* originally published in Feb. 2018

Gary Bettman gets booed when he speaks. A lot. He is the public face behind
the decision not to allow NHL players to participate in the 2018 Olympics. When
 an owner wants public funds used to finance a new arena, Bettman makes the
case in the media. He has led the NHL to three lockouts and supported the
league to expand into non-traditional hockey markets with mixed results. He has
 also been behind new television deals, expanded access to the game, and
masterminded new events. As the NHL Commissioner, he represents the owners of
NHL teams. Yet, from the moment he took office in 1993 to the present day, NHL
fans have been keen to show their distaste.

Is the NHL thriving under Gary Bettman? While many fans might say no, his
contributions are significant.The Case Against Gary Bettman

Gary Bettman was hired as the NHL';s first Commissioner with a mandate to end
labor unrest. Instead, his two-decade tenure has turned out to be the most
unsettled of any major professional sports league.Lost Seasons: 1993-94 and
2004-05

In 1993-94, during his second season at the helm, the NHL lost 103-days of play
 during a lockout. In 1995 the league agreed at Christmas to play an
abbreviated 48-game schedule. The lockout had furthered economic upheaval.
 The LA. Kings declared bankruptcy and owner Bruce McNall went to jail. The
Quebec Nordiques were on their way to Denver, and the Winnipeg Jets were on
the tenuous ground.

While player salaries had increased following the ';94 lockout, Bettman did
nothing to challenge the notion that NHL players were "privileged
millionaires." In 2004, the owners refused to negotiate and the season was
canceled. The NLHPA disintegrated into rival factions and the owners were able
to institute a salary cap. Before 2004, players could sign with the team
willing to pay market value for their services. A hard salary cap was
instituted and the players took a pay cut. The owners made more, and kept more.
 Fans lost a season.Is another lockout looming in the not so distant
future?/Photo courtesy of D';Arcy Norman - FlickrThe 2012 NHL Lockout

In 2012 the lockout issues were slightly different. The owners sought to reduce
 the players'; guaranteed 57% share of hockey-related revenues, introduce term
limits on contracts, eliminate salary arbitration, and change free agency
rules. By 2012, public perception was not on the owners'; side. Owners lost
between $8 million and $10 million a day in revenue but would go on to
negotiate a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue under the new Collective
Bargaining Agreement. This translated to well over $2 billion over a 10-year
CBA.

Players lost around 40% of their wages for the lockout season and additional
revenue going forward. No matter how you spin this, players have a smaller
share of total dollars and fewer contract rights than they had before the
lockout. One winner was expansion teams. New rules that placed a seven-year cap
 on individual contracts, and the 35% year-to-year variance limit on contracts.
 The reduction of the salary cap helped other smaller market teams as well. In
 Canada, however, businesses in areas with NHL teams were hurt because of the
lockout.Insistent Hockey Expansion into Non-traditional Markets

When Bettman took over in 1993, the NHL had expanded to 24 teams. The Florida
Panthers and the Mighty Ducks were both poised to join the league.

Under Bettman';s watch, the league added the Nashville Predators, Atlanta
Thrashers, Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets, while moving the
Minnesota North Stars to Dallas, the Quebec Nordiques to Denver, the Winnipeg
Jets to Phoenix and the Hartford Whalers to North Carolina.

However, few expansion teams have found success. The Atlanta Thrashers survived
 in Atlanta for nearly 12 years. Attendance started at 17,206 in their first
expansion year and dwindled to a low of 13,469 in their final season. The team
would eventually relocate to Winnipeg.We all know how hockey worked out in
Atlanta (BridgetDS/Flickr)Arizona and Arenas

A continuing concern is in Arizona. On top of bearing the weight of being the
dearly departed original Winnipeg Jets, the Coyotes franchise has been plagued
with problems from the outset. Their original home at the AmericaWest arena was
 not well-suited to hockey; their current home in Glendale is an hour from
Phoenix and has its own issues. Despite the Auston Matthews phenomenon, hockey
is not indigenous to the desert. The Coyotes have struggled to build a fanbase.

The Phoenix Coyotes made the Western Conference Final in 2012, and the Tampa
Bay Lightning did the same in the East in 2011 (as well as having won the
Stanley Cup right before the 2004 lockout). The Carolina Hurricanes were named
the first cup champs after the lockout, and the Anaheim Ducks followed in 2007.

