I don’t really give a fuck what he does as long as there are no more lockouts. People bitch daily but the league is exciting there’s more teams there’s more scoring and more Hughes brothers
RangersNumber1Doomer
32 teams for a while is fine, I think its a great number to have with 4 divisions of 8. And no more lockouts
Purple-Owl-5246
He’s accomplished his mandate for sure. He’s stuck around since 93, so obviously the owners think he’s done his job.
Whether or not this is good for fans is up for discussion. IMO, I don’t love what’s happened under the later years of his tenure.
bestkeptquiet
Selling the game in the U.S. market? Slight check. Most markets have done well under his watch, while growing interest in the game overall and tv rights have probably left something to be desired.
Ending labor unrest? If you don’t count one and a half seasons lost to lockouts? Check. I guess.
Completing expansion plans? Big check. 32 teams, more likely on the way. Most teams are financially viable with success in multiple non traditional markets (Tampa, Dallas, Carolina).
Modernizing the old guard? I’m not even sure what this means. By all accounts, dudes like Jeremy Jacobs are still behind the times and not realizing “their” NHL has changed. Hard pass on this one, Gary.
Whether or not people like it, Gary Bettman has made the owners a shit ton of money over 30 years. Even with nothing else considered, Gary’s done his job.
PotentialUmpire3771
So Bettman has been around since ‘93 and a Canadian team hasn’t won the cup since ‘93. Interesting to say the least
Strypes4686
Hit or miss…. He’s helped the game grow and led the NHL to good money but he’s also overseen 3 lockouts and kept a team in a market where they hemorrhage money for way too long.
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He does his job and the NHL an do far worse but he should have the NHL in better shape.
votrechien
Yes, all while being one of the least likeable personalities possible.
momloo
well, yes he did. we can discuss if someone else would do a better job in his place, but his employers seem to be very happy with him
Odd-Elderberry-6137
Unequivocally yes. The biggest mandate was to grow and sell the game. He’s done that hand over fist since become league president.
League revenues in 1993: $732M League revenues today: $6.4B
Twiddist
Sort of but not really. He said he wanted the league to move away from the excessive physicality and towards a high skill stick handling speed skating game and yet every playoff game is Don Cherry’s rock’em sock’em.
No-Negotiation5623
Everyone that constantly says “Just move them to Quebec” or “Quebec is ready for expansion” needs to see this
LunarMoon2001
Yes. Made the owners wealthier and left players with TBI.
Humans_Suck-
Remember when Vegas won the cup, instead of congratulating the fans on their win he said “I knew you’d be a good market”. So he’s good for the shareholders, awful for people who like hockey.
kentuckyfriedchocobo
People boo and dislike him and they don’t even know why.
He’s decent and has been tremendously successful
TeamScience79
Selling the game in the US market? Partial win, there’s more US franchises and their values are higher but NHL is still more niche than MLB and NBA,
Ending labor unrest? Win. The 2005 lockout sucked but it ended with a big win for the owners and the partial lockout got the owners and even better deal. If the players don’t like lockouts then they can thank the players of 1992 who’s strike broke any trust the owners had with the players about working without a CBA. Since then the owners position has been lockout if there’s no CBA.
Modernizing the view of the old guard? Kinda vague. I’ve heard people describe the NHL before Bettman as an “old boys club” where league business was addressed on yachts loaded with booze, and that Bettman turned it into a proper business where NHL business is addressed in the board room. But on the other hand there many ways the league is still stuck in the past. I guess partial win.
2LostFlamingos
He’s grown the game but the NFL has grown way more. So has the NBA.
Way more American kids play now. But he’s lacked success in bringing in big tv money compared to other sports.
DukePhil
He certainly did…by how much did league revenue and average team/franchise valuations change?!
minos157
I don’t have a lot of issues with current state of the league, but a few things that would be nice:
1. Get rid of the sports betting creeping in. Not only is it overbearing and dangerous for those with addictions, but it’s creating an idea that the league is rigged and furthering the vitriol against refs. 2. Go back to 1-8 seeded playoffs, give a slot to the winner of each division. I understand why they have the current format, but it leads to the same matchups in round 1 year over year and punishes the better divisions.
Takhar7
Yes. Overwhelmingly.
Which is the Board of Governors absolutely adore him, and continue to keep him in that position.
Now add the fact that the commissioner always protects his owners & teams – including the Blackhawks and Coyotes when they’ve been in their respective recent troubles – and you can totally see why they have no interest in replacing him until he himself decides he’s had enough.
