Fire Gary Bettman!

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DaveC

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:mad:

the man is a complete arrogant cunt. anyone who doesn't disagree with him is a total idiot to him, and all he does is duck and dodge the issues.

people seem to neglect one of the main causes of this lockout. the former was CBA was put in place was a result of this megalomaniacal pint-sized doofus who thinks he runs the sporting world's idea of a good agreement, and it turns out it sucked balls and the owners are losing millions.

so why the fuck do the owners keep him around if he negotiated the CBA that put them in this situation in the first place?!??! why do the owners trust him to get a good and fair deal now if he couldn't 10 years ago and put the league in a worse off position?!?

hockey is going down the toilet in the states. the league is completely fucked unless something happens ASAP.

here's what needs to be done:

1. fire the commissioner!
2. negotiate a CBA that involves a strict luxury tax or a soft salary cap.
3. play at least SOMETHING this season, for god's sakes!
4. contract the league. teams that need to go: nashville, columbus, florida, carolina, atlanta. these are NOT hockey markets! deal with it!!
5. negotiate a decent TV deal with ESPN for american broadcast.
6. hire a halfway decent marketer this time to promote the league like mad!

the owners need to act, and NOW, or else by the time hockey comes back they won't be making money anymore at all from the loss of millions of lukewarm fans.

people up here are already flocking to the CHL and AHL games in droves, and are starting to say they enjoy it much more than NHL. i know i'd rather see a Mooseheads game on TV where the game is somewhat free-flowing, open, and exciting rather than an Atlanta-Nashville game on TV where all they do is play the trap and end the game 1-0 or 2-1.

:tsk:
 
absolutely not... the only way that the NHL can continue to exist is with a salary cap... he's hodling tight until he gets it... kudos to Gary Bettman. He's holding tight to his principles in order to make his game better in the long term. If only those involved in Major League Baseball had the same resolve and every now and then were willing to stand up for what's right and break the MLBPA, aka the strongest union in America... PERIOD.

any so called "soft cap" or luxary tax will mean the death of the NHL as we know it. The NBA can exist under such a system. The NHL's American ratings were so inredibly low (aka losing ratings for a playoff game to woman's softball) that the only way to survive is with a HARD cap... but as of now, the players won't agree to that, so the owners are shit out of luck.

there will be no hockey this year... and for the long term goodness of the sport, that's a good thing. because i've come full throtle to the side of the owners after reading all the agreements and arguements etc. etc. etc.

Yes... I have a degree in Sports & Rec Management. I did reports on this sort of thing. When this thing first broke, I didn't take any side. If you could put me on anyside, it would have been very softly on the player's side. But now? Fully on the side of the oweners. What in the bluest of blue hells is a luxary tax going to do to Charles Dolan? It's only going to make him spend more... to make the tax worth it. The only solution to the NHL's problems is a hard cap. I know they can't possiably have the success the NFL has had.. but shit... it's a start.
 
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Headache in a Suitcase said:
absolutely not... the only way that the NHL can continue to exist is with a salary cap... he's hodling tight until he gets it... kudos to Gary Bettman. He's holding tight to his principles in order to make his game better in the long term. If only those involved in Major League Baseball had the same resolve and every now and then were willing to stand up for what's right and break the MLBPA, aka the strongest union in America... PERIOD.

any so called "soft cap" or luxary tax will mean the death of the NHL as we know it. The NBA can exist under such a system. The NHL's American ratings were so inredibly low (aka losing ratings for a playoff game to woman's softball) that the only way to survive is with a HARD cap... but as of now, the players won't agree to that, so the owners are shit out of luck.

there will be no hockey this year... and for the long term goodness of the sport, that's a good thing. because i've come full throtle to the side of the owners after reading all the agreements and arguements etc. etc. etc.

Yes... I have a degree in Sports & Rec Management. I did reports on this sort of thing. When this thing first broke, I didn't take any side. If you could put me on anyside, it would have been very softly on the player's side. But now? Fully on the side of the oweners. What in the bluest of blue hells is a luxary tax going to do to Charles Dolan? It's only going to make him spend more... to make the tax worth it. The only solution to the NHL's problems is a hard cap. I know they can't possiably have the success the NFL has had.. but shit... it's a start.

I'm not completely up on my sports history...but didn't the NBA first implement the salary cap in the 70's-80's for similar reasons?
 
mid 80s for a very similar reason, yes...

the only exception in the NBA's hard cap is the so called "larry bird rule," which states that an NBA team can go over the cap to resign their own players. so the knicks are 40 million over the cap... they pay a luxary tax on every dollar over the cap... but they can never sign any free agents without making some sort of trade because they're over the cap.
 
