrass and hurt the NHL.

Speaking out publicly against the league and its policies will hurt the entire NHL. And of each of the four major sports leagues, the NHL can least afford significant PR damage.