Fans hate him, for good reason, but he doesn’t answer to the fans and never has
BlueRFR3100
* Selling the game in the US – Yes * Ending labor unrest – No * Completing expansion plans – Yes and then some * Modernizing the views of the old guard – ???
bearwhidrive
He’s accomplished most of it. I’d say there’s still a lot more that hockey could potentially be in the US, but I’m not sure how to get there.
I will say that the non-traditional markets have thrived in terms of pulling more interest in hockey as a sport if not an attraction to spend cash on during that time. I don’t know if Bettman can get credit for that, but it’s happening.
The_Kert
He definitely hasn’t ended labour unrest. One labour related work stoppage in 70ish years prior to his tenure, three more in the 30 years since. That’s drastically worse, not better.
Canadian_Prometheus
I’m with Chelios during the 94 lockout, talking about how he’d be worried if he were Bettman’s family that someone would come take him out lol 😂
Double_Tadpole3982
He’s done nothing to prevent younger fans from the traps of insidious sports betting
commodore_stab1789
I guess.
Don’t know how much of it can be attributed to his role exactly.
MonsieurQQC
Pros for Bettman:
1. The salary cap has been a success. There’s terrific parity in the game. Bad gigantic contracts still exist, but there’s a premium more than ever on young cheap talent. 2. The talent level is better than I’ve seen in 30y of watching the game and the product is entertaining. I love the number and variety of star players. The playoffs aren’t as Mad Max as they used to be, sure, but still has a good balance of skill and vicious competitiveness. This is a golden age of talent and I’m privileged to be around for it. 3. Hockey’s doing well in the Sun Belt, not NFL sure, but teams in Dallas, Tampa, Carolina, Vegas (retch) are some of the best in the league and that’s a good thing for the sport because the Canadian markets can’t drive growth. Idk if Bettman gets credit for this but I think it comes from (1) and (2) so indirectly, I think he should. 4. I love a hockey fight but I’m glad there’s less of it in the game. Reducing fighting without eliminating it is a sustainable policy. For now.
Cons for Bettman:
1. It’s still the #4 sport and frankly a lot of Americans still consider hockey kind of a joke. Not a great look when your golden era of talent is still a punchline to the mainstream sports fan in USA. 2. Very little progress on diversifying fan bases. 3. NHL has ranged from embarrassing to failure on social issues. Their management of the Kyle Beach tragedy was a disaster and revealed the dark side of how Bettman manages the league. He is a lawyer first and foremost. To essentially leave the Blackhawks organization to self-police, and then allow them to be rewarded with the Bedard pick (when the Coyotes were penalized much more for much less), is a stain on the character of the league. But corporate lawyers don’t think that way; in the narrowest sense of liability Bettman made the choice to avoid responsibility. The LGBTQ tape thing was just a smaller-scale, embarrassing confirmation of this. Through periods where NBA and even NFL players were kneeling, USWNT players were advocating and pushing for change (and getting it), Bettman at every turn has chosen the path of least resistance which is falling back on the corporate-lawyer mentality (“What’s our exposure on this?”) and never showing leadership. It’s showed a generation of millennial fans they don’t value important issues that we care about. I love hockey so much, but I have so little pride in the NHL as an organization that I stand behind or want to represent me; I’ll wear a Sharks crest (for all the embarrassment and shame) but *never* an NHL shirt. I don’t trust the NHL to do the right thing or even know what the right thing is. They’re amoral. 4. The league is nowhere on player safety. In true corporate lawyer fashion there has been no proactive effort to explore, address, or even admit the possibility that CTE is ruining players’ lives. DPS rulings are widely viewed as arbitrary and the department has been run by a procession of players from hockey’s caveman eras – none of us would be surprised if Chris Pronger or Claude Lemieux was named one day. What they need, and IMO it would resonate very well with a fan base that is more sophisticated now, is an independent minded person who is curious about the science, shows a willingness to be honest about what’s known and what isn’t known, and can then provide some policy ideas for how to mitigate risk. Bettman seems to fear this is an existential issue – and maybe it is – but his only strategy seems to be avoiding it entirely, which is just repeating the NFL’s mistake.
ur_sexy_body_double
Whether fans like Bettman is not relevant. The league has done really well under his watch.
adamh909
People sometimes fail to remember, Gary’s job is do make the money for the owners. His job is not to do whats in the best interest of the game or the fans… it just so happens that those goals are almost always the same. When those diverge, is situations like jersey and helmet ads, or integrating gambling into the game, he will always choose what makes more money.
