Hockey

International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel has an answer for Gary Bettman.

In response to the NHL commissioner's comments that 2010 might be the last time NHLers compete at an Olympics, Fasel told Canwest News Services that while he understands the league didn't cash in as expected from its participation in the Winter Games, the Olympics still provide the NHL with a global audience it isn't finding anywhere else.

"He's wrong," Fasel told Canwest on Tuesday. "He's completely wrong. If you want to bring hockey to new people and new sponsors, you have to use the huge stage of the Winter Olympics. For Torino, we had 14 billion TV viewers. When I see the numbers the NHL reaches on TV, you cannot compare.

"It's a great opportunity for the NHL brand. When David Stern decided to bring the NBA to Barcelona [for the 1992 Games] it was huge. Gary was thinking he can do the same thing and he had six, maybe seven very strong teams and a better tournament. Maybe that's what Gary doesn't like, when it's not North America that's winning it's not his product. But he's wrong. For me, he's wrong."

Fasel is hardly the first person in the hockey world to voice an opinion on NHL Olympic participation that differs from Bettman's.

Washington capitals sniper Alexander Ovechkin has said he'll play in the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia, no matter what.

"It's what I want and what I'm going to do," Ovechkin said recently.

The league's leading goal scorer last year, Ovechkin called for a meeting of  NHL players to talk about participating in 2014, and has not backed down on his comments.

Earlier this month Bettman told The Canadian Press it's a different story when the Games aren't in North America, and suggested the Olympics need the NHL more than the NHL needs the Olympics.

"The benefits of going to the Olympics when you're in Salt Lake City or Vancouver, to name two cities, are way different than if you're in Japan, Italy or Russia,'' said Bettman. "I'm not sure that type of exposure warrants or overcomes the difficulties."

But Fasel, who told Canwest the IIHF earns about the same amount of money from the Olympic hockey tournament with our without NHL participation, says the federation is doing its best to promote the sport outside of North America.  

"The European market is very important for the NHL," Fasel said. "They have the best European players, but if we want to bring the kids to the sport and develop them, we have to use this European market.

"We're losing players everywhere in the world. We have to bring the young boys and girls to hockey. How can we make the best promotion for the game? It has to be the Olympics.

"We can do something together, for sure. We have to work together with the NHL. But they have to respect us as a partner. The way they're handling us now, taking all the players away, it almost killed the system."