The Business of HockeyDiscuss the financial and business aspects of the NHL. Franchise sales, valuations, TV contracts, ratings, expansion, relocation, the CBA and work stoppage discussion goes here.
The last time they had a Canadian as the figurehead he was roundly hated in Canada for suspending Richard.
Clarence Campbell was hated in Quebec because they thought it was an example of English-speaking Canada against French-speaking Canada. He stayed on as president for over 20 years after suspending Richard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintPatrick33
Oh, and Bettman's predecessor John Ziegler? Fired by the owners for caving in to the players in '92. Bettman's well aware of that.
Which is why Bettman is a spokesperson, not King of the League, Decider of All. He's there until a) he dies; b) he retires; c) he resigns for health reasons; d) he does/announces something that at least few long-standing owners not only hate, but want to murder him over.
Bettman's going into the Hall of Fame unless something completely drastic (and unlikely) happens, like it's revealed he was gambling on games or was telling referees who should win, etc. And he won't have to nominate himself.
Clarence Campbell was hated in Quebec because they thought it was an example of English-speaking Canada against French-speaking Canada. He stayed on as president for over 20 years after suspending Richard.
The point is, though, whether the fans hate the commissioner or not is immaterial. The only people he's there to please are the owners. They rioted and hanged Campbell in effigy in Quebec and it didn't make one bit of difference. The owners liked him and that's all that mattered.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JayzinSmith
Which is why Bettman is a spokesperson, not King of the League, Decider of All. He's there until a) he dies; b) he retires; c) he resigns for health reasons; d) he does/announces something that at least few long-standing owners not only hate, but want to murder him over.
Bettman's going into the Hall of Fame unless something completely drastic (and unlikely) happens, like it's revealed he was gambling on games or was telling referees who should win, etc. And he won't have to nominate himself.
And THAT is what I've been saying all along. Are David Stern, Roger Goodell, or Bud Selig popular with the fans? Oh hell no. Hating the commissioner is what fans do. And in the end it doesn't matter one whit as long as the commissioner's employers (read the owners) like him.
The only reason Gary Bettman & Bill Daily have kept there jobs is the NHL. is so corupted idiots like Bettman & Daliy can keep there jobs no matter what they do & can pretty much do what ever they want . Maybe another lost seaon will wake up the BOG. & realize they hired 2 incompatant boobs the run there league & they will finaly throw them under the bus & hire someone that can do the job properly .
Bettman's going into the Hall of Fame unless something completely drastic (and unlikely) happens, like it's revealed he was gambling on games or was telling referees who should win, etc. And he won't have to nominate himself.
agreed 100%. But a lot of the tinfoil hat-wearers on here still believe Bettman willed Crosby to the Pens in the lottery, so that might keep him out...
he's not there to be liked, he's there to run a pro sports league. In that capacity, he's done wonderfully. Roger Goddell is ruining the NFL as we speak, yet he still does a great job in making the owners money. He's not going anywhere either....
Him being unpopular with the fans is probably one of the reasons why the owners like him. One of his main jobs is to defect public anger/negative attention away from the owners, and above all other commissioners he's done that swimmingly.
Plus, as for his actual implementation of ideas/policy, he might very well have ruffled a few feathers and have some dissident owners, but overall there's no way that he'd be able to lead the league to yet another lockout, one that will likely cancel an entire season again, unless he had widespread ownership support, regardless of how few number of owners he technically needs to keep the lockout alive.
Bettman has been good for the league but you need to ask if he has for hockey. I don't like Fehr either but Bettman needs to find a better way, take car of the league's interest AND those of hockey. At the moment he does like 70/30.
I hope he is gone. Personally don't vilify him, but I think there is so much distrust between the NHL and NHLPA that his absence will help more than his presence.
Most of us are gainfully employed or out on the street because our last boss either saw fit to protect us or discharge us. When I supervised large group, I made damn sure to keep the ranks close and not allow my team ever to become an issue with my boss. You leave that ass open for kissing.