Dave: regardless of how you feel about Bettman, I think you should avoid using the dreaded "C" word. It doesn't offend me, but I know most women find it to be just about the most offensive word there is, and many of our interference women do post in the sports forum.
Just a tip from your Uncle Hewson
 
yes daveC. lets try to steer clear of that;)

i, also, do not understand bettman's employment. he does not project a leadership image.
he really has more of a runny nose, trying to catch up to the rest of the kids, whiney image. if i was an owner, i would want someone else-lamoreillo comes to mind.
 
i was absolutely furious at the complete breakdown of talks when i posted this.

i apologise to anyone who was offended by the language i used. :reject:

i still stand by my 6 point plan though. ;)
 
DaveC said:
:mad:

the man is a complete arrogant cunt. anyone who doesn't disagree with him is a total idiot to him, and all he does is duck and dodge the issues.

people seem to neglect one of the main causes of this lockout. the former was CBA was put in place was a result of this megalomaniacal pint-sized doofus who thinks he runs the sporting world's idea of a good agreement, and it turns out it sucked balls and the owners are losing millions.

so why the fuck do the owners keep him around if he negotiated the CBA that put them in this situation in the first place?!??! why do the owners trust him to get a good and fair deal now if he couldn't 10 years ago and put the league in a worse off position?!?

hockey is going down the toilet in the states. the league is completely fucked unless something happens ASAP.

here's what needs to be done:

1. fire the commissioner!
2. negotiate a CBA that involves a strict luxury tax or a soft salary cap.
3. play at least SOMETHING this season, for god's sakes!
4. contract the league. teams that need to go: nashville, columbus, florida, carolina, atlanta. these are NOT hockey markets! deal with it!!
5. negotiate a decent TV deal with ESPN for american broadcast.
6. hire a halfway decent marketer this time to promote the league like mad!

the owners need to act, and NOW, or else by the time hockey comes back they won't be making money anymore at all from the loss of millions of lukewarm fans.

people up here are already flocking to the CHL and AHL games in droves, and are starting to say they enjoy it much more than NHL. i know i'd rather see a Mooseheads game on TV where the game is somewhat free-flowing, open, and exciting rather than an Atlanta-Nashville game on TV where all they do is play the trap and end the game 1-0 or 2-1.

:tsk:

your ideas have good intentions, but they are impossiable and have no chance of ever working. the NHL has a serious problem here, and unfortunatly the owners are right.

a soft cap won't work... a luxary tax won't work. the owners need to stick to their guns here. it's the george steinbrenner argument. the reason steinbrenner gave when he voted against the current CBA in baseball is that a luxary tax will not deter him from spending more money. a luxary tax will not prevent charles dolan from spending through the roof for players. this does not help the edmontons or the ottowas or the buffalos of the world. the NBA has a soft cap w/ a luxary tax... they can get away with it because they get higher ratings and do better with merchandising, thus make more money as a whole. but player salaries have gone up every single year in the NBA, thanks to the so called "larry bird rules," which allow a player to resign with his own team for as much money as they can pay.

the NHL's biggest fan base is canada...yes... absolutely. but the small market canadian teams can't compete with the large american markets. the fact that edmonton is still in existance is a miracle. they need to even out the playing field. the teams that are failing are not the teams in the sunbelt that you said should be contracted... they're the teams in hockey central... canada... the northern united states. the southern teams actually do quite well. in order to make the northern teams more viable, they need to even out the playing field. the only way to do that is with a cap. hockey isn't like baseball, where the small market teams complain that they don't compete and then pocket the revenue sharing money. small market teams in hockey actually want to compete. i'm not a big fan of the hard cap... but the NHL needs it.

as far as the TV deals and the marketing... that's all in good, but the reality is that there was no demand for hockey before the lockout... there's going to be even less demand after they sit out a year and a half. if and when the NHL finally hits the ice again, the rules committee NEEDS to do something to get the excitement back, to get the juice back. like it or not, the neutral zone trap has made hockey boring for the casual fan. the rabid fan doesn't mind, but they're never losing the rabid fan. it's the casual fan who they need, and that's exactly who they don't have.

after major league baseball canceled the 94 world series, two things saved the sport... cal ripken and the '98 homerun chase.

