Gary Bettman: 'Concern' over Olympic venue, no NHL expansion soon

Following a Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday in New York, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman offered updates on an array of topics.

The biggest point of emphasis? International growth is taking priority over local growth.

"We're focused on what we can be doing more outside of North America to continue to grow the game on a worldwide basis," Bettman said. "That's becoming an increasing focus and priority for us because we believe we're the most international, certainly with our player composition, of the four major sports in North America and we think there's a great opportunity. But even more than the opportunity, we'd like to see the game continue to grow."

Bettman pointed to playing more games on foreign soil, along with new media agreements such as a newly announced partnership with Australian television entity "Nine."

Along similar lines, the league's Global Series will continue this season with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators playing two games in Stockholm next month.

"We're focused on the world, but I think Europe is the primary focus in the short term because in Europe we're very well-known and very popular," Bettman said. "But we also want to be good citizens in the hockey world with respect to the existing leagues that are there, so we are going to be looking for ways to collaborate to grow the game."

The NHL will also make its return to the Olympics early next year, with NHL players competing for the first time since 2014.

On that note, most urgent among the league's concerns internationally is the construction status of the 16,000-seat Olympic hockey arena in Milan scheduled to host Olympic competition starting in February.

A recent Associated Press report revealed that a test event originally scheduled for December has been removed from the calendar, putting into question whether any event might be held to test the ice integrity prior to the Olympics in early February.

Bettman on Wednesday didn't mince words about the NHL's concern.

"We've had a concern for the last two years on the progress of the rink ... but it's the (International Olympic Committee's) responsibility," he said. "We're invited guests, but they know of our concerns, and we're expecting that they're going to make good on all the promises to have a facility that is from a competitive standpoint first class."

As for league expansion? That's less of a short-term concern, as characterized by Bettman.

He described expansion discussions as not having taken place at the Wednesday meeting and not being a priority at present.

"None of it has reached the level that we need to focus on at this point," Bettman said.

The commissioner stressed that there remains interest from various cities about the possibility, but that the league is pleased to continue at 32 teams for the time being.

The NHL's last expansion was in 2021-22, when the Seattle Kraken made their debut.

--Field Level Media