Does Bettman keep his job?

[Motown Beatdown]

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...

Since he's saving something he helped destroy he shouldn't be in danger of losing hos job? A lot of you seem to forget about all the money the owners lost under Gary. But i can tell you they didn't forget. Great he fixed the off the ice mess, now get someone in who can fix the on the ice mess. And if any of you thinks thats Bettman your on crack.

 

[HckyFght*]

A Possible Solution To The Bettman Problem

Granted GB did the job ownership asked him to do. Now, as we turn our attention to the on-ice situation we know he's not the man to lead "The New NHL."

The solution: Promote him latterally. Make him the Chief Counsel for the NHL, in charge of labor negotiations and all things legal. Then appoint a new Hockey Commissioner in charge of the Game. Two separate entities, neither answerable to the other. I would nominate David Poille, but there are certainly lots of "hockey men" who would fit the bill. Just get Gary away from the ice! Please!

-HckyFght

 

[Crazy_Ike]

Since he's saving something he helped destroy he shouldn't be in danger of losing hos job? A lot of you seem to forget about all the money the owners lost under Gary. But i can tell you they didn't forget. Great he fixed the off the ice mess, now get someone in who can fix the on the ice mess. And if any of you thinks thats Bettman your on crack.

Bettman didn't help destroy anything. Bettman increased the revenues. He can't stop the owners from shelling out salaries, that is called collusion. The salaries were being set by the few teams willing to pay 60 million team salaries whether or not their revenues actually warranted it, forcing all the other teams to adapt to that pay structure or not compete for players. Again, not something Bettman can control outside of a CBA agreement - which is exactly where he's fixing it now, despite a suicidally stupid NHLPA to have to deal with. As for the on-ice mess, it appears there are still many simpleminded fans who think scoring could have been increased and the game made more exciting simply by waving a magic wand. There were as many solutions as people offering them, and most of them contradicted the other. Every time something was tried, a lobby group stood up and shouted it down. We're even seeing the same effect happening even now with more radical changes coming.

So much for the magic wand, and so much for your post.

 

[Crazy_Ike]

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

That's quite possible. After all, the players have amply demonstrated they collectively aren't very bright. Sounds like something they would "think", using the term loosely...

 

[Motown Beatdown]

Bettman didn't help destroy anything. Bettman increased the revenues. He can't stop the owners from shelling out salaries, that is called collusion. The salaries were being set by the few teams willing to pay 60 million team salaries whether or not their revenues actually warranted it, forcing all the other teams to adapt to that pay structure or not compete for players. Again, not something Bettman can control outside of a CBA agreement - which is exactly where he's fixing it now, despite a suicidally stupid NHLPA to have to deal with. As for the on-ice mess, it appears there are still many simpleminded fans who think scoring could have been increased and the game made more exciting simply by waving a magic wand. There were as many solutions as people offering them, and most of them contradicted the other. Every time something was tried, a lobby group stood up and shouted it down. We're even seeing the same effect happening even now with more radical changes coming.

So much for the magic wand, and so much for your post.

Bettman didn't do anything to destroy hockey? Another owner zombie who hasn't got a clue.

 

[GSC2k2*]

Bettman didn't do anything to destroy hockey? Another owner zombie who hasn't got a clue.

Face it. If Bettman was a half a foot taller, or if he was from Saskatoon, or someothing other than not quite the "right sort", you would not be saying what you say.

Talk about zombies. Anyone who knows anything about business judgment can see a high achiever when they see one. Bettman will be the guy who saved hockey in the final minute of the game.

 

[BigE]

A simple Yes or No poll would have been sufficient. I don't like either option past the first word because neither represent the reality of the views (for or against keeping Bettman on).

With that said, he'll definitely keep his job. How could he not? He's done everything the owners have asked. I do, however, believe a time will come where someone much more suitable and qualified will step to the forefront (i.e., Gretzky) and take the reigns.

 

[BigE]

Face it. If Bettman was a half a foot taller, or if he was from Saskatoon, or someothing other than not quite the "right sort", you would not be saying what you say.

Talk about zombies. Anyone who knows anything about business judgment can see a high achiever when they see one. Bettman will be the guy who saved hockey in the final minute of the game.

In the end I don't think it's fair to say that Bettman saved the game. I'll never be alright with saying that and it's not because I don't like the guy - it's just not the truth. Anybody in Bettman's shoes could have done this deal, he played a waiting game that everyone in hockey (other than the players) knew was going to get him a big win. It was a long time coming.

You could just as easily make the argument that after dropping the ball during the last CBA and turning an inherited gold mine into a **** bin, he's about even. The guy doesn't know hockey, he doesn't know advertising and he's got about as much charisma as a barking dog.

