Jim Kelley

Jim Kelley writes regularly on the NHL for Sportsnet.ca and can be heard on Primetime Sports on the FAN590.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and IIHF president Rene Fasel address an NHL/IIHF news conference at Canada Hockey Place on Day 7 of the Olympics.

Gary Bettman has a good stance supporting the league's threat to keep players out of future Olympics

This will come as a surprise to many -- especially to the many hockey fans who believe with all the heart and passions that Canadians have for hockey -- but Gary Bettman may have it right regarding future participation in the Olympic Winter Games.

The commissioner of the National Hockey League is currently sitting through his fourth go-round with the five rings. He has witnessed the experiment in Nagano, the euphoria of a marketer's dream with a USA-Canada final in Salt Lake City, the growing world interest regards using NHL players during the Turin games in Italy and what now appears to be a positively euphoric moment that threatens to eclipse the upcoming Stanley Cup in terms of fan recognition and interest.

One can reasonably argue the international interest in hockey is at its highest level ever during these Games in Vancouver. Is it wrong that the commissioner seeks to reap some future rewards? As per his style, he's using the threat of taking his puck and going home to make his point, but it is still a good point.

Put another way, blunt as he usually is, he has a case.

We're not talking about the obvious leverage he has over the NHL players' association which, as a group, is already on record as wanting to participate in the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. This is a bargaining point of no small stature for Bettman, who is sure to want to wrangle some sort of give-back from the players before conceding he and the owners might actually want to carry on with the International Olympic Committee and its heavy and often ham-handed ways.

We're not even factoring in Bettman's ongoing battle with Russia and other hockey federations regarding the contentious transfer agreements that have simmered just below the facade of a quasi-agreement. That has so upset the Russians that they have gone so far as to start their own league and signed away some of the NHL's established and up-and-coming talent in a bidding war that has been of unexpected benefit to the players' association.

Those are both important issues, but the most pressing matter, the one that in the eyes of Bettman and the NHL owners is the key to future NHL participation in the Olympics, is the NHL getting a piece of the profits.

And despite what NBC claims is a $260-million loss to present the games on television, there is real money being made and more that could be made and the NHL wants -- and deserves -- its share.

Bettman made his case for that in a somewhat contentious radio debate with International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel.

Fasel went to great lengths -- almost to the pointing of begging -- to convince Bettman and listeners that the NHL should continue to participate for the overall benefit of sport. But the essence of Bettman's argument revolves around the business of sport and that the IOC and the IIHF and the television networks benefit from having NHL players in the Olympics. Bettman argues that the NHL should share in some of that good fortune especially given the NHL shuts down for two weeks in the prime revenue-producing portion of its season and puts its very best players at risk when it does so.

It seems like a legitimate argument. For one thing, there are no bad or even mediocre NHL players in the Olympics. An injury to Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Ryan Miller or some other high-profile participant can be devastating not just to the player and his NHL team, but to the NHL itself. Bettman isn't asking for a subsidy for the period NHL players are at the Games, but he does have what seems to be a reasonable request: that the NHL shares in what to date have been only the IOC and the IIHF's good fortune.

That's not happening now and Bettman and the owners -- and if you take this to its logical extreme -- the players have valid reasons to reap the fruits of the players' international participation. For instance Bettman and the NHL receive no revenue from television broadcasts and in the U.S. can't even always get their players on NBC's over-the-air channel, a situation that limits their exposure in the market area they would most like to develop: the United States.

That may change as the tournament moves along. Interest, based on preliminary ratings, seems to be growing, but the NHL also doesn't get to brand its Olympic participation with its own partners, the Versus and NHL Network in both the U.S. and Canada. This is of some concern not just to the NHL but to its fans.

Not everyone gets MSNBC or the USA channel on their cable or satellite system. In the market I live in the cable company does post both on my tier level, but NBC doesn't always provide hockey content to those channels. (I watched Canada vs. Russia via CTV but outside of Buffalo and perhaps the Detroit area, that's not an option for the U.S. fan.) The NHL Network is accessible, but there is no Olympic hockey on that network because other networks have the rights.

The NHL has a reasonable request in that regard. Not only does it seem reasonable to allow them to broadcast or at least rebroadcast the games on their network, in doing so they reach more fans and it would allow them to service -- and receive revenue from -- the sponsors that support the NHL.

Bettman and the NHL have had a difficult time making good on the claim that shutting down the regular season creates a larger market for NHL hockey on television or even at the gate in many cities. If the experience of the last three Olympic Winter Games has taught us anything it's that the fans who follow the sport go back to watching it where they can find it on television and the fans who can afford NHL ticket prices go back to their favorite arenas. Precious few new ones are developed.

Allowing the NHL to do more to build off the participation of NHL players and the shortfalls created by shutting down the regular season makes perfect sense for Bettman and the NHL and it shouldn't hurt NBC either. After all NBC, which is the NHL's over-the-air "partner" in the U.S., can't be expected to surrender hours of lucrative primetime revenue to the NHL.

Hockey simply isn't that big or that interesting to the general public in the U.S. But it would still be in NBC's best interest to get the games involving NHL players as much exposure as possible if for no other reason than to raise the interest level among viewers who might tune in to a Saturday or Sunday NHL game that NBC broadcasts once the National Football League season is over.

After all, according to the preliminary ratings, some 8.2 million managed to find the Canada-USA game on MSNBC Sunday night, giving that network a respectable 4.3 rating, the third highest rating in the history of that largely off-the-radar network. It's reasonable to assume that if the U.S. continues on into the medal round, that number could improve.

It can't come close to the off-the-charts ratings in Canada, but if the games were also on the NHL Network and if the NHL were allowed extraordinary access to its players after the games, after practices and in the Olympic Village (which, surprisingly, they are not) it couldn't help but improve the interest level in the game.

Bettman's points in that regard are not unreasonable especially when MSNBC reaches about 91.4 million homes while parent NBC reaches some 114 million. It's understandable that NBC can only show snippets of the games while servicing ratings grabbers like figure skating and the alpine events and even those get-to-know Apolo Anton Ohno moments in primetime, but having the hockey games on MSNBC and the NHL Network and having players available for interviews and in-depth features on NHL-owned or NHL-partner outlets makes abundant sense not just for the NHL, but for NBC as well.

It's not likely something the IOC and the IIHF would readily agree to, but if Bettman makes good on his threat to end Olympic participation after these Games, well it's certainly something they would have to consider.

There's always something special regarding the level of competition in international hockey competitions. These Games are no exception.

Bettman has a reasonable point when he argues that more people should be allowed to see them on a variety of platforms all around the world.