Does Bettman keep his job?

[Trottier]

I think what gets a lot of people's goats on this board and a lot of players' goats is that he is short. And a New York lawyer. And an American. And an intelligent guy.

Sounds like David Stern.

Seriously, reading some of these posts one feels like he is in a make-believe world.

As Jaded, Iconoclast, etc. can attest, your's truly was never a pro-owners, nor pro-Bettman, guy. However, let's call a spade a spade. Labor negotiations are not child's play. And while common respect cannot be thrown out the window in business dealings, it's naive to believe that Bettman asked the owners to lose a season, and risked the future of this league's fan popularity, for the primary purpose of "winning the Union's respect".

His job was to get the owner's the best damn deal possible. Period. It appears he has, bigtime. Any pro-NHLPA poster who suggests Bettman should now lose his job as a result is spouting sour grapes. And any pro-owner poster - especially if you are a fan of a smaller-market team - ought to be grateful toward the guy. Rest assured that the vast majority, if not all, of the owner$ are.

 

[Face Wash]

Why are we even talking about this??

 

[blitzkriegs]

Why are we even talking about this??

Trying to speed up the apparent glacial pace of immaturity & lack of life experiences ...

 

[nhlbruin]

love him or hate him...he did for the owners what the owners set out to do...and since they're the ones that could fire him, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that he will be around for several more years.

 

[London Knights]

He pissed off the big market owners for sure with some of his insistence on siding with the small market teams on things. But Bettman overall seems to have put together a decent CBA, that in actual fact is starting to be rumoured as pretty fair for both sides.

At the very least he probably bought himself 2 years to see if the new NHL takes off. If the financial state is terrible because of the lockout, he may get the wrath of the owners even if it wasn't his fault. But I can't see how he can be fired for doing what the owners were paying him exactly to do.

I still think his impish look...and seriously why does he look so much like Jacques Martin???, make him unfit to run the NHL, and I do not see him as an effective guy at the NHL helm, he has handled himself pretty well over the course of the lockout.

I have probably been a little "left" (players) leaning over the course of this lockout, although that was more because the general consensus tended to be more to the "right" and I wanted to be more of a yang to the ying of arguments.

I wasn't impressed with how the NHL handled the early outset of the lockout. Release a few similar, or incredibly foolish, proposals and then do nothing else just because the NHLPA was being childish and not negotiating, but with the knife to the PA's neck, Bettman and his group seemingly have been quite fair in negotiations and haven't turned this into a break the union issue and have indeed handed out the olive branch to form the partnership between the players and ownership that is sorely needed by the league for its survival.

Bettman's legacy doesn't leave much to the imagination to this point, but the next two years are going to be what defines his career with the NHL. The league either crumbles under the weight of a lost season, or they come out of this with a truly "New Game" and we see a spectacular show. Hopefully we will be looking at the latter.

 

[Trottier]

... but with the knife to the PA's neck, Bettman and his group seemingly have been quite fair in negotiations and haven't turned this into a break the union issue and have indeed handed out the olive branch to form the partnership between the players and ownership that is sorely needed by the league for its survival.

That's a great observation, and overlooked point.

Kind of like Grant at Appomatox, to stretch an analogy. No need to disagrace the vanquished.

 

[FLYLine27*]

A disgrace? Ok. Apparently, the players are thinking that their OWN LEADER is the disgrace that FORCED the NHL to cancel the season. Are we reading the same things these days?

Or. Maybe the financial state of the game was so beyond disrepair that the league would be so debt ridden in 5 years that it would have to close. Is THAT more disgraceful?

Wow! Seems like when MLB cancelled the WS, Selig and Fehr still remain as captains of their respective boats. Is that a disgrace to? Because I gotta tell you, while cancelling an entire NHL (keyword) season is plenty, I REMEMBER the impact and fallout of cancelling the WS - do you? Last time I checked, the MLB strike was SPLASHED IN THE PAPER EVERYDAY, not 1 update per week as we are getting... Please...

