How do you think Gary Bettman is doing as Commissioner of the NHL?

Question

This article is insightful and right on about Mr. Bettman. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AoS_aM9xniJwjLLEYpZ1R3t7vLYF?slug=dw-bettman012907&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Answer 1

He is about as bad as a human could be. He has created the NBA and it is an atrocious sport. Who do see the most ( or here from) in an NBA game? The Refs! Well believe or not the NHL is WORSE. I wish the absolute worst for Gary Bettman, knowing that my family will never watch hockey. Because it sux!

Answer 2

Well, first off, I blame Bettman in part for the departure of the Minnesota North Stars. I wish he had done more to keep the team in Minnesota. But, Norm Green was very sneaky to announce the move during All Star Weekend of 1992, the same All Star Weekend when the NHL initiated Bettman as Commish.

Second - Southern Expansion. Not a great idea. While Winnipeg and Hartford are great hockey markets who lost teams...Bettman went south placing a team in Atlanta, Anaheim and Miami. Whoopee.

Third - That whole lockout snafu. Need I say more?

Fourth - No ESPN, instead we get OLN and NBC. Whooppee.

Fifth - the new unis. I don't know...I saw them during the All Star game in Dallas. Looked OK, we shall see.

Sixth - The All Star Game? On Wednesday?

Seventh - Well, at least the All Star Game didn't end up in a 7-7 tie - whereby "calling" the game. Mr. Selig, that comment was directed at you.

Eighth - You know, I dont know if it was Bettman's idea or not - but the geographic divisions just...aren't right. I'm old-school NHL. I want my Prince of Wales and Campbell Conference back. I want the Norris, Smythe, Adams and Patrick divisions back. "Northwest" division? So close, why don't we just call it the Norris Division?

All in all - Bettman has done about a C job. Not much better than that.

Answer 3

Where do you even begin with the problems of the Bettman era? Let's start with the latest. Moving the league's All-Star game, which featured attention-grabbing young megastars, to midweek on the Versus Network – as opposed to NBC on a weekend. He claimed it would allow Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin to own the sports landscape, unlike some crowded weekend. A lot of good that did.. We all saw the miserable TV ratings of the game this year.

Now to this scheduling mess. Bettman says that it was geared to create more rivalries between divisional teams. I'm sorry, but really I'm just bored. Having season tickets to the Stars.. I don't want to see the Phoenix Coyotes over and over again. You want to sell tickets? Bring Crosby and the Pens or Ovechkin and the Caps more than once every three years. This Eastern Conference cycling is ludicrous. The non-obsessive hockey fan is going to want to see the next big thing. The casual fan sees the same teams coming to town every night, they won't come! And the total bypass of a complete division.. Please! This serves no purpose other than cutting travel costs for a few cheapskate owners. Bettman admits teams like Dallas have a tough schedule with all their time zone changes. So does he lobby for the majority when 22 franchises voted to go back to the old scheduling system? No. Thanks a lot Gary.

These new jerseys that are going to be effective next season already have fans carrying a few extra pounds complaining. I have the Western Conference All-Star jersey and it's no secret that these jersey are form fitting. After all, that's what it's designed to do.. Create less drag. What does this lead to? Apparel sales dropping much like the ratings of this years All-Star game.

"Fourteen years, four bankruptcies, three franchise moves, two lockouts, one lost season and no effective leadership. The business is so sick that the Pittsburgh Penguins, despite a loyal fan base and the most promising talent since Gretzky, are 50-50 to move to that noted hockey hotbed of Kansas City." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Hockey can work here. Anyone remember the 1990s? Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Yzerman, Bourque, Roy.. This was when these players were hitting it hard and challenging the NBA market.. These young players coming into the league have the capability to bring this game back to greatness. As long as Bettman keeps driving hockey further and further into the seemingly never-ending hole in the ground, this won't happen. There are plenty more "ingenius" decisions this man has made, but I'll leave those for another time. Fifteen years and the NHL board of governors are still standing behind this idiot. He has no respect for this game's history, fans, or qualities. I say find someone who is the opposite of Bettman and the NHL will turn around. Until then, Bettman will work marketing his way instead of what's best for the league and for hockey.

