Some Truly Stupid Suggestions

Count Gary Bettman among those who wishes the gold medal game had been "at a more convenient time."  Apparently, he's a member of that group who either doesn't understand time zones, that the game was being played in Italy and/or that world doesn't revolve around North America.  Or how the Olympic schedule actually works.  Because I've seen some absolutely moronic "suggestions" for how they should "fix" the men's hockey gold medal game, which isn't broken.

It's worth noting that the 8:15 am start time clearly wasn't a deterrent.  It was the most-watched hockey game on NBC since the 2010 Olympic gold medal game in Vancouver, and NBC's highest-rated sports program that started before 9:00 am ever!  It's also worth noting that the only reason people even cared and made a big deal about this "problem" is because it was the United States vs. Canada.  Had either one lost, different story.  Had they both lost and the gold medal game was Finland vs. Slovakia instead, nobody would even be batting an eye.  It's only because it was Canada-USA, a final that wasn't locked in until Friday evening.  Yes, they came into the Olympics as the two favorites.  But you can't just assume that'll be the gold medal game.

Each of the last two Olympics prior to Milan was in Asia.  That meant the men's hockey gold medal game started in the middle of the night in North America!  In 2022, it started at 11:10 pm on Saturday night, and it was 11:45 pm Saturday night four years earlier.  Even bringing it back to 2014, the last Olympics in Europe (and the last with NHL players), it started at 7:00 am Eastern time.  Yet we didn't hear a peep about any of them!

I think my favorite "idea" regarding the timing of the gold medal game was an article suggesting it'll be "fixed" in 2034 when Utah hosts.  This article was based on the premise that, since the game will be played in the U.S., it'll be scheduled for prime time.  Hate to break it to you, but it won't.  The gold medal men's hockey game is the final event of the Winter Olympics, played a few hours before the Closing Ceremony.  Since the Closing Ceremony is on Sunday night, the hockey game has to be in the afternoon local time.  It shouldn't really be that hard to understand this point.

When the 2002 Olympics were in Salt Lake City, the hockey game started at 1:00 Mountain/3:00 Eastern.  At the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, it started at 12:15 Pacific/3:15 Eastern.  So, it's probably safe to assume that the men's hockey gold medal game in 2034 will be at either 1:00 or 1:15 local time (probably depending on whichever NBC prefers).

Another "suggestion" I saw was playing the men's gold medal game on Saturday night, which is currently when the bronze medal game takes place.  That wouldn't work for several reasons.  First and foremost, the men's hockey gold medal game is the marquee event on the final day.  And the schedule is also built around it being on Sunday.  The semifinals are on Friday, the quarterfinals are on Wednesday, and the playoffs are on Tuesday, with the women's semifinals and medal games on the two off days (Monday and Thursday).  If they moved the final to Saturday, they'd have to shift everything else up a day, which sounds easy until you factor in how it would impact both the women's tournament and the NHL schedule.

Or how about this one, which I also saw?  Playing the men's and women's gold medal games as a doubleheader.  Yeah, that's a no-go.  The men's gold medal hockey game is one of the most expensive, most in-demand tickets of any Olympic event, and the women's gold medal game isn't far behind.  No Olympic organizing committee is gonna be stupid enough to combine those two events and give up the ticket revenue that comes with both of them selling out separately.

If you wanted to make an argument for a bronze/gold doubleheader, that would at least make a little more sense.  But that would also be unworkable.  The men's bronze medal game is played the day after the semifinals while the finalists get a day off.  And, again, they'd have to rework the entire schedule to make that work.  Besides, tickets to every men's hockey game are sold as separate events.  And they're pretty much all sellouts.  So, again, why would they be stupid enough not to do that?!

There was also a thought that they should've scheduled the gold medal game for 3:10 pm Eastern, which is when each of the first five USA games were.  Those 9:10 pm local time starts were NBC's request.  But scheduling the gold medal game at that time WAS. NOT. POSSIBLE!  That would've put the hockey game during the Closing Ceremony!  Which obviously ain't happening!  (And, again, they're not moving the Closing Ceremony just to make things more convenient for North American hockey fans who don't want to get up early.)

Somebody said in one of the comments that the NHL "missed an opportunity" because of the early start time.  Well, there's a couple things wrong with that.  For starters, the NHL doesn't set the start time.  The IOC does.  The NHL isn't even allowed to use Olympic highlights for marketing purposes, much to their own frustration.  Second, the IOC doesn't care.  The start time is gonna be inconvenient for somebody regardless, so they're gonna do what works best for the host country and the people actually attending the game.

One guy was like, "that's like holding the Super Bowl at 10 am on a Wednesday!"  Not only is that a ridiculous comparison, it's also partially true.  If you're in Australia and you want to watch the Super Bowl, you're watching it on Monday afternoon.  If you're in Europe, it's midnight (which is why the people who think a Super Bowl in London is "inevitable" are morons!).

What I find funny, too, is how quickly people forget.  It was only a little more than a year and a half ago that the United States played France in the women's basketball final at the Paris Olympics, which, like the hockey game, was the last event of the Games.  Wanna guess what time it started?  9:30 am Eastern!  Where was the outrage about that?

Meanwhile, in every other situation people not only seem to understand the time difference between the United States and Europe, they seem to enjoy it.  The NFL's Europe games all start in the afternoon local time/9:30 am Eastern.  Fans love it.  It's a fourth window on Sundays.  Ditto about watching the Premier League on Saturday mornings or the Champions League on weekday afternoons.

And how do they think European fans will feel about their teams' unusual start times at the World Cup this summer?  What people seem to forget is that the North America has the latest time zones in the word.  The final is at 3:00 in the afternoon in New York.  Why is it in the middle of the afternoon?  Because that's prime time in Europe!

On the other end of the spectrum, the European team that ends up in Group C with the United States will have two 9 p.m. Pacific time starts.  That's 6 a.m. in Europe!  Their third game will be against the U.S.  At 4 a.m. local time!  And, you know what?  They're gonna get up early to watch the game and not complain about it!  The most convenient times here (the evening) are inconvenient for them and vice versa. 

Why should North American fans care about that?  Short answer: they shouldn't.  Kinda like how European fans/organizers shouldn't care about how convenient the timing of events in their countries are for North American fans.  If it works out for both, so much the better.  But sometimes you'll have events that happen either early in the North American morning or in the European overnight and there's nothing you can do about it.