He'll keep his job but considering the owners demanded a big win, there wasn't an alternative. No bad deal would have been ratified; no bad deal, no Bettman tossing.

 

[NHLFanSince2020]

Yes, Bettman will keep his job.

 

[ti-vite]

Lose his job?



They (owners) wanted one number :54%

They got 2 numbers : 54% & 24%

Lose his job?

 

[Hunter74]

If guys like Colin Campbell and Mike Gartner could be the leaders of their respective sides, I think it would work wonders.

Are you nuts? Why put such an incompetent boob in charge of the NHL? Do you not see teh way this guy conducts business in the NHL in regards to player suspensions and that kinda crap. I like the mike Gartner idea but he will need a good lawyer with him unless he has enough expeirence and knowledge to do the job.

Besides the commisioner needs to be law savvy first and formost or at least very business smart as theres more to being a commisioner than over seeing rule changes which he doens't really do anyhow. Its then up to the commish to surround himself with smart hockey minds to help him make sure the one ice maintaines a highly level of entertainment. This is were he failed as he hired Burke, Campbell, Andy VanHelmon and left the GM's incharge of the rules and whatnot. Of course the BOG made the final decisions on teh GM's proposals but I dont really remember the GM's ever actually putting any changes forward that were shot done by the BOG. This group of hockey minds imho are the main people who have let the game and the fans done by not addressing problems in the NHL.

Now Bettman has made strides to fix teh problem he had in regards to hockey people around him with this new hockey competition committee. Hopefully they can make some positive changes to the game that make it more entertaining without selling out its integritty. I have blamed Colin Campbell for the officiating deficiency before but maybe i should of directed some of that blame to Andy Van Helmon who was in charge of the referees. Either way if this game is to become more exciting and viewed with more integritty these guys need to turn things around as they are really screwing things up.

 

[mr gib]

bettman's gonna get all the credit - the new safe's are arriving as we speak -

 

[Motown Beatdown]

Face it. If Bettman was a half a foot taller, or if he was from Saskatoon, or someothing other than not quite the "right sort", you would not be saying what you say.

What does his size or where he's from have to do with anything i said? Talk about searching.

 

[Timmy]

What does his size or where he's from have to do with anything i said? Talk about searching.

Not really.

I've seen references to his nasal voice, stature, nationality, basketball background, chosen profession, demeanour, personal style, etc etc etc ad nauseaum. If he looked and spoke like Clint Eastwood and said the exact same words, there would be less antipathy for him.

Visually, he looks like The Count from Sesame Street, and it's just hard to trust a guy that looks like that. He looks like a middle manager at Xerox, not the Commissioner of our favourite sport.

 

[davemess]

People are going to look back in 20 years time and say that Gary Bettman was the best thing that happened to hockey in a long long time.

 

[futurcorerock]

Buttman keeps his job.

He only followed orders from the owners seeking a cap. And guess what? He got their precious cap.

Contract extension for Gary.

 

[Mess]

Are you nuts? Why put such an incompetent boob in charge of the NHL? Do you not see the way this guy conducts business in the NHL..

My thoughts exactly ..but I am talking about the current guy not any replacement.

 

[GSC2k2*]

In the end I don't think it's fair to say that Bettman saved the game. I'll never be alright with saying that and it's not because I don't like the guy - it's just not the truth. Anybody in Bettman's shoes could have done this deal, he played a waiting game that everyone in hockey (other than the players) knew was going to get him a big win. It was a long time coming.

You could just as easily make the argument that after dropping the ball during the last CBA and turning an inherited gold mine into a **** bin, he's about even. The guy doesn't know hockey, he doesn't know advertising and he's got about as much charisma as a barking dog.

He'll keep his job but considering the owners demanded a big win, there wasn't an alternative. No bad deal would have been ratified; no bad deal, no Bettman tossing.

Well, as someone who negotiates for a living, I can give props for skills to someone when I see it. I don't think anybody could have done Bettman's job, especially since the trick (once it turned out Goodenow will never be a partner) was to put him in a position where he would be publicly humiliated. Not everyone can do that.

An inherited gold mine? Hardly. Hockey has never been a goldmine. Never.

Doesn't know hockey? How do you know?

Doesn't know advertising? He is not hired to be an adman, last time I checked. He hired all the right people to increase NHL revenue several times over.

Charisma? I dunno. He got 30 giant egos to follow him over the "abyss" which turned out to be the path to eventual success. Nah, no leadership skills or charisma at all.

 

[ArtG]

Gary Bettman is my hero. No sarcasm at all; this guy worked the media like a pro and made Goodenow out to be the goat that he finally ended up showing himself to be. If I was an owner, I'd definitely want somebody like Gary running my league on the business side, and a guy like Colin Campbell running it on the hockey side. No complaints here.

