Gary Bettman
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Gary Bruce Bettman is a lawyer who has served as commissioner of the National Hockey League since February 1, 1993.
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[edit] NHL
Bettman was hired as the first NHL Commissioner (the position was formerly styled as president) to try to give the NHL some of the same success that the NBA was enjoying in the United States. His mandate was to make hockey appeal further to many American audiences unfamiliar with the game, and who are traditionally more interested in professional baseball, football and basketball.
[edit] Expansion and changes
Despite popular opinion, Bettman was not responsible for the majority of the league's southern movement. The decision to expand to Miami, Tampa, San Jose, and Anaheim were all made before he took over as Commissioner of the NHL. In fact, the only cities that the league expanded to under his watch were St. Paul, Atlanta, Nashville, and Columbus. During his tenure, teams also moved from Hartford, Winnipeg, Minnesota and Quebec City to Raleigh, Phoenix, Dallas, and Denver, respectively. Four Sun Belt teams have won the Stanley Cup, the Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes and the Anaheim Ducks.
Soon after Bettman took office, the NHL's traditional conferences and divisions were renamed to reflect geography (like the NBA) rather than the league's history (i.e., the Wales and Campbell Conferences, and the Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe Divisions). In addition, the league adopted a two-referee system; goal lines, blue lines, and defensive-zone circles were moved, and the playoff format was altered so that teams were now bracketed and seeded by conference (also like the NBA), as opposed to the previous bracketing and seeding by division.
In 1993-1994, the NHL entered its greatest period of growth and landed a 5-year contract with FOX/ESPN. The expansions were due in part to Wayne Gretzky's popularity, and Bettman capitalized on it by reaching out to a broadcast partner which would give the NHL national exposure. This differed significantly from Bettman's predecessor, John Ziegler, who saw little future in national television, instead having each team rely on regional coverage. Some even predicted that the NHL could overtake Major League Baseball in popularity (which suffered greatly from a strike during that time).
In 1998, with the league having reached an agreement with the IOC, NHL players were finally able to compete in the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. This marked the first time that all NHL players were able to compete in the Olympics. To serve as a tie-in to the Olympics, the All-Star Game altered the format to become a match-up of players from North America against players from everywhere else in the world (effectively Europe). This format was abandoned in 2003 when the All-Star Game returned to the traditional conference vs. conference format.
[edit] Criticism
Bettman's tenure as NHL commissioner has come under heavy criticism by fans and the media. As the NHL commissioner or assistant, he oversaw work stoppages in 1992, 1994, and 2004. Four franchises declared bankruptcy (Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, and Buffalo).
Bettman has also been accused of aggressively pushing the game into non-traditional markets at the expense of traditional ones in order to chase his dream of a major American television contract and to chase expansion money. This resulted in the league slowly losing its significance in the sports world. This accusation does not come without merit.
During his tenure, franchises have been established in Raleigh, Denver, and Phoenix through relocation from Hartford, Quebec City, and Winnipeg, respectively, and in Nashville, Atlanta, St. Paul (Minnesota), and Columbus through expansion. While Denver and St. Paul have been success stories, Raleigh, Phoenix, Nashville, Atlanta and Columbus haven't enjoyed such fan support. The biggest disaster seems to be Nashville, a team that couldn't draw 14,000 in paid attendance during the 2006-2007 season even though the Predators were one of the top teams in the league.
Furthermore, many believed that the late 1990s expansion diluted the talent pool, thus resulting in a lower quality of play and the introduction of the neutral-zone trap, designed to allow teams with lower-skilled players to keep up with teams with higher-skilled players. Many suggest that the result is declining TV ratings, including a catastrophic 1.1 rating during Game 3 of the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators, lowest in NBC broadcasting history.
Bettman has also been criticized for selling broadcasting rights to NBC for zero dollars, then allowing NBC to dictate the scheduling. A perfect example of this is Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres. NBC cut the broadcast of overtime (with the exception of the greater Buffalo area) in order to show the pre-race show for the Preakness Stakes. Instead, overtime was broadcasted on Versus, a little-known digital cable channel that is not available throughout most of the country.
Bettman has most recently been criticized for his handling of the sale of the Nashville Predators. Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie attempted to purchase the Preds for way above market value in 2007 and many speculated that he would move the team to Hamilton, Ontario. While many within the NHL thought of this as a potential economic shot in the arm for the NHL, ESPN.com has reported that Bettman directly interfered in the sale of the team to Balsillie, paving the way for talks to be opened up with Nashville-area groups to buy the team.
[edit] 2004-2005 lockout
The 1994-95 season was reduced to 48 games because of a labor dispute. Bettman had locked out the players over the issue of a hard salary cap, which the NHLPA refused to accept. Without the support of big market owners, Bettman had to drop the salary cap from his demands. The resulting collective bargaining agreement appeared to favor owners heavily, despite having no salary cap or luxury tax. Over time, agents under Bob Goodenow began exploiting loopholes in the CBA to favor players, and salaries continued to increase.
In 2004, negotiations commenced for a new collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players Association. The agreement expired on September 15, 2004 (one day after the World Cup of Hockey final in Toronto). Bettman's goal during negotiations was to win an agreement that provided what he termed cost certainty for all clubs. However, NHLPA head Bob Goodenow, along with most of the NHLPA membership, called Bettman's "cost certainty" a euphemism for a salary cap; the union had long been adamantly unwilling to accept any form of a salary cap. As negotiations went nowhere between the two sides, Bettman locked out the players. The union eventually agreed on a salary cap but the amount was still disputed and Bettman canceled the entire 2004-2005 season once the February 16, 2005 deadline passed.
Bettman was successfully able to extract a significantly revised labour agreement which capped player salaries at 54% of league revenues. This is essentially a hard salary cap, as the cap amount increases or decreases from year to year based on the previous year's league revenues. This form of cap was something that his NFL, MLB and NBA counterparts, Roger Goodell, Bud Selig and David Stern, respectively, had been unable or unwilling to do.
To maintain the league's resolve, the owners gave Bettman the authority to fine owners who spoke out on prohibited topics during the bargaining process. While many claim this was a "gag order" instituted at the behest of Bettman, it was in fact a policy initiated and voted in by the majority of owners to prevent certain teams, most likely big market teams such as Toronto and Detroit, from breaking ranks. (During the 1994-95 lockout, it was the big market teams that had broken ranks and Bettman had to give up his push for a hard salary cap.) This policy allowed Bettman to focus on gaining a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that would have both "cost certainty" and financial stability; capping player incomes but also establishing revenue sharing (both aspects opposed by the richest teams). Many believe this tactic was necessary to save small-market teams from eventual bankruptcy. Thus, at the cost of losing the 2004-2005 season, Bettman managed to forge an agreement that would impose financial regulation on the league.
