Gary Bettman?

Question

I am tired of hearing about how everyone hates Gary Bettman. The only excuses people use are that he hates canadians when he doesn't. Can't anyone just accept the fact that the canadian clubs don't bring money. It's not about his hatred for canadians it's about money. Can anyone give me a good reason to hate gary bettman other than how he has taken away Canadian Clubs and moved them south and made them successful. Give me a good reason?

Answer 1

Gary Bettman

Did a number of things:

1. Expanded the NHL too fast!

2. Trying to eliminate fighting!

3. Making the game more like the one played in Europe(very PC version)

Answer 2

The Canadian thing; as a Canadian, he moved teams out of Quebec City and Winnipeg for economic reasons as well as the relocation of Minnesota to Dallas (which, to be fair, worked out pretty well), and the Hartford to Carolina move (jury is still out).

As previously noted, Canadian clubs actually draw higher revenues by proportion than the US clubs (to be fair, the current exchange rate is fueling this, to a degree).

As Canadians, we've sat and watch an American with no previous hockey knowledge or experience shut down the league for an entire year (at some point, I expect Bettman to act not in the best interest of the owners, but in the best interest of the game, and no matter your feelings, losing an entire season to a lockout destroyed the sport in America), while teams in the American south (Nashville) seemingly have a deal to relocate, and then don't.

Meanwhile, Florida doesn't draw squat and their economic picture is, at best, bleak; Tampa and Carolina should be doing better (they've each won Cups in the last five years), and now Nashville is, once again, unstable as it relates to ownership (and the moron who got that entire mess started gets to jump ship and buy the Minnesota franchise).

Then, Bettman's buddy "Boots" Del Baggio is now in a world of hot water.  At times, Bettman seems to have two sets of standards- one for American franchises, and another for Canadian franchises.  

Of the Canadian relocations- Quebec City to Denver you'd have to say worked.  Phoenix...not so much.  Attendance is not great despite the Gretzky factor AND a new arena.  

As a Canadian, we're bent over the table in the interest of helping American television (which delivers miniscule ratings and no upfront revenue dollars for the NBC deal), Versus contributes little, but meanwhile, CBC and TSN deals dwarf their American brethren comparitively speaking.  Add a potential 7th Canadian team (in the Golden Horseshoe area), and one can reasonably expect there to be some lively bidding for the Canadian rights package; my sense is CTV/Global may become interested.

While Franchise values have increased (Bettman's one shining glory), you cannot say, with a straight face, that he has acted in the best interest of hockey, and for that, his time as commissioner hasn't been good.

Answer 3

if your a wings fan you can't forget about banning swinging the octopus.

Answer 4

One example:

2007: still trying to rebuild popularity of the sport after the lockout, they have the first All-Star game since 2004,... and they have it on a Wednesday night???.... AGAINST AMERICAN IDOL!!!?????

Yeah, way to market your sport.

I'm not saying he was the cause of this, but don't you think as commissioner of the NHL, you would realize what's happening and say, "wait a minute"?

Answer 5

Actually....he's moved Canadian teams to the south and made them worse.

Yes,he's trying to bring Hockey to the USA,that was why they made him commissioner.Now everyone hates him.

Answer 6

We hate Gary Bettman because the sport has fallen in popularity since his reign, and his job is to keep the marketing of the sport up.  That's all he's there to do.  Instead, he spends his press time coming off as pompous little twit defending his bad past decisions, and that rubs people the wrong way.

Answer 7

The canadian teams are the highest-revenue teams in the league.  The sunbelt teams are the lowest.  Check your facts.

Answer 8

wow, you are the first one to like him! shocker

Answer 9

This guy was the vice-president of the NBA... tell me what this guy know about hockey? Lets get a Canadain that actually loves the sport of hockey and will do stuff to make a positive future not bringing teams to Flordia...

Answer 10

Because it's only about the money. There is a lot of passion for hockey up here, and not just hockey, the Stanley Cup. Because 'Stanley' is used by the NHL this is the league we pay attention to. The league could easily be viable in a lot of Canadian markets just not according to Bettman's plan for the game....btw, he does not care about hockey, he cares about increasing revenues. The problem is, he's trying to increase revenues by forcing the game on people that have no interest.

How do you think Americans would feel if MLB decided to fold some teams and move them to Canada only to stand by them when clearly they were failing in financial and fan support.

Answer 11

I wonder about our future as a species when folks say that he - by himself - has done everything to the game that ultimately spoils their day.

It's counter-intuitive to believe that one man can tell 30 "empires" that this team moves there, lets limit our television exposure while placing teams in non-traditional markets, lets move Canada's sport completely out of Canada, and try to offend every Canadian while we're at it.

All without the owners consent of course.

I attribute it to idiotic assumptions, lack of experience in sports business, and the fact that Bettman isn't a Canadian.

I've been "not liking" things about the NHL for about 30 years and I never blamed any single Commissioner. Not even Bud Selig for how baseball has become a mockery of itself while degrading the sport that was glorified by many who cared about its continuity.

Answer 12

JMO...shut your pie hole...Out of 30 teams there are 6 Canadian based teams. THEY BRING IN 31% of all the NHL revenues!! Geeesh...get your facts straight moron!

No wonder people are leaving this forum.