when the NHL comes back the NHL needs to do something to make scoring easier again. some rule needs to be put in place. because there is a ripken/mcgwire type person out there ready to become a star, and the NHL needs to protect him and allow him to flourish the way Gretzky and Lemieux did... and they need to somehow put him in an ottowa or a pittsburgh or a buffalo... some place that has a large enough fan base but is struggling financialy. the nba used to do it all the time, but it's easy for them because they have a lottery for the #1 pick... so they can rig it so that patrick ewing goes to new york and ohio native lebron james goes to cleveland. the nhl doesn't have a lottery in place so baisicly whoever loses the most games will get the kid who's going to save the NHL...

etoile030930.jpg


sydney crosby
 
So basically Headache you are saying the NBA rigs the lottery, and Tim Duncan went to San Antonio when mathematical odds were 99.999997% he should go to the Celtics, but the rest of the league was tired of Red Auerbach taking advantage of them in trades like say, Joe Barry Carroll for Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, or Rick Robey for Dennis Johnson.
 
tim duncan wasn't expected to be a "league savior" comming out of college... in fact, he was ranked just barely higher than marcus camby.

patrick ewing was expected to be the next bill russell... the rigging of the 1985 draft lottery to get him to new york is one of the worst kept secrets in NBA history. in fact, the entire concept of the draft lottery was put in place FOR patrick ewing. there was no lottery in the 1984 draft. the teams drafted in order of where they finished... houston had the worst record, thus they picked first, taking akeem. then portland took david bowie (or they should've... at least he's more entertaining than sam bowie ever was), and then chicago took some jordan guy. the nba was afraid that teams would lose on purpose in order to get Ewing, the most highly touted prospect in years. thus he put the draft lottery in place, so that every team that didn't make the playoffs had at least a mathamatical chance of getting the #1 pick. of course this wasn't the intention... the knicks blew at the time, were having big time financial problems, and stern knew that the team in the league's #1 market needed help... thus the rigging of the draft to make sure that ping pong ball had the knicks logo on it.

lebron was also considered to be the next comming... thus why i think it's safe to assume that lord stern played with the ping pong balls to make sure that, between cleveland, detroit and denver, that the ohio team would get the ohio product.

the nba doesn't rig the draft lottery on a regular basis... only on special occasions. this is a special occasion for the NHL... they need to make sure crosby goes where he will flourish and where he will help the sport.
 
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Get rid of 6 American teams in weak markets = more entertaining product. The NHL needs it's major market to do well to survive.

Shorten the season - no hockey before the World Serries is over, and no hockey in June.

Fire Bettman.

OT shootouts.

= Problems solved,
 
from a business standpoint gary bettman's sticking to his guns over the salary cap issue is the best possiable thing for the long term financial success of the NHL... firing him and allowing the players to win would be stupid and would ultimately lead to the end of the NHL as a league.

woman's softball got higher ratings in america than playoff hockey did... you don't fix that with a short term answer. you need a long term plan, and it must involve a salary cap.
 
I never said anticipation for Duncan was as a league savior, but anticipation was that he'd be a franchise savior in Beantown, and lots of NBA GM's didn't want to see that, so he was rigged to go to the Spurs, and the Celts got Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer, both of whom were misused and dumped by Rick "Larry Bird's not coming thru that door" Pitino.
 
30 teams is an unsustainable number for a regional sport.

Women's softball got higher rating than the nhl playoffs because it's a watered-down product, full of defensive, trapping "system" hockey.

And it's not about either side winning. It's about compromise, which the owners are unwilling to do.

Bettman has no business running this sport. He's an embarressment. At least let a Canadian lawyer who has played the sport take control of things.
 
I don't understan the exclusive Gary Bettman hate. I actually watched him at the press conference this week and agreed with almost everything he was saying. He is looking long term, the players are not.
 
If you're going to hate Bettman, you have to hate Goodenow, too.

One man did not exclusively make this mess, and it will take more than one man to fix it. As they say, it takes two to tango.
 
If you're going to hate Bettman, you have to hate Goodenow, too.

no i don't. i hate bettman because he's a flaming ball of arrogance, rhetoric, and dodges every question put to him back at the interviewer. i remember at the all-star game last year, when ron maclean was asking bettman questions about the possible lockout, every second answer out of bettman's mouth was "can we cut the rhetoric ron?", no matter what it was.

bettman's view is that if you don't think precisely the same as he does, you're wrong, and if you don't speak the same words he does, you're a liar and an idiot. that's why i hate him. not for the job he has, but for the person he is (at least in public).

bob goodenow's at least a halfway decent person.
 