Bettman knows who his bosses are. This is the best job he'll ever have in his life. He's doing everything he can to keep it., starting (and some would also say finishing)with giving them exactly what they want.
Him being unpopular with the fans is probably one of the reasons why the owners like him. One of his main jobs is to defect public anger/negative attention away from the owners, and above all other commissioners he's done that swimmingly.
I don't buy that at all. I thought the NHL was ran far more smoothly when people did not notice the Commish much when Ziegler was there. Guy was pure class and the NHL had a better image too.
He has cultivated the most adversarial and dysfunctional relationship with the PA imaginable. Just as the Versaille Treaty caused the rise of Hitler, the 04 lockout made the union hire Fehr. Rightly or wrongly, Betman makes the PA lose their minds. Failure
His strategy is always "let's torch our cities and they will starve first.". But this galvanized the PA by making it an allout war. No way this should have gone on this long. Failure.
he is a terrible face for the league. His condescending, arrogant, elitist, demeanor makes him easily
disliked. Perhaps unfair, but true.
And to add the most obvious point, he has failed to keep the game on ice, which is his ultimate mandate. If he gets the credit for growth, then he gets the blame for this monstrousity of a league that now sees a lost season, not as a one-off tragedy, but as 'part of the process'. Failure
All of this is spot on IMO. The NHL, to the extent that it is paid any attention right now, is an incompetent joke and clown show in they eyes of its fans, its sponsors, and the media. And it has an absolutely poisonous relationship with its employees, who, of course, aren't just its employees but are its product.
Almost any other CEO that had so thoroughly, purposefully and repeatedly degraded his organization's brand and product -- and the goodwill of its customers -- in the way that Bettman has would be fired. He's a one-trick pony who is so narrow-minded and lacking in vision that the only way he can think to make the game healthy is to stop it from being played on a regular basis. It's a travesty that he's allowed to run a sport as great as hockey.
I don't buy that at all. I thought the NHL was ran far more smoothly when people did not notice the Commish much when Ziegler was there. Guy was pure class and the NHL had a better image too.
Well, it also didn't hurt that the NHLPA back then was effectively run by pro-owner cronies. Pretty easy to be smoothly run when you're dealing with compliant labor.
Plus, they had their fair share of expansion/relocation/contraction/merger issues under Ziegler as well.
It's so funny how the bad things that has happened to the NHL is Bettmans fault. The good things that have happened to the NHL isn't because of Bettman.
Yeah, I think Bettman will be there for a while yet. Aside from the constant work stoppages he has been good for the NHL.
Really?
this is a nonsense.
Bettman to me is the figure of a poorly run league that has made poor expansion choice and to cover this mess is willing to sacrifice the NHL's fans support to satisfy his huge ego.
I wish that this is the last term of Garry Bettman whatever is the outcome of this (stupid) lockout because the NHL will definately lose me as a fan if he stays.
Last edited by slocal: 12-11-2012 at 12:26 AM.
Reason: offensive
It's so funny how the bad things that has happened to the NHL is Bettmans fault. The good things that have happened to the NHL isn't because of Bettman.
Sounds just like a certain political party.
ok let's resume:
The bad not fixing the NHL in 1995 and over expand the NHL.
The good: implement a salary cap that level up the NHL teams and let teams stay competitive.
The bad: this lockout, to save his legacy of poor expanding the NHL to poor market that can not break even under a controlled system that share revenue and let them remain competitive.
This lockout is a non-sense, the 50/50 split has been agreed and there an agreement to limit the contract lenght and cap circumvention, what more do they want for god sake ?
He did not overexpand the game. I know there is some snobbery over southern US teams but imo that just stems from bitterness and jealousy over the Cups they have won.
but lets be frank here. Bettman was hired to make the league grow into a major US sport. He has done so wonderfully.
1. The sport itself is growing in non traditional areas. A prime reason that the U18 US team is starting to dominate. Btw, its only going to get worse for Canada from here out. Soon the US will dominate u18 and the olympics year in and year out.