To the chagrin of Canadian fans, during the Bettman years, the sunbelt teams
have been a lot more successful in the playoffs than their Canadian brethren.
This has fueled a belief that the diminutive American has little respect for
Canada and Canadian fans.Disrespect to Canadian Franchises

In 2012, the seven Canadian hockey franchises were among the strongest in the
league, almost regardless of their on-ice performance. Attendance figures were
high, and tickets are priced accordingly.

Many Canadians have not forgiven Gary Bettman for relocating the Winnipeg Jets
to Phoenix or the Quebec Nordiques to Colorado early in his tenure or for
blocking the potential relocation of the Nashville Predators to Hamilton.
While the return of the Jets has been lauded, rumblings continue that Quebec
City is being kept from reclaiming a franchise. Fans negative view of Bettman
remain unchanged.(Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports)

One result from the age of parity is that Canadian teams, with all their fan
support and all their ticket-sales revenue, have generally struggled to be
successful on the ice. Meanwhile, Bettman';s expansion teams have done pretty
well. The Carolina Hurricanes were named the first cup champs after the 2005
lockout. The Anaheim Ducks followed in 2007. Smaller market teams now had a
chance to compete for big name free agents. Even the Phoenix Coyotes found
themselves in a Conference Final by 2012. Last year the Nashville Predators
made the Stanley Cup finals. This year, due to the nature of the expansion
draft, the Vegas Golden Knights are off to a phenomenal start.In Defense of
Gary Bettman

The success or failure of hockey teams in non-traditional markets shouldn';t be
 used to criticize Bettman. However, most fans would agree his focus has been
to grow the business of hockey and not to protect the special connection
Canadiens have with the game. This, of course, is not his remit. Bettman';s
legacy must be based on his record to expand the game.NHL Exposure

The NHL has done a phenomenal job at marketing itself ever since the 2004-2005
lockout. A lot of that can be credited to the commissioner himself. Prior to
the 2004-2005 lockout, the NHL had a TV contract with ESPN and ABC in the
United States. That was nothing short of a disaster, and aside from maybe one
or two games a week, ESPN brushed off hockey. In fact, the epic game 6 between
the Flyers and Lightning was pushed to ESPN 2 for something along the lines of
the World Series of Poker.

Post-lockout and in full recovery mode, the NHL signed a deal with OLN (Outdoor
 Life Network) as the exclusive broadcasting partner in the US. That
transition started out very slow. OLN televised the first two games in the 2006
 and 2007 Stanley Cup Finals. Out of those four games, the highest rating was a
 0.6, and the average ratings for the entire series were 1.8 in 2006 and 1.2 in
 2007. As a comparison, in 2004, the Cup Finals averaged a 2.7 on ABC and ESPN.
 Still, this was all part of a downward trend that had begun back in 2000. ESPN
 and ABC hadn';t made a change when the NHL';s ratings were declining. In 2000
the Finals posted a 3.7 rating, by 2004 it had dipped to 2.6.Connecting to
Comcast

OLN would rebrand itself to Versus for the start of the 2007-2008 season, more
importantly, they were owned by cable giant, Comcast. Comcast, who owns the
Philadelphia Flyers and is based out of Philadelphia, was about to go through a
 period of rapid growth.

As of 2013, Comcast was far and away the leading cable provider in the US. Even
 more importantly, in 2011 Comcast acquired NBC Universal. This included
networks such as USA, CNBC, and MSNBC. Ironically, not even a year later,
Comcast owned network, Versus, rebranded itself to NBC Sports Network.

Bettman helped ensure every playoff game in 2012 was nationally televised. That
 paid off right away. The epic war fought between the Flyers and Penguins in
the first round brought in outstanding ratings on a national scale. In fact,
the playoffs as a whole did very well that year, with the exception of the
Final, probably due to how lopsided it was early on. But having the Kings back
in the Final did renew a lot of interest in hockey in Southern
California.Pierre McGuire, NBC Sports (Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports)

The contract with NBCSN and NBC is the best thing to happen to the NHL in a
long time, and it is a direct result of Gary Bettman thinking outside of the
box. NBC';s coverage of the NHL is unmatched.Accessibility and Marketability

There are a plethora of other avenues to spread the word and get people
watching hockey, and that';s another area where the commissioner has excelled
in promoting the game. Early on, every nationally televised game is accessible
through NBC Sports Live Extra. That meant anyone could watch the games
anywhere. Today, Game Center and the NHL App allow many games to be streamed.
While blackouts remain, the sheer volume of hockey available is amazing.