 

[baldrick]

Both Bettman and Goodenow should go. How did the NHL get into this mess
in the firstplace? Under the expired CBA player salaries escalated out of control,
certain owners begin a bidding war for premier players which drove up the salary
of all players aided by a frenzy of league expansion while blindly refusing to recognize the deteriorating quality and entertainment value of the on-ice product,relying instead on hype ala pro basketball and the NHLPA stubbornly refusing to recognize the need to control salaries.
For the last couple of months of serious negotiations neither Gary or Bob have
even been involved in talks. So what have these two actually done except get the
NHL into this mess in the first place?

 

[Crazy_Ike]

Under the expired CBA player salaries escalated out of control,
certain owners begin a bidding war for premier players which drove up the salary
of all players aided by a frenzy of league expansion while blindly refusing to recognize the deteriorating quality and entertainment value of the on-ice product,relying instead on hype ala pro basketball

Most the league expansion was before Bettman came in. The teams he expanded to are, for the most part, the most stable of the expansion teams. No one can agree on how to address the "deterioration" of the on-ice content, several attempts have been made to fix it (including more extreme versions this year) and overabundance of talent is more likely to be a culprit of it than expansion was (if you believe that the trap is more of a problem than the clutching and holding). Nothing else you mentioned could have been addressed without a new CBA which is what they're doing now. So what exactly did Bettman do wrong to get the NHL into this mess, as you suggest?

 

[London Knights]

Most the league expansion was before Bettman came in. The teams he expanded to are, for the most part, the most stable of the expansion teams. No one can agree on how to address the "deterioration" of the on-ice content, several attempts have been made to fix it (including more extreme versions this year) and overabundance of talent is more likely to be a culprit of it than expansion was (if you believe that the trap is more of a problem than the clutching and holding). Nothing else you mentioned could have been addressed without a new CBA which is what they're doing now. So what exactly did Bettman do wrong to get the NHL into this mess, as you suggest?

While his expansion is limited in terms of the total expansion, an argument could be made that he should have seen the deterioration of the product and attempted to put an end to the expansion. The fact that his expansion cities weren't the worst ones doesn't change the fact that the NHL has overexpanded for the time being.
The goal of expansion was to grow the game, but you can't just stick something in the ground and expect it to grow, you have to nurture your seedling before heading off to the next city. The NHL as a whole didn't do much to grow the game in each of the exansion cities.

 

[Crazy_Ike]

While his expansion is limited in terms of the total expansion, an argument could be made that he should have seen the deterioration of the product and attempted to put an end to the expansion. The fact that his expansion cities weren't the worst ones doesn't change the fact that the NHL has overexpanded for the time being.
The goal of expansion was to grow the game, but you can't just stick something in the ground and expect it to grow, you have to nurture your seedling before heading off to the next city. The NHL as a whole didn't do much to grow the game in each of the exansion cities.

Your conclusion is drawn from the flawed idea that expansion is the culprit for the deterioration of the games. Such an idea has been shown to be oversimplistic and doesn't reflect reality. In the past some of the most entertaining hockey in history was in the explosion of franchises in the late 60s, 70s, and 80s; it was much better than the hockey earlier than that, a lot of which featured some heavy duty trapping.

If the clutching and grabbing can be eliminated - by any means - then expansion may well be the best thing the league could have done for the on-ice game. There should be a way to get rid of it, if the league just has the balls to ignore the dinosaurs who hate seeing penalties. Also, since the players' salaries are now on the ball when it comes to entertainment, they *should* be less willing to embrace systems that bore the fans to death, though given hockey players have not demonstrated a great deal of intelligence lately, this may be asking too much from them.

As for off the ice, expansion was the only possible way to gain enough support for a bigger TV deal, which has been an objective for some time. It hasn't worked, but there doesn't appear to have been any solution that would have anyways; certainly no one HERE has come up with one - the best anyone has offered so far was some shmuck saying the league should have promoted goons instead of scorers. I guess he was a Devils fan so he probably doesn't like scoring anyways. But I digress.

As for "nurturing", other than a nonsensical analogy to growing a crop (the people running those franchises ARE nurturing them, and better than the league could by being on the local level!), what exactly is the league supposed to do? Force new people to like hockey at gunpoint? If the on-ice entertainment warrants it and there's hope for every team to *build* a winner rather than depending on raw luck (the objectives of the owners in this lockout), then there's no reason any franchise, expansion or not, should not be able to thrive. If they can't, because of building problems or what have you, they probably shouldn't have a franchise in the first place.

 

[BigE]

Well, as someone who negotiates for a living, I can give props for skills to someone when I see it. I don't think anybody could have done Bettman's job, especially since the trick (once it turned out Goodenow will never be a partner) was to put him in a position where he would be publicly humiliated. Not everyone can do that.

