Background
The last few decades have seen ice hockey blossom into a vibrant and multifaceted field of study in the humanities and social sciences. The result has been a veritable explosion of detailed and compelling accounts of various aspects of the game as a social phenomenon, including anything from the development of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the organization of women’s ice hockey to violence on and off the ice, as well as the staging of the sport as a Cold War battleground.
However, one central aspect of ice hockey has remained largely ignored: the globalization of the game at large. Although numerous insightful deliberations on the formation of ice hockey as a cultural artifact have taken place in different parts of the world, there has been a dearth of wide-ranging considerations of how the sport has spread across the globe, as well as of what it has actually meant to the game in general, and to managers, players and fans in particular. This is perhaps especially true about ice hockey outside of North America, as the expansion of the European Union, the increasing internationalization of the NHL and the rise at the turn of the millennium 2000 of the transnational Russian equivalent, the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), have contributed to a profound transformation of the sport both on and off the ice.
Due to the call for abstracts, the issue has advantageously been stretched to include topics from China, Russia, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, as well as from the USA. The main focus still lies on the progress of domestic hockey leagues as well as on the cultural and psychological dominance of the NHL, with the KHL as a potential candidate, despite their mutual differences in explicit or implicit motives (cf. below). Actually, the differences may form the breeding ground of their respective influence.
Points of departure
Explicitly or implicitly, three imperative subjects emerge from several of the articles in this special issue: first, NHL and its hegemonic position, secondly, the sources of different sports models and, thirdly, the differences or similarities between Sweden and Finland (consensus vs. conflicts). All three aspects require an initial presentation.
Thus, the increasing contacts and set ups between American ice hockey culture and the progress of European ice hockey have also identified and accentuated the differences between the sports models. The National Hockey League (NHL), as one of five major leagues (with baseball as the prime model), is closely linked to the entertainment industry and is based on the principle of profit maximization, which means that the franchise (club) owners strive to achieve the greatest possible financial profitability. In other words, the economic incentive is the driving force, regulated as a ‘closed system’ in order to generate financial predictability. Thus, in a ‘closed’ sport league there is no promotion or relegation, only the opportunity to buy and operate ‘sport’ in a franchise. Since the 1950s, one of the driving forces in the commercial development of the major leagues has been television. In order to achieve a more commercially interesting product, sports logic and ‘sporting unpredictability’ have to be maintained in the league. This has, actually, been possible through the structure of the draft system and, currently, the salary ceiling.
On the other hand, the main influence on the progress of the European sport model has been football. Fundamentally, in connection with the reconstruction of a number of English football clubs into limited liability companies in the 1880s and 1890s, limit rules for share dividends were introduced. To prevent market forces from taking over completely, commercialization was limited by the FA, with the result that it was not really possible to make money from owning a football club. Financial profitability was subordinated to the clubs’ endeavours to win sporting success. The principle of utility maximization – and amateur legacy – had thereby gained priority over the principle of profit maximization. In addition, the historical virtue of relegation and promotion remains as essential in the European Sport model as in an open system. However, several exceptions and entrepreneurial operations have disputed this general regulation and normative impregnation.
Such a case is Jokerit, a Finnish club. At a press conference in the summer of 2013, the majority owner of this ice hockey club in Helsinki, the Finnish capital, informed the press that he had decided to move the club to the Russian’ Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for the 2014/2015 season. Needless to say, this radical step raised several questions: How could this happen? Could a similar development take place, for instance in Sweden, in Germany or in Switzerland, or was this an expression of Finnish pragmatism? Alternately, was the move a natural development in the intensified Americanization process of European sport in general, with ice hockey as the forerunner, in addition to the UEFA Champions League?
Still, the increasing commercialization and professionalization of, for instance, Swedish and Finnish elite ice hockey is, unlike the NHL model of profit maximization, built on utility maximization, involving various initiatives for raising money in elite ice hockey (such as entrance fees, bingo, advertising, sponsors, souvenir sales, corporation [Ltd./Plc.] or sales of TV and media rights). Hence, in Sweden and Finland, the economic acquisitions derived from these transactions are to be reinvested in the sporting activities. In spite of traditional norms and regulation, an NHL-inspired’ ‘Americanization process’ has taken place in Swedish and Finnish elite ice hockey – as in Europe in general – expressed, for instance, by the introduction of playoffs, the offensive tackle rule, dark-colored home jerseys, the national anthem, various food traditions and prize ceremonies (such as championship pennants and ‘frozen’ jersey numbers), as well as sports grounds transformed from single sporting facilities to modern event arenas. The impulses from the NHL have contributed to the transformation of Swedish and Finnish elite ice hockey from being a joyful game and pastime to becoming a promising entertainment industry.
