Getting Delusional With Gary Bettman
Hockey, NHL November 18th. 2009, 4:00pm
It’s been clear to everyone that the NHL’s policy of expansion and southern relocation in the 1990s was a catastrophe. Well, everyone except NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Despite the league needing to bail out and subsequently buy out the Phoenix Coyotes, Bettman continues to defend the policy.
In an interview with Canadian magazine MacLeans, Bettman argues that the Coyotes were not in a financial crisis.
Q: Ones that you’re worried about having turn into a potential Phoenix situation?
A: No, no. When you refer to a potential Phoenix situation, you’re talking about a bankrupt club. Phoenix didn’t belong in bankruptcy.
Q: Jerry Moyes was losing a great deal of money.
A: He was losing, I don’t know, $20 million to $25 million a year. Okay, so that happens to clubs occasionally. It’s happened to clubs that are doing quite well right now. The fact of the matter is, that club went into bankruptcy because Mr. Moyes was trying to get money from something that he didn’t own. He owned Phoenix, he didn’t own someplace else.
The Coyotes were losing $20 to $25 million per year, $20 to 25 million! We understand Gary Bettman must run around with some BSD’s, but in what world is that a trivial sum or an acceptable operating loss?
Phoenix is hardly isolated. Even in a cold weather city, the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets were losing $12 million per year. They were trying to implement a tax to cover their operating costs – not a new stadium, their operating costs.
Yes, NHL ratings were decent for the Stanley Cup Finals. They should have been. Last year’s finals featured the game’s most marketable star, a rematch of the two best teams and it went to a Game 7.
Without the neutral zone trap, hockey is exciting to watch. The NHL has the potential to become a major league again, with a 24-team league primarily in cold-weather cities. Gary Bettman pathetically buttressing his own legacy only delays the inevitable.
34 Responses to “Getting Delusional With Gary Bettman”
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November 18th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
standing ovation
November 18th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Hockey talked about on The Big Lead, is it SportsGal’s birthday?
November 18th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I still dont understand why there are like 4 teams in California, and there’s only 6 teams in all of Canada.
Quebec needs its team back. Toronto having another team wouldn’t suck either.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
24 is still too many, and the original 6 need to play one another more often.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
toronto doesn’t need 2 teams. put it in Hamilton.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Actually I rescind my standing ovation, there was no Winnipeg mention.
Sparty: 24 is fine. 12 and 12. US champion plays Canadian champion for the Cup.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
The schedule is a HUGE issue. There are too many games and, even if you have that many games, there are too many games in division and not enough OOC games. There is no reason each team shouldn’t have a home game with every team in the league.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Hamilton is close enough to Toronto that a shitload of Torontonians would make the drive down to support the team anyway.
Even with the Leafs, most of the people that come to the ACC to watch them aren’t from Toronto per se, but more the surrounding areas (GTA).
November 18th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I keep insisting that an NHL franchise in Hamilton will not work with the current economics of the NHL. I hope I’m wrong, but it won’t work in a place like Hamilton or Kitchener.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Would a team in Hamilton steal some of the Buffalo fan base, putting them in trouble?
November 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
i’m okay with that. but i want detroit playing toronto 6-7 times a year. once or twice is a damn shame.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
is it SportsGal’s birthday?
I think Father’s Day is in June.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
24 teams was the perfect amount. 12 of those being in Canada will not work though. There aren’t 12 cities big enough in Canada to put that many teams.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I agree. Most of the Kitchener-Waterloo area is students and old people. We know students are NOT going to come to the games daily (tickets would be too expensive), so it’d be a bunch of old people, and that’s going to be a disaster, if that’s the key demographic coming to the games.
I’m not sure about Hamilton. Hell, I think even Missasuga would be able to hold a team better than either Hamilton or Kitchener.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Bettman: Bring back the fucking Jets!
November 18th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
The schedule is a HUGE issue. There are too many games and, even if you have that many games, there are too many games in division and not enough OOC games. There is no reason each team shouldn’t have a home game with every team in the league.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Quebec City had their chance. When moving to Hartford is an upgrade, I think we can all agree that maybe not every city in Canada can support a NHL team.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I bet you could get 12 Billy. I guarantee even like Saskatoon would support hockey better than most of the NHL cities we have now.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I totally disagree. The after work commute down the QEW is bad enough as it is. You want to depend on people to make that drive 41 times each season during the middle of the winter? If I’m an owner, I don’t want to depend on my fanbase coming from the city down the highway.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
i think they should start up a team in hawaii…the honolulu big waves should be the toast of the town.
/bettman
//the NHL should learn that less is more
November 18th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
they’re a minor league city. they’re struggling with the organization of the upcoming world juniors next month. there is no way that they’d be able to support an NHL team in the long term.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
or is more, less?
eh? EH?
eh…im leaving.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Don’t forget the amish. They were the best.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
The Nordiques moved to Colorado. Hartford itself had to relocate.
/ NHL ‘98′d
That’s what I was saying though. They’re better off putting a second team in Toronto then they are putting one in smaller towns like Hamilton and Kitchener.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
the worst part of NHL 10 is that you can’t change the Hurricanes uniforms to the old Whalers jerseys. It’s a bloody shame.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
hahaha.
It’s always wierd seeing Menonites (spelling?) when I go to the mall in Waterloo. I also, I kid you not, saw a fucking horse carriage pull up next to me while I was in a bus near the Amish country parts of Waterloo. Unforunetly, the bus driver did not drag race him.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I can count the number of people who like talking hockey on this board on one hand. Ouch.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
And it’s even less now that I’m leaving the office…
November 18th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
there’s fewer who like golf…bully for you, i say.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Didn’t teams leave Canada because they were losing money? I think its a big Catch 22. Obviously there should not be teams in Atlanta, Phoenix, and Miami. Those are obvious as they will never be supported year in and year out. Then who gets the boot? Nashville, I guess. Columbus? If they start winning their fan base will grow. New Jersey, the Islanders? Both of those franchises have multiple cups and history. It’s easy to say the NHL should fold 8 franchises, but which 8 are they?
November 18th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Another Hockey 1-liner coming, stay tuned.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
anaheim and LA Kings actually do quite well. During the winter the proximity to the mountains in LA makes them a big draw. And it’s a massive market.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
am i the only one who sees a mr bean resemblance?
November 18th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
I think hockey has the chance to survive in some of the sun belt cities as long as they’re there long enough to sustain a winning team. Look at a franchise like Dallas…they’ve been good for years and now the kids in the area are picking up the sport. A lot of hockey rinks have opened up in the region. If you give the sport a chance to take roots there, it will grow.