SauceKingHS
Not a coincidence no Canadian team has won the cup since 93. It says it right there, with the mandate of selling the game in the US. From what I’ve watched over the years, you have to believe they’ve tipped the scales behind the scenes to encourage cup wins in American cities. Fixing cups is bad overall for the game, but if you’re short-sighted and greedy like the NHL is of course they’re happy to do it.
Anishinabeg
The NHL has been horribly outpaced in revenue growth by the NBA, NFL and MLS. Enough said.
Bettman’s tenure has been a failure.
Joclo22
I still can’t talk about hockey with anyone around me. I had a couple of people in 91-92, but then again it’s likely because my home team made it past the conference semifinals only once or twice in 33 years 😒 I don’t know if anyone would have enticed more hockey fans with that record. Maybe in 2-3 years we’ll have a team that has a chance. SJS
WerewolfDesigner5748
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…” FUCK BETTMAN!!!”…. he’ll always be a piss poor knock off of the Sesame Street “Count”….. and one of these days, the Owners are going to find out he’s not only ripped them blind, he’s turned the NHL into “Gary’s League” and has all the rights to manipulate it the way he wants…..ah ah ahhhhh!
scandrews187
Not sure that I like the idea that all the games anywhere within 500 miles of my area are all blacked out. I live an hour outside of DC. The pens, Flyers, devils, Rangers, hurricanes and Islanders games are all blacked out because I guess Gary thinks I should just get in the fucking car and drive to all those games and watch them in person myself. Whoever thought up the blackout idea as a way to grow the game didn’t think it through very well and should have been fired 20 years ago. Not making games easily available to watch is really a stupid plan and will continue to be one.
pzagrbge
Couldn’t be further from “modernization of the old guard”
TheIncredibleHork
As much as I hate to give it to him, if those were his mandates then he’s done an ok job with it.
Yes, he could definitely help grow the game by making streaming a LOT easier, and that would be part and parcel of challenging the old guard of local sports networks and such, so he still has work to do, but it hasn’t been terrible.
I would love to see a better Department of Player Safety though.
rajde1
I feel like you could give the next commissioner the exact same mandate.
RecalcitrantHuman
No team in Canada has even sniffed the cup in his tenure (MTL doesn’t count as he still had the water wings on). I’d say he has met his goal of ruining the league
KrustiestKrab123
Get rid of divisions and keep east/west conference. Top 6 make playoffs, 7-10 play-in similar to NBA.
dnabyun
I’m always suspicious of him. Since he took over, Canadian teams has never won the cup again. I think he has some influence with the referees to tamper the game. For example, Canucks finals in 2011, so many calls that were dismissed and let Boston have all thethe advantages. It was pretty obvious.
clapperssailing
Irreversibly water downed the league of talent. Illegally inflated ownership values 400% and the sell out to bally and using blackouts. Yeesh.
40 Comments
I don’t really give a fuck what he does as long as there are no more lockouts. People bitch daily but the league is exciting there’s more teams there’s more scoring and more Hughes brothers
32 teams for a while is fine, I think its a great number to have with 4 divisions of 8. And no more lockouts
He’s accomplished his mandate for sure. He’s stuck around since 93, so obviously the owners think he’s done his job.
Whether or not this is good for fans is up for discussion. IMO, I don’t love what’s happened under the later years of his tenure.
Selling the game in the U.S. market? Slight check. Most markets have done well under his watch, while growing interest in the game overall and tv rights have probably left something to be desired.
Ending labor unrest? If you don’t count one and a half seasons lost to lockouts? Check. I guess.
Completing expansion plans? Big check. 32 teams, more likely on the way. Most teams are financially viable with success in multiple non traditional markets (Tampa, Dallas, Carolina).
Modernizing the old guard? I’m not even sure what this means. By all accounts, dudes like Jeremy Jacobs are still behind the times and not realizing “their” NHL has changed. Hard pass on this one, Gary.
Whether or not people like it, Gary Bettman has made the owners a shit ton of money over 30 years. Even with nothing else considered, Gary’s done his job.
So Bettman has been around since ‘93 and a Canadian team hasn’t won the cup since ‘93. Interesting to say the least
Hit or miss…. He’s helped the game grow and led the NHL to good money but he’s also overseen 3 lockouts and kept a team in a market where they hemorrhage money for way too long.
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He does his job and the NHL an do far worse but he should have the NHL in better shape.
Yes, all while being one of the least likeable personalities possible.
well, yes he did. we can discuss if someone else would do a better job in his place, but his employers seem to be very happy with him
Unequivocally yes. The biggest mandate was to grow and sell the game. He’s done that hand over fist since become league president.
