What does a guy have to do to get fired around here?!
Jason over at Predators Den begs the question, just what does Gary Bettman have to do to lose his job?
Here is the answer: Just like DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, the more Bettman fails at his job, the more certain it is that he keeps his job! His string of failure after abject failure hasn’t been enough for the owners in the NHL to can Bettman. There’s little reason to believe they’ll do the right thing anytime soon.
Sadly, this is more true than I can state.
I won’t get into politics (I do that enough on der Stonegauge ) but what Jason asks and what he says is too true to overlook. Gary has been vital in negotiating porrous TV deals that hurt the NHL more than help (I’m not talking about financial deals - I’m talking about exposure, etc). He’s failed to bring the NHL owners the riches he promised through expansion (won’t go further into that one because you Neo-Traditionalists like Chris Chelios out there can go stuff it). He absolutely sucks at marketing and is out of touch with not only the common player but the common fan as well.
Oh, Martin St. Louis and Robert Esche aren’t correct with their villifying of Bettman… But they do have a point about Bettman being malignant to the game. It goes beyond collective bargaining and buying the party line, however.
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November 6th, 2004 at 9:35 pm
The two major failings that you paint as reasons why Bettman should be fired could be used to justify the dismissal of every NHL President since the 1960’s. And, in reality, they are really only one reason. From the first expansion of 1967, nearly every expansion period has been accomplished in the hopes of landing a major US TV deal. In 1967, it was believed the US wouldnt take a sport limited to the Northeast seriously, especially as the NFL, NBA and MLB were moving west. Thus, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Minnesota North Stars, California Seals and Los Angeles Kings. That accomplished two things, neither of which was a breakthrough into the US TV universe. It gave the NHL a more national look, and it pissed Canadians off to no end - thus the subsequent addition of Vancouver in 1970, along with Buffalo.
Also, a great deal of 1990’s expansion was plotted out during the Ziegler days, before Bettman came onto the scene. The NHL can thank Wayne Gretzky, and to a lesser extent, Mario Lemieux for making hockey chic in the late 80s, and early 90s, and the southern expansion was concieved in the hopes of taking advantage of that, specifically in the hopes of landing a major TV deal. Bettman did not create this, he merely inherited it, and failed to scrap it. Of course, try telling 21-26 owners that expansion was going to be ended, and $300 million in free money was no longer going to be handed out.
Personally, I guess I dont find it all that surprising or worrying that Bettman has failed where many better men before him did.
November 9th, 2004 at 11:20 pm
John - I saw from my logs that you’d left a comment on my original post, but it accidentally got deleted in the process of clearing out a fresh load of comment spam. I apologize for that - is there any way you could repost your comments, or email them to me? I never got to see what you had to say.