Seriously, how lame is it that the NHL is going to have to select a day of non-event competitive coverage to announce that a CBA was agreed to? The NHL cancellation is not THAT big of deal to a majority of the markets in the US. As I can see you are NYR fan, assuming a NY native, but if you think the NHL CBA announcement is going to trump a Yankee/Mets story for more than a day, you must be stuck on the A train w/o an air conditioner...

Bettman did not and would not negotiate fairly back in Dec-Feb. He didnt give up anything. Sorry but he did not handle this the right way but yes, he did his job.

BOTH sides went through the media to rip the other side, again that was not the right way to handle it.

 

[Face Wash]

Trying to speed up the apparent glacial pace of immaturity & lack of life experiences ...

apparently

 

[FLYLine27*]

Was that the question above? Bettman certainly, I am sure, is happy that his job survival does not depend on your vote. But those 30 Owners, how do you genuinely think that they will vote?

I dont know was it? The title saids "Does Bettman kep his job?" and in the post in bold it saids "Did Bettman do his job?". I answered the title. I dont think he will.

 

[Scoogs]

My intent for the question was really if YOU guys wanted Bettman around or not. But either way.

 

[FLYLine27*]

My intent for the question was really if YOU guys wanted Bettman around or not. But either way.

Good, thats how I answered it. Though most didnt.

 

[coppernblue]

2 quick questions
what exactly did gary do in the NBA?
did he have a similar role to as Bill Daly has underneath him to David Stern?
and how did he get the job as comissioner of the NHL, what was his accomplishments in the NBA side of things?

 

[blitzkriegs]

Bettman did not and would not negotiate fairly back in Dec-Feb. He didnt give up anything. Sorry but he did not handle this the right way but yes, he did his job.

BOTH sides went through the media to rip the other side, again that was not the right way to handle it.

So, we went from disgraceful to fair...interesting.

You think that GB wouldn't move off the 32 million linked cap proposal at that time if BG said, "hey we'll take 36-39 million linked?" Right...Remember GB did offer the PA 42 million cap in Feb - my glasses read that GB increased his hard line stance by 10 million to save a season. And what didn't the league give up? The NHL's strategy was to get the cap/link #, then work on 'giving up' from there. The PA never came to a # that made the league want to give up anything, besides the flooor underneath them...

Then again, he needed to HEAR from the PA to remotely get them in the league financial ballpark. Remember that 'not gonna look at the books PA' stance? Somehow after the NHL said 'BOO' the PA looked at 'em. Gee, I wonder what they are using to do the numbers????

Both sides wrongly used the media in someway. However, GB used it to try to get someone in the world to acknowledge that the PA wasn't talking. BG used it as a front for his fallen plan A = caving owners. That's it because that's all he really had - at this point it's being proven true each day.

And while I'm arguing owner side here, I'm more disgusted with BG than rah rah owner. BG did his job but he faltered and caused A LOT of 'regular people' to lose money. The closer this new deal comes closer to #'s that the NHL offered 6-9 mos ago makes it even worse. The sheer act that BG had NO plan B after the NHL said "BOO" is absolutely pathetic, shameless, and DISGRACEFUL judgment.

 

[Benji Frank]

This was the BIGGEST disgrace in all of pro sports history..cancelling a entire season...yes the NHL needs a new face in the front office. Did I miss what? Dont be a wise ass, he did a good job in the lockout, did i say he didnt???? Im sorry Daly needs to be in charge now, hes just as (if not more) capable of doing Bettmans job, but no way Gary should still be in charge...he has a hand in causing the mess....he fixed it..now he should leave and let the NHL climb to new heights.

He wouldn't have cancelled the season if he had a partner to dance with. Gary & the owners made a big effort to get this done before going that route but ultimately were up against a procrastinator who was scared to yield even an inch ... it ultimately cost him the whole dang field.

Should Gary have said guys let's give them what they want so we can play this year?? From all accounts ... NO!! He was stuck between an extremely large rock and a hard place and he came out of it very well!!