League revenues in 1993: $732M
League revenues today: $6.4B
Sort of but not really. He said he wanted the league to move away from the excessive physicality and towards a high skill stick handling speed skating game and yet every playoff game is Don Cherry’s rock’em sock’em.
Everyone that constantly says “Just move them to Quebec” or “Quebec is ready for expansion” needs to see this
Yes. Made the owners wealthier and left players with TBI.
Remember when Vegas won the cup, instead of congratulating the fans on their win he said “I knew you’d be a good market”. So he’s good for the shareholders, awful for people who like hockey.
People boo and dislike him and they don’t even know why.
He’s decent and has been tremendously successful
Selling the game in the US market? Partial win, there’s more US franchises and their values are higher but NHL is still more niche than MLB and NBA,
Ending labor unrest? Win. The 2005 lockout sucked but it ended with a big win for the owners and the partial lockout got the owners and even better deal. If the players don’t like lockouts then they can thank the players of 1992 who’s strike broke any trust the owners had with the players about working without a CBA. Since then the owners position has been lockout if there’s no CBA.
Modernizing the view of the old guard? Kinda vague. I’ve heard people describe the NHL before Bettman as an “old boys club” where league business was addressed on yachts loaded with booze, and that Bettman turned it into a proper business where NHL business is addressed in the board room. But on the other hand there many ways the league is still stuck in the past. I guess partial win.
He’s grown the game but the NFL has grown way more. So has the NBA.
Way more American kids play now. But he’s lacked success in bringing in big tv money compared to other sports.
He certainly did…by how much did league revenue and average team/franchise valuations change?!
I don’t have a lot of issues with current state of the league, but a few things that would be nice:
1. Get rid of the sports betting creeping in. Not only is it overbearing and dangerous for those with addictions, but it’s creating an idea that the league is rigged and furthering the vitriol against refs.
2. Go back to 1-8 seeded playoffs, give a slot to the winner of each division. I understand why they have the current format, but it leads to the same matchups in round 1 year over year and punishes the better divisions.
Yes. Overwhelmingly.
Which is the Board of Governors absolutely adore him, and continue to keep him in that position.
Now add the fact that the commissioner always protects his owners & teams – including the Blackhawks and Coyotes when they’ve been in their respective recent troubles – and you can totally see why they have no interest in replacing him until he himself decides he’s had enough.
Fans hate him, for good reason, but he doesn’t answer to the fans and never has
* Selling the game in the US – Yes
* Ending labor unrest – No
* Completing expansion plans – Yes and then some
* Modernizing the views of the old guard – ???
He’s accomplished most of it. I’d say there’s still a lot more that hockey could potentially be in the US, but I’m not sure how to get there.
I will say that the non-traditional markets have thrived in terms of pulling more interest in hockey as a sport if not an attraction to spend cash on during that time. I don’t know if Bettman can get credit for that, but it’s happening.
He definitely hasn’t ended labour unrest. One labour related work stoppage in 70ish years prior to his tenure, three more in the 30 years since. That’s drastically worse, not better.
I’m with Chelios during the 94 lockout, talking about how he’d be worried if he were Bettman’s family that someone would come take him out lol 😂
He’s done nothing to prevent younger fans from the traps of insidious sports betting
I guess.
Don’t know how much of it can be attributed to his role exactly.
Pros for Bettman:
1. The salary cap has been a success. There’s terrific parity in the game. Bad gigantic contracts still exist, but there’s a premium more than ever on young cheap talent.
2. The talent level is better than I’ve seen in 30y of watching the game and the product is entertaining. I love the number and variety of star players. The playoffs aren’t as Mad Max as they used to be, sure, but still has a good balance of skill and vicious competitiveness. This is a golden age of talent and I’m privileged to be around for it.
3. Hockey’s doing well in the Sun Belt, not NFL sure, but teams in Dallas, Tampa, Carolina, Vegas (retch) are some of the best in the league and that’s a good thing for the sport because the Canadian markets can’t drive growth. Idk if Bettman gets credit for this but I think it comes from (1) and (2) so indirectly, I think he should.
4. I love a hockey fight but I’m glad there’s less of it in the game. Reducing fighting without eliminating it is a sustainable policy. For now.
Cons for Bettman:
1. It’s still the #4 sport and frankly a lot of Americans still consider hockey kind of a joke. Not a great look when your golden era of talent is still a punchline to the mainstream sports fan in USA.
