Canadians don’t agree with the NHL skipping the 2018 Games: poll
Posted April 7, 2017 10:38 am.
Last Updated April 7, 2017 1:09 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The NHL has spent a lot of time in the penalty box this week following its decision to pull players from next year’s winter Olympics.
For the first time since 1994, NHL players will not attend the Winter Olympics, however, some including the likes of superstars like Alex Ovechkin say they’ll attend despite what the league is saying. The NHL said in statement it “considered the matter officially closed.”
Negotiations between the league, the NHL Players’ Association and the International Olympic Committee have stalled in recent months and some feel this is just a ploy to get talks going again. The NHLPA responded with a scathing response.
The move has upset fans from coast to coast to coast and a new Mainstreet/Postmedia poll finds 62 per cent of Canadians think it’s a bad move. And when Americans were asked how they felt, many said they weren’t sure or simply didn’t know.
“Canadians are up in arms but many Americans don’t seem to have an opinion on this,” explains Quito Maggi with Mainstreet Research. “That may be the reason the NHL felt it could make this move in the first place. The American market is much larger than the Canadian one. Americans are essentially split with 18 per cent saying it was a good decision and 20 per cent saying it was a bad decision – the results are within the margin of error.”
Mainstreet – NHL & the Olympics by Mainstreet on Scribd
The next Olympics are being held in February in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