Answer 4

Overall, I'd give him a C-

Bettman has made some awful decisions and has disregarded the hockey traditions that invite long-term viewership. When you change the game and start packaging it based on cheap and flashy things (cheerleaders, uniforms, easy goals, easy to understand but meaningless division names, etc. . .) people will come but they will just as easily leave. I know some of these are team decisions, but Bettman has created a culture of chintz.
But part of the problem is the players. The players thought they could keep asking for more and more money and that if they hid behind the NHLPA they wouldn't have to think about where that money would come from. Look, a small market team like Winnipeg can support a star like Dale Hawerchuk, but it can't support a Hawerchuk when star players start asking for massive sums (enough to come around and buy the team they played for) and all the other middle-of-the-road players are getting significant contracts, sometimes inspite of performance.
Finally, I would say that the game has become boring – in part - because the overall caliber of the coaching and players has become better. Look at the older games from the 80s for instance - the coaching was not stellar - there were a lot of odd man rushes, breakaways and little backchecking. Some of the players were also admittedly weak - slow defensemen who pivoted so slowly that even lumbering forwards could go around them. It’s extremely difficult now for players to cleanly beat a defenseman on a one-on-one rush; players know this (or they are under the spell of their coaching assignment) and they hold the puck for two/three seconds and they dump the puck. Boring = safe.
All this is not to get Bettman off the hook, but to suggest that he is now part of a larger quagmire.

Answer 5

He is horrible, if you want more info, read the top article on Yahoo NHL! anyways, the commisioner should have good relations with everyone. The owners like him but the fans, and the players hate him. He lost us a season and the only real change in the NHL is the demise of the AVS and the rise of the Predators and Sabres. And the only reason the rules were changed was due to pressure from the fans and players. rules which the Nutruel zone trap has pretty much destroyed, and the shootout is only 3 shooters. He also destroyed any media coverage by signing with Versus and approving commercials that go for sex appeal in the NHL? The commisioner needs to be an ex-player. I vote for Lemeiux.

Answer 6

Bettman is doing a horrible job, who would expect anything else. He is a basketball man and the NBA he left was more physical then the current NHL. He has no respect for the game or the fans and traditions of the game. Keeping Bettman is almost more puzzling than the Lions keeping Millen. The Fords and the owners of Hockey teams are both inept and deceitful at every turn, and they need a yes man who is not intelligent enough to oppose their decisions.

Answer 7

Hockey needs a commish who's interest is what's good for the game. Not the owners or the players. They earn their money from the game and the game belongs to the fans. Betteman is the worst commissioner in the history not only of the NHL but any sport EVER. Time for a chnge to someone who will protect the game's history and traditions. The future of the game lies in the hands of kids and the adults who love the game, that will teach the kids about hockey. Betteman could not care less about anyone but the fat cat owners and some bizzare scheme to get a national TV contract.

Answer 8

horrible, not only has he over expanded the league, he took a league that was near the top in ratings and fan base in the early nineties and took teams out of strong hockey fans (MN, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford) and moved them south where they didn't have near the same level of support. Not only that he took and has destroyed a lot of the reasons hockey is good, including now these mind numbingly stupid new RBK jerseys that look like they are a size too small. Now he is looking to make the nets bigger. Remove him now before it gets worse.

In response to anyone who notes anything good he has done, the reasons above highly out weigh the reasons listed.

I didn't even mention that on his watch we have lost 1 and a half seasons of hockey including the first time a North American sport lost an entire season. That should have been enough to get him removed.

Answer 9

Really no fans in the south...is that why Tampa Bay, ATL and Carolina have almost all sold out games, hmmm maybe you should read up on some information before you preach what you don't know. Maybe next time a Canadian team wins the Stanley cup they can have their wish, until then....

Im not trying to be a prick, I just can't stand it when people make comments when they have no idea what they are talking about. So bring on the thumbs down. (this obviously is not to the question asker).

Answer 10

His handling of the lockout, the TV deal and expansion are three of his biggest issues. As a hockey fan since 1975, I am at a loss as to why he remains commissioner of the NHL.