An inherited gold mine? Hardly. Hockey has never been a goldmine. Never.

Doesn't know hockey? How do you know?

Doesn't know advertising? He is not hired to be an adman, last time I checked. He hired all the right people to increase NHL revenue several times over.

Charisma? I dunno. He got 30 giant egos to follow him over the "abyss" which turned out to be the path to eventual success. Nah, no leadership skills or charisma at all.

When Bettman took over the NHL, hockey was on the rise and looked to enter into the Big Four without question. The Rangers had just won the cup, a year or so later Team USA won the World Cup and the twin icons in Gretzky and Lemieux led an exciting game into the sporting fold. All in all I'd say very confidentally that hockey was just breaking out and extremely comprable to a oil field (gold mine) waiting to be tapped.

Bettman is from New York, he admittedly has never played the game before and he came from the NBA. He was hired because of his so called "experience" with a major sports league - not because he knew a god damn thing about hockey. If he knew anything about hockey do you really think we'd be where we are right now?

All the right people to increase revenue? I'm quite sure that with or without Bettman, revenue would have continued to escalate as the NHL slowly began to capitalize on some of it's brewing popularity. Have revenues really increased that much beyond where they were when he started, that you can seriously use that as a point in your argument? It's all about profit. If you want to look at revenue you've also got to look at costs.

Why is Gary so different from any other company head in the world? I can assure you that if any other person in the position which Gary holds, were to have lost as much money as Gary did in their respective company, they would have been fired within two weeks of the report. I mean, $280 million!!! $280 million! C'mon Gary!

So I ask you to tell me what Bettman has done that is so extraordinary. Tell me how any other person in Bettman's place during these negotiations could have failed.

His job was to play a game, the wait game, and frustrate the opposition into compliance. That's not negotiating or bargaining. He used a tremendous position of power. How could he **** up; I mean really? Even if he wanted a bad deal the owners still had to approve it.

This situation was tailor made for a win. There was no other outcome. When you take that into account in addition to very little progress that he made off what was considered to be the NHL's greatest era, how can this man get any confidence/respect? Sure the owners are happy but as I've been saying all along, it doesn't matter whether you've got Bettman, Daly, Burke etc. in that chair, the deal gets done exactly the same way.

 

[Crazy_Ike]

When Bettman took over the NHL, hockey was on the rise and looked to enter into the Big Four without question. The Rangers had just won the cup, a year or so later Team USA won the World Cup and the twin icons in Gretzky and Lemieux led an exciting game into the sporting fold. All in all I'd say very confidentally that hockey was just breaking out and extremely comprable to a oil field (gold mine) waiting to be tapped.

You can be as confident as you like - the FACT is it was all an illusion. Gretzky retired and Lemieux got hurt, and there was no one of even remotely close stature to replace either, the closest being Lindros who didn't have the head for the NHL and so almost lost it to Scott Stevens. The league can't depend on the Rangers winning the Cup every year; some pretty darn Americanesque cities won the cup during the last ten years and it hasn't meant a thing. The Olympics should have been something of wonder but all it did was expose how badly some pro athletes behave and illustrated the difference in playing styles between it and the NHL due to the effectiveness of defensive systems when given enough time to practice them.

Hockey was not breaking out. Hockey was becoming extremely overrated and the sports media, never the cleverest bunch, fell for it. It's high stature was very limited to a few regions of the US and was *never* a factor anywhere else.

If anything, the collapse should have been even worse. Every NHL fan should feel lucky that Bettman and the owners have stuck to their guns against the stupidly insane NHLPA, and now they're going to get a second chance at life. Hockey isn't overrated anymore. If the quality of the games go up, it could be the most *underrated* of the big sports coming out of this; certainly some other people think so.

Twenty years from now people will look back and say Bettman was the best thing going for hockey during this period.

Why is Gary so different from any other company head in the world? I can assure you that if any other person in the position which Gary holds, were to have lost as much money as Gary did in their respective company, they would have been fired within two weeks of the report. I mean, $280 million!!! $280 million! C'mon Gary!

In the same period Bettman increased revenues several times over. The uncontrollable factor was player salaries, which were being centrally controlled by Goodenow and his agent cronies. Bettman is not allowed by law to centrally manage salary offers from the owners. The central planning from Goodenow ensured that every player measured his worth against the highest paid peer, meaning the entire league was forced to adapt to a pay structure set by those who paid the most, regardless of whether or not hockey revenues warranted the salary.

This one flaw is what had to be fixed. That's what they're doing right now. What would *really* have been a failure would have been for Bettman to fold to the NHLPA's unreasonable demands. He did not, and hockey is better for it EVEN IF we lost a season to do it.