However, the hegemonic position of the NHL has lately been challenged by the Russian KHL, a league supported organizationally and financially by the Russian government, which has rapidly expanded to countries like Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Slovakia and as mentioned – rather amazingly – to Finland, as a result of Jokerit’s action. Still, this club’s KHL transition is not entirely surprising. It could form a modus operandi in a comparison between the commercialization processes in Finland with those of Sweden, in which Finland has adopted a more pragmatic attitude, whereas Sweden, as well as the SHL, is impregnated by the notion of consensus and by the traditional values and virtues of the hegemonic Swedish Sports Confederation. Thus, the representatives of Finnish elite ice hockey have acquired business ideas and quickly developed a model that fits the Finnish approach to ‘a pragmatic glocalization trend’. In Sweden, on the other hand, the habit of consensus has kept elite ice hockey clubs loyal to the homogenous Swedish sports movement (as well as to the European sport model). One result of this is the resistance of SHL to turning into a closed league, as well as the existence of the 51-percent rule obliging a non-profit sport club to have a voting majority in Sport Ltd./Plc.
Consequently, the main focus in the articles lies on ice hockey in Sweden and Finland, its merits and values as well as problems and dilemmas. However, as a the result of the call for papers and of the discussion at the Hockey Workshop during the EASM-conference in 2018, the number of hockey leagues of interest to this special issue and its themes has expanded. Still, the subject and focus of these papers are equal or similar, due to the impact of the hegemonic NHL and/or the fronting KHL. Consequently, in its final form this issue contains, in addition to Sweden and Finland, articles dealing with ice hockey in the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Russia and China (cf. below). Still, all articles deal, explicitly or implicitly, with the general dilemmas of commercialization, globalization and migration versus local culture and traditions.
The expansion draft/the call for papers (cfp)
The initial cfp was labelled ‘The Progress of Nordic/European Ice Hockey in the Wake of NHL and KHL: Idealization versus Pragmatism’,1 and its intention was to deal with the influences of culture, economy and politics. Thus, in the contexts of both play and culture, the increasing use of different ‘market models’ has influenced – indeed ‘colonized’ – ice hockey by the culture and the power of NHL, which might be theoretically labeled as the Americanization process, ‘Macdonaldization’ or ‘Disneyfication’. Moreover, the influence of the technical hockey of the former CCCP and of current Russia has been noteworthy in different historical periods. Hence, Nordic and European hockey has obtained a position, culturally as well as politically, between the opposing forces of vital politics and the market.
In addition to the development of internal leagues, European hockey has served as talent fabrication for NHL and as a market for senior migration to KHL. This drain of talented players has become a problem for the (commercial and professional) development of the leagues. Commercially viewed, this curbing of the ‘star quality’ must therefore be balanced. As a result, the leagues are ‘compensated’ – or, more correctly, superseded – by second-hand Canadian players, which turns the leagues into ‘show rooms’ for their hopes of possibly returning to the NHL. In different ways, the NHL and KHL hegemony thus shapes the progress of these hockey leagues and of the clubs. (On the other hand, the immense migration of Swedish and Finish as well as Russian and Czech players has gradually influenced the style of playing in the NHL.)
Evidently, the KHL expansion ideology has become both a psychological and a real threat to the leagues, as a radical supplement to the transfer of senior migration of players to the Russian league. This is, consequently, both an interesting and a challenging example in the progress of European ice hockey.
The aim of the following special issue is to describe and analyze these challenges in order to widen our knowledge of the context of sport, culture, consumption and politics.
The content of the issue
The different calls for papers and the European Association for Sport Management’s (EASM) workshops, in combination with the selection and the review process, resulted in the approval of eleven notable articles.