Secondly, the NHL took advantage of YouTube in a variety of ways, early on.
Since the 'new NHL'; came about in 2005-2006, the NHL has posted clips and
highlights of every single game that has been played. They aren';t just on
their website, they';re on YouTube as well. If you';re sitting here reading
this in 2015, you can go look up a game from 2006, and it';ll be
there.Highlights

The other thing the NHL did was to make their videos accessible to anyone.
Unlike the MLB, If I want to go out and create a highlight video of Patrick
Kane using the NHL';s clips, guess what? I can do it. There are thousands and
thousands of highlight packages out there of all types of players. There';s
even a dedicated website that archives every single NHL fight, and the best
part is, the NHL';s policy allows for it.

In 2010 NHL adopted the 'History Will Be Made'; campaign in 2010, and it was
immediately a home run. These commercials quickly went viral and truly brought
out the raw emotion of the playoffs. Thousands of user-created videos flooded
YouTube.

The NHL';s marketing team has done a brilliant job with getting the game the
exposure it needs, and that is just another thing that can fall on Gary
Bettman';s watch.The Business Side

The case against Bettman is in part a reaction to the lockouts on his watch.
While a legacy of lockouts is hardly good news the NHL is reaping the benefits
today. Before the 2004 lockout, there was absolutely no balance in the NHL. If
you';re a 'rich'; team in the NHL, you could throw everything but the kitchen
sink at the most prized free agent.Coyotes fans showed up for the playoffs

Take, for example, the Flyers. In 2004 the Flyers were one of the best teams in
 the Eastern Conference and had their fair share of really decent players.
Primeau, LeClair, Recchi, and Roenick were all Flyers at the time. The Flyers
had $22 million tied up in just three of those players. Why? Because they
could. As I mentioned above, the Flyers are owned by Comcast, so their pockets
are essentially limitless.

That all changed after the 2004-2005 lockout. A hard salary cap of $39 million
was instituted for the next season. This meant teams like the Flyers couldn';t
drop $22 million on three players. The cap did what it was supposed to do. The
Penguins became relevant again, the Blackhawks found new life, and those
smaller market teams now had a chance to compete or big name free agents. Even
the Phoenix Coyotes found themselves in a Conference Final by 2012.Revenues and
 Imagination

Bettman';s era has brought some important positive changes to the league.
Revenues have quintupled in size and player payrolls followed suit. The NHL
played a series of regular-season games in Europe and Japan, broadening its
global appeal. It created the successful Winter Classic, the annual outdoor
game played on Jan. 1 that has caught the imagination of the U.S. TV viewing
public.It has hit historic ballparks such as Wrigley Field and Fenway Park and
 has packed 110,000 fans in the freezing cold snow to proudly sport their
teams' colors. Television revenues have grown significantly as have league
sponsorship deals. He helped stabilize wobbly franchises in Edmonton, Calgary,
and Ottawa through the Canadian currency-assistance program. He enabled
Minnesota and Winnipeg to get their franchises back.New Challenges

Gary Bettman is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. In some ways, he is brilliant.
In other ways, totally tone deaf. The John Scott fiasco is a prime example of
why some fans will never warm to Bettman.

The NHL faces new and serious challenges. Is Bettman up to navigating these
difficult waters?

Can the league continue to make the business case for expanding into
non-traditional markets?

Gary Bettman reportedly met with the owner of the Rockets to discuss the
viability of an NHL team in Houston. https://t.co/xQgh0iZU0Z

- SB Nation NHL (@SBNationNHL) November 16, 2017

How will the league respond to the first discovery of the first case of a
living person identified with the degenerative brain disease, chronic
traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE? The research seemingly cements the
relationship between contact sports and brain damage. It will have profound
implications for the NHL.

Will the league adopt the suggestions of Ken Dryden in his new book Game
Change? The book represents a challenge to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
While he tells Bettman and readers both why and how the game must change if it
is to survive, some fans are concerned a moratorium on head shots will lead to
a less physical game.

Fans will boo Gary Bettman again. Sometimes it appears he enjoys it. This
summer he used a child to troll fans. He will remain contentious. In assessing
 Bettman';s legacy, people struggle to separate the personal from the
professional. Some will always consider him to be an outsider, never having
been steeped in hockey culture. However, Bettman has been commissioner for
nearly 25 years. It is hard to imagine the NHL without him.

The post The NHL and Gary Bettman: 25 Years of Progress and Controversy
appeared first on The Hockey Writers.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheHockeyWrite...
--- SBBSecho 3.06-Win32
 * Origin: TequilaMockingbird Online - Toms River, NJ (1:266/404)