Blog post: Gary Bettman is good for the game

[Curtrain]

Good posts, I will disagree respectfully. It was Bettman's prerogative that led to the rule changes that has improved the game, and it was also Bettman's stubbornness that made him so loyal to OLN (now Versus), that has paid off pretty nicely. Now NHL fans have hockey on TV pretty much whenever they want.

I think the man deserves some credit.

I think that is fair. Some credit should be given. I just feel that he could have done more (a lot more) with the power he seems to possess. Why not try to grow the sport without alienating fans that already exist? Supporting Colin Campbell was a also a huge mistake; I doubt you will find many people here who thinks Campbell did a great job overall. The rule changes are a step in the right direction imo, but the sport has been in a state of flux for way too long. Officiating needs to improve, and that should have been done yesterday.

 

[Ties5o11]

Sort of changing direction with this, does anybody who why he shakes all the time when he talks? Is it a disease or is he just nervous or something?

 

[naslundfan19]

I've noticed that too. Have no idea why he does it.

 

[flyersfan4706]

People, lets not grow a lovefest for ESPN because of their hockey theme song and Gary Throne;

Bitch, you NEVER talk about Gary Thorne like that

 

[naslundfan19]

While I like Gary Thorne, anyone else think Dave Strader/Darren Pang should be the #1 team for NBC/Versus?

 

[flyersfan4706]

I like Beninati out of anyone.

A little bias here, but the Flyers' Jim Jackson did some random game for Versus this year. He is not that bad, and I'd like to see them do it again

 

[filosofy29]

I think hes good for the game, but bad for the Devils...well, hes proven to be bad for the Devils

I wish he could be that bad for the Sharks.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

Let’s see… League revenues under Bettmans tenure have skyrocketed from $400 mil in ’93, to $2.7 bil in ’10. And that’s BEFORE this new TV deal kicks in. Bettman bet heavily on Versus/NBC (and I was initially entirely skeptical, I believe my exact words were “FUCKING OLN???”), but guess what? He dropped his balls on the table and WON, bigtime.

League revenues are up, true. I'd be interested to see how much they went up over the same period of time in comparison to the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NASCAR. Not saying he hasn't had some success there, just saying it's all relative. As far as betting huge and dropping his giant gerbil balls on the table with OLN, that's not exactly what happened. He was coming off a lockout and needed to scramble to find a TV contract. ESPN rejected the deal, so Bettman was pretty much left with one choice. I'm personally happy with how things turned out, Versus treats hockey the way it's supposed to be treated. But that didn't come from Big Bad Gary making manly decisions, it's because he had his dick in a wringer and needed someone, anyone to air his games.

SO VANCOUVER, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SO PISSED ABOUT?? (other than having a couple of girls on your team pretending to be leaders/scorers, ba-zing).

“Buttt Greggg, waaaaahh, he’s expanding the game into non-traditional markets, THERE’S NO ICE IN FLORIDA LULZ.”

SHUT UP. This exclusive attitude is exactly what’s wrong about hockey today. If you don’t believe in the game, if you don’t believe that everyone COULD be a hockey fan, you’re a buttfucking elitist quitter (and a moron).

Not sure what he's so mad about, but they booed him in Detroit, they booed him in Pittsburgh, they booed him in freaking Anaheim. Is Anaheim zomg mad buttfugelitist hockey no ice or whatever straw man argument this guy is puking up? I'm against the elitist hockey mentality, but I don't think that's why they were booing Bettman. Did this guy survey all of the fans at the arena the other night?


Bettman has been at the helm for two work stoppages. Freaking two. The last time it was because the owners were rejecting a salary cap in the $45 million range, saying they needed it to be much lower. Now we may hit $65 million this summer. That's a fucking farce. All the sweet rule changes that have made this game so much faster and exciting since the lockout? Brendan Shanahan took the bull by the horns there, taking a bad situation and using it to his advantage, to the league's advantage. How selfless is that, using time you are locked out of the league to implement rule changes that would essentially make you obsolete as an aging, slow power forward?

