SOCHI, Russia (AP) — The IOC has been urged not to pay sports to attend the Olympics during talks on its relations with North American professional leagues.

New Zealand member Barry Maister says “we are on a slippery slope if we start paying people to come to the Olympic Games.” Maister says such payments would be “fundamentally against the Olympic movement.”

The NHL agreed a 16-day pause freeing players for Sochi after long negotiations with the International Ice Hockey Federation.

MLB’s refusal of a midseason break hampers baseball’s attempts to regain Olympic status.

IOC members opened wide-ranging debate Wednesday on future Olympic strategy. They were asked to consider “financial compensation and returns for the stakeholders for their involvement.”

Jean Claude-Killy of France says any proposal to pay Olympic athletes would be “anathema.”