 

[John Flyers Fan]

The smart move would be for the owners to give him a healthy bonus for a job well done and then replace him to help relaunch the league.

Exactly.

 

[pld459666]

There's absolutely no way he loses his job

after being the Commander of such a convincing victory. Make no mistake, he broke the players.

The owners told him we want this, this and this, and his response was I will get you this, that and the other thing, but it may cost a season so save your pennies.

They did save their pennies and Bettman delivered.

How on earth could he get fired for doing what he was asked to do?

Because a season was sacrificed? small price to pay.

 

[GSC2k2*]

2 quick questions
what exactly did gary do in the NBA?
did he have a similar role to as Bill Daly has underneath him to David Stern?
and how did he get the job as comissioner of the NHL, what was his accomplishments in the NBA side of things?

I believe he came in as General Counsel and rose to Exec VP Legal or some such title.

People thnk of him as an "NBA guy", but I believe the fact is he was in the NBA for all of 3 years.

He was highly regarded in basketball as a commissioner-in-training under one of the best (Stern) and was headhunted by the NHL.

Bill Daly is to Bettman as Bettman was to David Stern, if you get my drift.

 

[FLYLine27*]

He wouldn't have cancelled the season if he had a partner to dance with. Gary & the owners made a big effort to get this done before going that route but ultimately were up against a procrastinator who was scared to yield even an inch ... it ultimately cost him the whole dang field.

Should Gary have said guys let's give them what they want so we can play this year?? From all accounts ... NO!! He was stuck between an extremely large rock and a hard place and he came out of it very well!!

Gary wasnt dancing with anyone, he had his mind set on what HE/NHL wanted and would not negotiate off that.

 

[norrisnick]

Gary wasnt dancing with anyone, he had his mind set on what HE/NHL wanted and would not negotiate off that.

Many would argue that it wasn't a matter of "want" but a matter of "need." What sense does it do to offer anything where the end result would still be losing money?

 

[Scoogs]

I believe the NHLPA gave up more than the NHL did in this whole negotiation process on their own..

BUT

It was all in the wrong place. They knew what they needed to sacrifice, but instead of giving it up, they gave up something else BIG, so they looked like the good guys.

If they didn't offer this 24% rollback in the first place, it wouldn't be here today. Another example of HORRIBLE negotiating by the NHLPA.

They dug their own hole. The owners are just burrying the NHLPA in it now.

 

[Crazy_Ike]

Gary wasnt dancing with anyone, he had his mind set on what HE/NHL wanted and would not negotiate off that.

There was no room to negotiate off that while still ensuring the future health and prosperity of the league. It was failing to understand that that cost the players so dearly. They would have known if Deadline Bob hadn't brainwashed them into thinking the numbers provided were phony.

 

[salty justice]

The question asked was "Does Bettman keep his job?" It was not "Should Bettman keep his job?"

Id say yes he keeps his job for winning the war, but no he shouldnt because he isnt good for hockey.

 

[FLYLine27*]

The question asked was "Does Bettman keep his job?" It was not "Should Bettman keep his job?"

Id say yes he keeps his job for winning the war, but no he shouldnt because he isnt good for hockey.

This from Scugs the thread starter:

My intent for the question was really if YOU guys wanted Bettman around or not. But either way.

 

[Crazy_Ike]

Id say yes he keeps his job for winning the war, but no he shouldnt because he isnt good for hockey.

That's funny since he is on the verge of saving the NHL from itself. He's probably the single best thing in 'hockey' right now. And boy does that stick in the craw of some of the irrational Bettman haters here...

 

[Mess]

That's funny since he is on the verge of saving the NHL from itself. He's probably the single best thing in 'hockey' right now. And boy does that stick in the craw of some of the irrational Bettman haters here...

I don't think people and posters here at HF feelings are of any relevance to this thread ..

I think the majority on the NHL players hate him , just like the owners hate Goodenow ..

This is Bettman's CBA and all the money the players will lose will fall on his shoulders first ..

For the good of the game going forward both lead negotiator should be replaced so the healing can begin and the recovery start ..