That argument falls flat to me when the NBA has every team play each other at least twice and they have even more teams on the west coast. The NBA (obviously) has its own host of flaws, but they know how to market their star players, and part of that is making sure each one of them is scheduled to play in every arena in the league.
Something i'm not sure anyone mentioned yet, Bettman said that everytime he and Gaglardi meet, Tom always brings up the Stars travelling situation. Good to see he cares about it as much.
That argument falls flat to me when the NBA has every team play each other at least twice and they have even more teams on the west coast. The NBA (obviously) has its own host of flaws, but they know how to market their star players, and part of that is making sure each one of them is scheduled to play in every arena in the league.
Bettman addressed that by saying the NHL is a much more physical league.
Again, I think it's at least a reasonable argument, but I still don't think it's enough of a reason to not permit each city to see every team.
Every fan may rightfully want to see every team in their building, but when you consider the travel withing the Western conference alone, making additional trips out East is more pressure on these guys.
What?
If you include more trips to the East, it would cut down on the travel for the Western teams. Only teams in the West that I could see having a problem with that are the ones on the extreme West coast.
There's 82 games in a season, there's absolutely no reason every team can't go to everyone's arena at least once.
As Troy said, the Eastern teams don't want to do that though.
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I agree that Bettman is a terrible interview. He just comes off as a weasel.
However, lost in the interview, he made a good point when answering that question. Unfortunately, it was delivered with his off putting style.
He said you have to consider how difficult the travel is for the teams. Every fan may rightfully want to see every team in their building, but when you consider the travel withing the Western conference alone, making additional trips out East is more pressure on these guys. Travel sucks for these guys despite the first class treatment they get. I wish Bettman had done a better job of expanding on this point ... but it's Bettman, and this is just my interpretation of what he meant. Like I said, I've never considered this angle before, and it seems like a valid argument. It still doesn't make me not want to see Ovechkin and Crosby every year in Dallas, but it does give the other side a legitimate argument.
It seemed like a politician's answer to me. It comes off as even more disingenuous when you think that he said it while talking about the realignment issue; a major reason the Stars desperately want out of, and feel like they deserve to be out of, the Pacific is because of the relatively horrendous travel schedule our team currently has.
I think the real answer is pretty evident and Dan alluded to it; the big market teams up north and back east don't need the Crosby's, Ovechkins, Stamkos's of the world to come to town quite the same way less strong hockey markets do (although most of them have that luxury). However, the bulk of the revenue being made is by those teams in the strong markets (obviously). Clearly, Dallas fans would like to see Crosby come to town every season. Does the fan in Pittsburgh, New York, Montreal, etc. really care whether Phoenix or Dallas comes to down? Of course not, they want to see Crosby and Ovechkin as often as possible. The moneymakers want the status quo as much as possible in any realignment and subsequent scheduling issues.
I won't be the least bit shocked to see one of the only major attraction teams in the Western Conference (Detroit) become the team that just slides over to the East while Winnipeg takes the Wings' spot in the central. We are totally going to come out of this "realignment" quandary as screwed as we currently are.
Oh don't be surprised if that switch is made, Detroit/Winnipeg. In return also don't be surprised when attendence is down throughout the West without those Detroit dates. The NHL wants to sell fans and players but to do that they have to have every team play at least twice. There's no reason to have 8 games within the division. Hockey was more than fine before that became the schedule and will survive with just six games. The East will ***** but the league as a whole would be much better off. Too bad it won't happen because I always choose to watch the Montreal, Boston, the Islanders over LA for the 50th time.
It's the "BaD Radio" weekly podcast. Bettman's on at about the 47-min mark. Topics include possible future labor issues, the current state of nhl (vis-a-vis league attendance), realignment, and scheduling. Bettman deflected any and all questions from Bob and Dan with his continuous message that "the NHL has never been healthier."
Following the interview is a segment in which Bob and Dan later analyze Bettman's d-baggery, dishonesty, and political-style rhetoric.
They recall Bill Guerin boasting that while playing for the Islanders, he didn't have to fly in an airplane for 60 days at times.
In addition, the Tom Gaglardi interview starts at about 37-min. Nothing real new here except Gaglardi is just as flummoxed by the random feet coming ashore in Vancouver.
And if you're really curious, the podcast starts off with JFK conspiracy talk in the local barber shop and Dan's T-shirt size philosophy.
Didn't want to start a new thread, but I remember Lites mentioning that the team is looking at some new DP Stars centers. He didn't mention that Austin and Kyle were possibilities though. I hope this works out.
This didn't seem worthy of a new thread either. Has anyone ever used this app that allows you to order concessions from your seat at the AAC? At $0.99 a transaction, call me cheap but I'll stand in line. Still, it's neat to have the option. I guess it'd be worth it if there was a special line you could just walk up, grab, and go though.
This didn't seem worthy of a new thread either. Has anyone ever used this app that allows you to order concessions from your seat at the AAC? At $0.99 a transaction, call me cheap but I'll stand in line. Still, it's neat to have the option. I guess it'd be worth it if there was a special line you could just walk up, grab, and go though.
I think they have it at the Bell Centre. I saw a coupon for it at one of the games I went to and I was like, man, this **** is retarded.
This didn't seem worthy of a new thread either. Has anyone ever used this app that allows you to order concessions from your seat at the AAC? At $0.99 a transaction, call me cheap but I'll stand in line. Still, it's neat to have the option. I guess it'd be worth it if there was a special line you could just walk up, grab, and go though.
$0.99 is pretty reasonable for not having to stand in line at the concession for 15 minutes in between periods - that's Rexall I'm talking about since that stupid building was basically designed to screw with people.
I wonder if the person delivering your food would expect a tip
