Tricolore#20 said:
I think it would be bad press actually, in the States. On ESPN radio, so many of the hosts cut up hockey like nothing. You can bet that if the NHL says a season is on, those radio hosts would spread the message that NHL is bush league, arising from the terrible PR decisions.
But personally I could really care less about that. We need hockey in Canada, even at the expense of terrible PR.
PR could be great if spun correctly. I would highlite Mario regardless of whether he was key in making a deal or not > combination of small-revenue-team owner/super-star player > make him the hero (not Bettman/Goodenow/Eklund etc.): "the man who saved hockey" - get him on the covers of SI (swimsuit issue), Time, People (Brad/Jen back pages please), Cosmo, Fortune, Playboy etc. (okay, maybe not the covers and not all of these magazines), get him on Letterman, Leno, Larry King, Regis & a Woman, the View, the Rear View, the Late Late Show, The Really Late Late Show, the I should be sleeping now show etc. Storyline = we thought the season was dead, and one man, one hero, could see things from both sides, poor owner and player who wanted to play, gave us CPR (cba pulse resusitation) and saved our billions of baby dollars. Of course keep Mario off radio shows with mad dogs.