Most people aren't mad that Bettman is putting teams in warm climates. They are mad that he ripped teams out of towns that love hockey, and when the franchises continue to falter and struggle he refuses to acknowledge there is a problem. I am all for Atlanta, Phoenix, Florida, Dallas, and all the other southern cities having teams. But we expanded too fast. If you're moving a team into a non-traditional market, you need to have 20 years or so set aside to let it grow. Not every team is going to catch on quickly like the Stars did in Dallas. They gave Atlanta what, ten years? Ten years isn't enough time to build a winning tradition, to entrench themselves in the fabric of the community, to grow youth hockey and sponsor high school teams. If the NHL would have waited until they had all of their franchises on somewhat stable ground before expanding, it wouldn't be an issue. But if you have 5-6 teams that have poor attendance and aren't making money, is it really a good time to plop a few more teams down in unproven markets? That's the big issue with all these southern teams. I hope Carolina flourishes, I hope Florida turns it around, I hope Nashville packs their barn every night. But some of these teams have had over twenty years and still aren't catching on. I'm all for patience but at some point enough is enough.

 

[Curtrain]

League revenues are up, true. I'd be interested to see how much they went up over the same period of time in comparison to the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NASCAR. Not saying he hasn't had some success there, just saying it's all relative. As far as betting huge and dropping his giant gerbil balls on the table with OLN, that's not exactly what happened. He was coming off a lockout and needed to scramble to find a TV contract. ESPN rejected the deal, so Bettman was pretty much left with one choice. I'm personally happy with how things turned out, Versus treats hockey the way it's supposed to be treated. But that didn't come from Big Bad Gary making manly decisions, it's because he had his dick in a wringer and needed someone, anyone to air his games.



Not sure what he's so mad about, but they booed him in Detroit, they booed him in Pittsburgh, they booed him in freaking Anaheim. Is Anaheim zomg mad buttfugelitist hockey no ice or whatever straw man argument this guy is puking up? I'm against the elitist hockey mentality, but I don't think that's why they were booing Bettman. Did this guy survey all of the fans at the arena the other night?


Bettman has been at the helm for two work stoppages. Freaking two. The last time it was because the owners were rejecting a salary cap in the $45 million range, saying they needed it to be much lower. Now we may hit $65 million this summer. That's a fucking farce. All the sweet rule changes that have made this game so much faster and exciting since the lockout? Brendan Shanahan took the bull by the horns there, taking a bad situation and using it to his advantage, to the league's advantage. How selfless is that, using time you are locked out of the league to implement rule changes that would essentially make you obsolete as an aging, slow power forward?

Most people aren't mad that Bettman is putting teams in warm climates. They are mad that he ripped teams out of towns that love hockey, and when the franchises continue to falter and struggle he refuses to acknowledge there is a problem. I am all for Atlanta, Phoenix, Florida, Dallas, and all the other southern cities having teams. But we expanded too fast. If you're moving a team into a non-traditional market, you need to have 20 years or so set aside to let it grow. Not every team is going to catch on quickly like the Stars did in Dallas. They gave Atlanta what, ten years? Ten years isn't enough time to build a winning tradition, to entrench themselves in the fabric of the community, to grow youth hockey and sponsor high school teams. If the NHL would have waited until they had all of their franchises on somewhat stable ground before expanding, it wouldn't be an issue. But if you have 5-6 teams that have poor attendance and aren't making money, is it really a good time to plop a few more teams down in unproven markets? That's the big issue with all these southern teams. I hope Carolina flourishes, I hope Florida turns it around, I hope Nashville packs their barn every night. But some of these teams have had over twenty years and still aren't catching on. I'm all for patience but at some point enough is enough.

If this post was a ninja, and each sound argument and interesting point was a lethal strike, this is what it would look like:

 

[Eddie_Shack]

If this post was a ninja, and each sound argument and interesting point was a lethal strike, this is what it would look like:

I've been told I'm quite the wordsmith.