2. League just signed a massive TV deal.
3. League is getting some mainstream US attention.
4. It takes time and slow growth to establish roots.
You cannot grow a professional sport in the USA with only have northern cities. [MOD]
Bettman is an outstanding commish. I hope hes around another 20 years.
Last edited by Holden Caulfield: 12-11-2012 at 01:16 AM.
Reason: Not neccessary
He did not overexpand the game. I know there is some snobbery over southern US teams but imo that just stems from bitterness and jealousy over the Cups they have won.
but lets be frank here. Bettman was hired to make the league grow into a major US sport. He has done so wonderfully.
1. The sport itself is growing in non traditional areas. A prime reason that the U18 US team is starting to dominate. Btw, its only going to get worse for Canada from here out. Soon the US will dominate u18 and the olympics year in and year out.
2. League just signed a massive TV deal.
3. League is getting some mainstream US attention.
4. It takes time and slow growth to establish roots.
You cannot grow a professional sport in the USA with only have northern cities. [MOD]
Bettman is an outstanding commish. I hope hes around another 20 years.
But but but .... Bettman didn't help any of that happen. It happened in spite of him being the commish. Oh those things would of happened without him!
He did not overexpand the game. I know there is some snobbery over southern US teams but imo that just stems from bitterness and jealousy over the Cups they have won.
but lets be frank here. Bettman was hired to make the league grow into a major US sport. He has done so wonderfully.
1. The sport itself is growing in non traditional areas. A prime reason that the U18 US team is starting to dominate. Btw, its only going to get worse for Canada from here out. Soon the US will dominate u18 and the olympics year in and year out.
2. League just signed a massive TV deal.
3. League is getting some mainstream US attention.
4. It takes time and slow growth to establish roots.
You cannot grow a professional sport in the USA with only have northern cities. [MOD]
Bettman is an outstanding commish. I hope hes around another 20 years.
I call your B.S. out. Where to start? Growing in non traditional areas? Yes those money losing teams in Anaheim, Phoenix, Nashville, Carolina, Tampa, Florida, Columbus sure have helped to grow the game. That's why NBC broadcasts in these markets...never! If it were not for the success the game has in Canada, including all the merchandising we buy which supports your mirage growth, there would be no equalization to make these teams even remotely feasible...the fans that do exist in these markets are so fickle that a couple of consecutive losing seasons has any of these teams in complete peril...That's not a hockey fan, sorry, that's a bandwagon.
Massive TV deal. $200 million annually from an American network which has access to 23 teams, an amount which is double what the national broadcaster in Canada pays for access to only 7 teams. That's special. Wow next to the $20 billion annually the NFL generates the NHL sure is reaping that cash cow! That is why is the NHL got roasted in TV ratings competing with the NBA playoffs, in spite of a Stanley Cup that featured two of the biggest TV markets in the U.S. The NHL now risks falling behind the MLS in popularity, sure seems like Bettman is working wonders.
So Bettman's legacy of 1)money losing expansion teams, one of which could have been moved to Canada, where it would have been profitable and revered, yet has remained owned by the league, leveraging taxpayer dollars and league subsidies to finance its existence 2) a national TV contract negotiated with the owner of one of his franchises 3) an increase in serious injuries among the star players of the game due to depletion of overall talent and lack of any real vision for the game, and 4) 3 lockouts in his helm is reason to worship him.
Bettman is the worst thing that ever happened to hockey. He sacrificed its roots to build a mirage, which is not sustainable. Officiating is a joke, you get a penalty in today's NHL for lifting a guy's stick, or body checking him solidly. It is blatantly evident that officials are directed to make games close with chintzy penalties to help disadvantaged teams. Most teams are built around special teams now instead of 5 on 5 hockey. He allowed his good friend Mr. Jacobs to buy a Stanley Cup through officiating, and it is no coincidence that since he was serenaded with boos as he handed out the Cup in Montreal in 1993, he has never given the honour back to the country which gave him the Cup in the first place, but has chosen instead to alienate its passionate fans by taking away their teams first, and then taking their money to subsidize his failed experiment. He has made the game more expensive to play, more expensive to watch, and more expensive to attend, but not better, not by my account.