Surprisingly, this special issue begins with a noteworthy essay dealing with an alternative to ice hockey. Thus, the almost romantic path of Swedish bandy becomes the challenging and nostalgic starting point serving as equipoise to the general trend involving the commercialization, Americanization and eventification of ice hockey. With a similar background, these two sports have taken different directions, in which ice hockey, in contrast to bandy, has also managed to commercialize its own history, for instance by its Winter Classics and retro shirts. Of course, in this process, the fast ‘indoorization’ of ice hockey must be regarded as a crucial competitive advantage in comparison with bandy’s natural rinks on small lakes. As editors of the issue, we regard this article, despite the focus on bandy, as crucial in order to grasp the beginnings, the inertia as well as the conditions for the commercialization of ice hockey. Thus, in ‘Bandy vs. ice hockey in Sweden’, Torbjörn Andersson works with the parallel history of bandy and ice hockey as a design to comprehend both the apparent absence of commercial attempts in the ‘nostalgic’ bandy settings and the commercial ambitions in an explicitly market-oriented ice hockey. The Swedish context in which Andersson’s essay is set truly accentuates the commercial neglect of bandy.
Börje Salming, Peter Forsberg, Jaromir Jager, Dominik Hazek…, the number of talented European hockey players who have made an individual career, as well as a crucial impact on NHL, is rather massive. Currently, we are talking about players ranging from Aleksandr Ovetjkin, Leon Draisaitl and Pekka Rinne to Patrik Laine, Mikael Nylander and Rasmus Dahlin. At the same time, naturally, the domestic European hockey leagues have been sapped of talents, of quality and entertainment. Thus, migration has been a significant issue in European ice hockey, with regard to the ‘talent industry’, the draft and the NHL market, as well as the need to regularly fill the annual voids with secondary players from the Canadian/American ‘bench of substitutes’. William Morea Crossan’s article, ‘Expanding Game, Expanding Opportunity: The effect of athlete migration on Czech ice hockey from 1993 to 2018’ provides evidence by statistics from Czech ice hockey, as well as an analysis of the effects and legacy of this migration.
In ‘Comparing the practices of US Hockey against a global model for integrated development of mass and high-performance sport’, Peter Smolianov and five colleagues follow their general strategy, previously used in relation to swimming and volleyball, of presenting a model to test the relation between mass participation and elite ice hockey. By questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, the research group has focused on possible progress areas on micro, meso and macro levels to observe possible improvements regarding ‘new partnerships’, ‘better facilities’ and ‘advanced lifelong hockey guidelines for the excellence of everyone’. The improvement of facilities is also the topic of the next article, referring to Sweden and its ‘arena boom’.
This ‘arena boom’ is also related to the commercial progress of hockey in Europe. Several magnificent indoor arenas have been erected, for instance in Cologne, Bern, Malmoe, Copenhagen and Stockholm, as well as in various rural settings. It has become hard to imagine a serious – and sustainable – hockey club without an arena strategy as part of the entertainment. The objective of Jan Alpenberg’s ‘Capital investments in new hockey arenas – the Swedish way’ is to discuss the politics and economics in the growth of rather fancy multi-arenas in urban as well as in rural areas in Sweden during the 2000–2014 ‘arena boom’. In addition to the rationalization and improvement of the event, Alpenberg addresses issues such as societal legitimization as well as the increased focus on social enrichment and the enhanced image for sport.
After Alpenberg’s analysis of the arena development in Swedish ice hockey, Emmanuel Bayle, Markus Lang and Orlan Moret take on the commercial development of Swiss ice hockey. In ‘How professional sport clubs exploit a heterogeneous local potential: the case of Swiss professional ice hockey’, they highlight several key issues in the commercial development of Swiss ice hockey by showing how clubs in the Swiss national leagues, in big cities like Zurich and Geneva as well as small cities like Ambri (with a population of 500 inhabitants), are able to compete on the international ice hockey rinks and become a lucrative market in European ice hockey. By focusing on business models as well as location, Bayle, Lang and Moret present an interesting reasoning with a practical impact as well as theoretical incitements.
The article by Jyri Backman and Bo Carlsson, ‘The progress of SHL Sport Ltd, in light of Americanization, juridification and hybridity’, targets the problems of commercializing Swedish elite ice hockey connected with strong idealistic values and the sport movement and Sports Confederation hegemony. Still, the text presents commercial attempts in the form of legal experiments by various sport clubs, with a minor focus on Växjö Lakers, as a ‘novel alternative’ in the cultural inertia of SHL. Thus, the progress of Sport Ltd as a legal association form is labeled a ‘hybridity’, containing parallel norm systems, which seems to generate normative ambiguity as well as commercial immaturity.