Fair enough, I guess. Although I don't know either of them to make character judgments, even based solely on their public personas. :shrug:

I was speaking specifically in terms of the lock-out (and mentioned Bettman and Goodenow as they are the public "faces" of this dispute). This situation was created by a number of factors and neither side is solely to blame. That's all.
 
oh, i know that both sides are to blame in this lockout issue. i just can't comprehend how the owners keep bettman around.
 
DaveC said:
oh, i know that both sides are to blame in this lockout issue. i just can't comprehend how the owners keep bettman around.

They keep him around for the very reasons you've outlined.

Because he's stubborn and unilateral.

In that regard, from the owner's perspective... he couldn't be doing a better job.

Personally I'm not a fan.
 
I do not "hate" bettman. I think he's the wrong man for the job, unwilling to admit the mistake that was expanding the league into atlanta, nashville, florida, north carolina, columbus, and on and on.

He got greedy for the large entrance fee an NHL franchise must pay to join the nhl, and now he's beholden to those foolish owners who created nhl teams in unsustainable markets.

So now there is a glut of "nhl" players, that recieve large contracts for past achievements and the "experience" they bring to a locker room, which in turn drives up the market. In addition, there are minor leaguers being forced into the bigtime (see Columbus, Atlanta, Nashville, etc), which in turn forces coaches to resort to clutch and grab, system hockey in order to compete. Not a good set of circumstances for entertainment. And the end result of this is that too many major markets are out of the mix each year, and that's what drives a regional sport.

Bettman doesn't ackowledge these problems, and continues to stump for more mediocrity in a desparate sport. This is why he must go.
 
I just read in the Globe & Mail that Bettman was voted one of the worst business managers in the U.S. :

Two minutes for delay of game


By PAUL WALDIE
From Thursday's Globe and Mail E-mail this Article
Print this Article



As if the National Hockey League didn't have enough to worry about, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has been rated one of the worst managers in the United States by a major business magazine.

In its recent issue, BusinessWeek put Mr. Bettman fifth on its list of the seven worst managers of 2004. He joined the leaders of some of the business world's most troubled companies in the magazine's annual rankings. Also included were Raymond Gilmartin, chief executive officer of Merck & Co., the makers of Vioxx; Scott Livengood, the CEO of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, which faces a regulatory probe into its accounting practices; and Disney chief Michael Eisner, who was forced to step down as company chairman amid a shareholder revolt. Frank Dunn, former chief executive of Nortel Networks Corp., ranked third on a separate list of "fallen managers."

The magazine said Mr. Bettman was selected because: "Arenas have been empty since Sept. 15, when National Hockey League owners locked out the players."

"NHL finances are in shambles, and the weak TV deal signed with NBC last spring suggests the league has little leverage and is now a second-tier sport. ..... Under Bettman, the NHL has been skating on thin ice for years."

The ranking brought a sharp rebuttal from Calgary Flames co-owner Harley Hotchkiss, who is also chairman of the NHL's board of governors.

"Gary has given us, we believe, great leadership through some very challenging times and he really has 100 per cent support of our ownership group. So I'm surprised and disappointed that he is on that list," Mr. Hotchkiss said yesterday.

The owners and players are locked in a dispute over revenue sharing and salary limits. There has been no progress and the owners could cancel the season when they meet next week in New York. The league has said its 30 teams lost a combined $273-million (U.S.) on operations in the 2002-03 season.

Mr. Hotchkiss wouldn't comment on next week's meeting. "I know I don't like it at all," he said referring to the labour dispute. "The alternative for us is far worse. If we don't find a system that works for everyone then there is no future for our franchise in Calgary."

BusinessWeek said the rankings were based on submissions from its 130 writers and editors from around the world.

The BusinessWeek list wasn't the only dubious honour for Mr. Bettman this week. The Sporting News released its annual list of the 100 most powerful people in sports and Mr. Bettman ranked below Janet Jackson's right breast.

The U.S. magazine rated Ms. Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show 38th because it changed how other sporting events were broadcast. Mr. Bettman ranked 40th, falling from 13th last year.

Adding to the insult, Mr. Bettman ranked below Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players' Association, on the magazine's power list. Mr. Goodenow came in at 39th.

In a sign of hockey's decreasing importance in the United States, both Mr. Bettman and Mr. Goodenow ranked behind the marketing directors at Gatorade (32) and Nextel Communications (26) as well as skateboarder Tony Hawk (37). Paul Tagliabue, commissioner of the National Football League, was rated the most powerful.
 
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