It's so funny how the bad things that has happened to the NHL is Bettmans fault. The good things that have happened to the NHL isn't because of Bettman.
He did not overexpand the game. I know there is some snobbery over southern US teams but imo that just stems from bitterness and jealousy over the Cups they have won.
but lets be frank here. Bettman was hired to make the league grow into a major US sport. He has done so wonderfully.
1. The sport itself is growing in non traditional areas. A prime reason that the U18 US team is starting to dominate. Btw, its only going to get worse for Canada from here out. Soon the US will dominate u18 and the olympics year in and year out.
2. League just signed a massive TV deal.
3. League is getting some mainstream US attention.
4. It takes time and slow growth to establish roots.
You cannot grow a professional sport in the USA with only have northern cities. [MOD]
Bettman is an outstanding commish. I hope hes around another 20 years.
not sure if serious.
there are people who are annoyed that there are Canadian markets are forced to go without teams so southern cities get to hang on to their failing franchises...and because we're being dragged through a lockout because of the sustainability problems of some teams who will likely never be able to make it work in their current locations.
logan couture tweeted this article from 2007 about bettman:
Everyone has a favorite conspiracy theory about the NBA. Some like the idea that David Stern fixed the 1984 draft lottery. Others favor his supposed secret suspension of a star player for gambling problems.
Mine dates back to the early 1990s, when the NHL was white hot with fans and never better on the ice. Wayne Gretzky was in Los Angeles. Mark Messier was with the New York Rangers, who were on the verge of ending their Stanley Cup drought. Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Ray Bourque, Patrick Roy and many others were hitting their prime.
Anyone who doesn't think hockey can work in America is forgetting this era. All of a sudden, hockey was challenging, if not beating, the NBA in a number of major U.S. markets – including New York. It's almost impossible to imagine now, but it happened.
As the conspiracy theory goes, Stern sensed the potential trouble in 1993 while the NHL was in search of a new commissioner. So he looked around his own office for someone so incompetent that if they got the job, the NHL would be marginalized by their mismanagement and never again be a threat to the NBA.
Naturally, Stern recommended one of his assistants, Gary Bettman, for the job.
True story or not, it worked.
Bettman is set to begin his 15th year as commissioner Thursday, and like most hockey fans I feel the need to mark the occasion by popping a bottle of champagne, chugging the entire thing in an effort to drown my misery and then smashing the empty bottle over my temple to black out the memories.
There has never been a commissioner of a major North American sports league this inept, yet the league's board of governors keeps employing him, keeps giving him another chance to sink this once-proud, once-vibrant league to new depths.
There has been a fair amount of commentary about the futures of both Bettman and Fehr. While I am reluctant to even be hopeful a deal will get done soon, the comments about what will happen to these two have been interesting.
Frankly, I think both wil be around for as long as they choose to be.
Possible change could be with Bettman. If in meetings with the NHL owners, before the lockout, Bettman got from the owners what their "must haves" in the next CBA and then they basicallyallowed him to decide on and implement his strategy for getting their 'must haves' in the next deal he could be in trouble.
If that was the case it's all together possible that after these months of negotiations and everything that's gone on that the owners may decide that Bettman did not do a good enough job and ease him out.
There's ample evidence that he's been out classed in these negotiations by Fehr and the owners may conclude that Bettman's strategy implementation was flawed and has cost them significantly on too many fronts.
That said, whoever works for Bettman and during the past few years has been the architect of the 'marketing' of NHL and developing the 'Brand' has done a terrific job.
So they may feel with something close to a 10 yr. CBA they can live with Bettman because he'll be gone by the next one and no one will likely have to 'dance' with Fehr the next time around.
not sure if serious. 