Unexpectedly, as an underdog, Finland was very successful in the 2019 World Championship in Slovakia with a celebrated gold medal for the ‘Finnish Lions’. In recent years, Finnish ice hockey has also flourished with, for instance, several triumphs for the national junior team. In light of this progress, by ‘Strong entrepreneurial focus and internationalization – the way to success for Finnish ice hockey? Case JYP Ice Hockey Team’, Aila Ahonen intends to highlight the improvements of the National league (SM-liiga), focusing on JYP Hockey [JYP Jyväskylä Oy] and the club’s European successes from the horizon of a small rural village. In this article, Ahonen addresses the entrepreneurial aspects behind the processes of professionalization and commercialization.
Evidently, the KHL currently stands as an exciting alternative – and perhaps as a possible contender – to the NHL. In Sergey Altukhov’s, David Mason’s and Nikita Osokin’s article we receive a substantial description of the transformation of Soviet/Russian hockey and, particularly, of the new league’s rationale and progress in light of its complexity. They have labeled the article ‘Organizational Hybridity and the Evolution of the Kontinental Hockey League’, pointing out several challenging characteristics, such as competitive balance, revenue distribution as well as receiving incomes from broadcasting rights, in addition to presenting various stakeholders and their agenda in the development of the KHL. At the end of the article, Altukhov, Mason and Osokin compare KHL logics with NHL culture, which leads to a discussion of the future of the KHL.
In this introduction, we have claimed that the transfer of Jokerit is exceptional as well as being experimental and challenging. The reasons for this statement are expressed in ‘Jokerit’s move to KHL: an odd momentum in the commercialization of Nordic elite ice hockey’. In this essay, Jyri Backman and Bo Carlsson present the transfer and discuss the rationale as well as the impact in the light of a local/regional perspective, Russian sporting and political ambitions as well as that of global markets and development.
Without doubt, the commercial progress and the supplementary opportunities in China become obvious targets when expressing and discussing new markets. In ‘The development of women’s professional ice hockey in China: leveraging international competition to change institutionalized gender norms’ Li, Nite, Weiller-Abels and Nauright present an analysis of the design and rationale in the construction of new markets for ice hockey. Here, the authors have focused on women’s ice hockey and its possible future in China. In addition to making an institutional analysis, the approach is based on ‘critical feminist theory’ and the material is related to a professional Chinese hockey club in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, to the national team, and to the Chinese government’s winter sports strategy towards women’s hockey. What the authors find and analyze in this material is the likelihood of an increase in the number of women’s teams and, besides the ambition of creating national heroines, of raising the payment of female players.
In the final paper, ‘Guru or Court Jester? The Lloyd Percival Paradox: The Globalization of Training Regimes…’, Tobias Stark and Hart Cantelon detail the influence of the Canadian fitness advocate and coaching legend Lloyd Percival’s renowned instruction manual, The Hockey Handbook (1951) on player development and team strategy in Canada, Sweden and Russia. Ultimately, they argue that their aim is to explore the globalization of training regimes as an expression of power and ‘national identity’ rather than the common assumption to regard it as a question of rationality and natural efficiency.
Of course, as editors of this special issue, we hope that it will be found interesting and challenging, as well as educational, both distinctively, through its articles, and holistically, as a solid ‘Hockey Issue’… (and, preferably, prophesying the dawn of a thematic Hockey and Society journal).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 The following topics were launched in the cfp as promising aspirants for the issue: ‘The Nordic/European sport model in transition, in the wake of hockey’, ‘Ice hockey and the Welfare Society’, ‘NHL and Americanization of society’, ‘CCCP-hockey and its current romanticism, beyond commercialization’, The Iron Wall and global politics, and its relation to Hockey’, ‘KHL and geographical and political expansions’, Migration and cultural diversity and paradoxes’, ‘Nordic/European influences on NHL’, Migration and the market of ‘sport stars’, ‘Hockey as an Imperative Culture’ and ‘Multi-arenas and the eventification of sport’.