Comments on: Olympics a Meaningful Marketing Windfall for NHL http://www.marketingwithmeaning.com/2010/03/02/olympics-a-meaningful-marketing-windfall-for-nhl/ The New Imperative to Add Value to Customers' Lives Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:20:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Peter Korchnak http://www.marketingwithmeaning.com/2010/03/02/olympics-a-meaningful-marketing-windfall-for-nhl/comment-page-1/#comment-1632 Peter Korchnak Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:45:38 +0000 http://www.marketingwithmeaning.com/?p=1187#comment-1632 As a hockey fan, I wholeheartedly agree. Alexander Ovechkin, one of the two faces of the NHL (the other one being Sidney Crosby), has said he'd rather skip a year playing in the NHL than not be able to represent his country of Russia at the Olympics there. It's not about the money for him, he claims. "No one can tell me if I can or cannot represent my country," he said during the Vancouver Olympics, or something to that effect. By contrast, it's all about the money for Bettman. He says he has the interest of the billion-dollar business in mind, but the short-sightedness of his views is astounding. Of course, now that Ovechkin and other NHLers have an alternative in the KHL, a Russian pro league upstart, the game has changed. NHL (read Bettman) seems to be doing its utmost best to lose business to the KHL. So many businesses have failed because they underestimated their competition, I'd hate to see the NHL be one of them. As a hockey fan, I wholeheartedly agree.

Alexander Ovechkin, one of the two faces of the NHL (the other one being Sidney Crosby), has said he’d rather skip a year playing in the NHL than not be able to represent his country of Russia at the Olympics there. It’s not about the money for him, he claims. “No one can tell me if I can or cannot represent my country,” he said during the Vancouver Olympics, or something to that effect.

By contrast, it’s all about the money for Bettman. He says he has the interest of the billion-dollar business in mind, but the short-sightedness of his views is astounding. Of course, now that Ovechkin and other NHLers have an alternative in the KHL, a Russian pro league upstart, the game has changed. NHL (read Bettman) seems to be doing its utmost best to lose business to the KHL. So many businesses have failed because they underestimated their competition, I’d hate to see the NHL be one of them.

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