2. Very little progress on diversifying fan bases.
3. NHL has ranged from embarrassing to failure on social issues. Their management of the Kyle Beach tragedy was a disaster and revealed the dark side of how Bettman manages the league. He is a lawyer first and foremost. To essentially leave the Blackhawks organization to self-police, and then allow them to be rewarded with the Bedard pick (when the Coyotes were penalized much more for much less), is a stain on the character of the league. But corporate lawyers don’t think that way; in the narrowest sense of liability Bettman made the choice to avoid responsibility. The LGBTQ tape thing was just a smaller-scale, embarrassing confirmation of this. Through periods where NBA and even NFL players were kneeling, USWNT players were advocating and pushing for change (and getting it), Bettman at every turn has chosen the path of least resistance which is falling back on the corporate-lawyer mentality (“What’s our exposure on this?”) and never showing leadership. It’s showed a generation of millennial fans they don’t value important issues that we care about. I love hockey so much, but I have so little pride in the NHL as an organization that I stand behind or want to represent me; I’ll wear a Sharks crest (for all the embarrassment and shame) but *never* an NHL shirt. I don’t trust the NHL to do the right thing or even know what the right thing is. They’re amoral.
4. The league is nowhere on player safety. In true corporate lawyer fashion there has been no proactive effort to explore, address, or even admit the possibility that CTE is ruining players’ lives. DPS rulings are widely viewed as arbitrary and the department has been run by a procession of players from hockey’s caveman eras – none of us would be surprised if Chris Pronger or Claude Lemieux was named one day. What they need, and IMO it would resonate very well with a fan base that is more sophisticated now, is an independent minded person who is curious about the science, shows a willingness to be honest about what’s known and what isn’t known, and can then provide some policy ideas for how to mitigate risk. Bettman seems to fear this is an existential issue – and maybe it is – but his only strategy seems to be avoiding it entirely, which is just repeating the NFL’s mistake.
Whether fans like Bettman is not relevant. The league has done really well under his watch.
People sometimes fail to remember, Gary’s job is do make the money for the owners. His job is not to do whats in the best interest of the game or the fans… it just so happens that those goals are almost always the same. When those diverge, is situations like jersey and helmet ads, or integrating gambling into the game, he will always choose what makes more money.
Not a coincidence no Canadian team has won the cup since 93. It says it right there, with the mandate of selling the game in the US. From what I’ve watched over the years, you have to believe they’ve tipped the scales behind the scenes to encourage cup wins in American cities. Fixing cups is bad overall for the game, but if you’re short-sighted and greedy like the NHL is of course they’re happy to do it.
The NHL has been horribly outpaced in revenue growth by the NBA, NFL and MLS. Enough said.
Bettman’s tenure has been a failure.
I still can’t talk about hockey with anyone around me. I had a couple of people in 91-92, but then again it’s likely because my home team made it past the conference semifinals only once or twice in 33 years 😒
I don’t know if anyone would have enticed more hockey fans with that record.
Maybe in 2-3 years we’ll have a team that has a chance.
SJS
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…” FUCK BETTMAN!!!”…. he’ll always be a piss poor knock off of the Sesame Street “Count”….. and one of these days, the Owners are going to find out he’s not only ripped them blind, he’s turned the NHL into “Gary’s League” and has all the rights to manipulate it the way he wants…..ah ah ahhhhh!
Not sure that I like the idea that all the games anywhere within 500 miles of my area are all blacked out. I live an hour outside of DC. The pens, Flyers, devils, Rangers, hurricanes and Islanders games are all blacked out because I guess Gary thinks I should just get in the fucking car and drive to all those games and watch them in person myself. Whoever thought up the blackout idea as a way to grow the game didn’t think it through very well and should have been fired 20 years ago. Not making games easily available to watch is really a stupid plan and will continue to be one.
Couldn’t be further from “modernization of the old guard”
As much as I hate to give it to him, if those were his mandates then he’s done an ok job with it.
Yes, he could definitely help grow the game by making streaming a LOT easier, and that would be part and parcel of challenging the old guard of local sports networks and such, so he still has work to do, but it hasn’t been terrible.
I would love to see a better Department of Player Safety though.
I feel like you could give the next commissioner the exact same mandate.
No team in Canada has even sniffed the cup in his tenure (MTL doesn’t count as he still had the water wings on). I’d say he has met his goal of ruining the league
Get rid of divisions and keep east/west conference. Top 6 make playoffs, 7-10 play-in similar to NBA.
I’m always suspicious of him. Since he took over, Canadian teams has never won the cup again. I think he has some influence with the referees to tamper the game. For example, Canucks finals in 2011, so many calls that were dismissed and let Boston have all thethe advantages. It was pretty obvious.
Irreversibly water downed the league of talent. Illegally inflated ownership values 400% and the sell out to bally and using blackouts. Yeesh.