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Blame Wayne
by Paul on 08/08/08 at 06:13 AM ET
Comments (7)
from Mick Kern of Home Ice XM204,
A few bullet points:
- Biggest Star in League History is traded to Los Angeles
- L.A. media, thus much of the U.S. national media, suddenly awake to the fact they`ve had an NHL team for the past 21 years
- NHL benefits from the marketing of Gretzky
- speculators want to get in on the action, some with money (Disney), some without (McNall, Boots, etc…)
- NHL takes the easy expansion money, and suddenly grows from 21 teams to 30 teams in less than a decade
- former NBA executive Gary Bettman is hired as NHL Commissioner to oversee the new NHL, chiefly to land that ever-elusive big U.S. TV contract
- that contract never comes-to-pass, and the NHL is no longer the fourth sport in the U.S., as a split in the open-wheel racing community in the U.S. and Canada allows NASCAR to move up in popularity at an astonishing rate, becoming a marketing and television behemoth
Filed in: NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Wayne+Gretzky,
Comments
I don’t blame Gretzky, but I do blame the Gretzky trade (and really, Pocklington) for setting all these events in motion.
Posted by Doogie2K from Calgary on 08/08/08 at 08:32 AM ET
The blame falls farther down Mr. Kern’s list. Seven items below Gretzky getting traded to LA is…
- former NBA executive Gary Bettman is hired as NHL Commissioner to oversee the new NHL, chiefly to land that ever-elusive big U.S. TV contract
It’s not Wayne’s fault this mental midget has so botched the management and growth of the game that it now trails NASCAR in popularity.
Conclusion…thanks for nothing, Wayne.
Let me fix that: “Conclusion…thanks for nothing, Gary. Ass.”
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/08/08 at 08:34 AM ET
That’s a pretty big leap, right there. Connecting the dots between Bettman and Gretz is a stretch, let alone leading to the failure of the NHL.
Posted by Tapeleg on 08/08/08 at 08:54 AM ET
Yeah it’s Gretz’s fault that the NHL owners are the dumbest collection of billionaires around who tried to capitalize on him finally getting big-time notice in the United States by over-expanding to collect expansion fees, watering down the talent pool, locking the players out during the apex of the NHL’s popularity meanwhile having two of the worst sports commissioners of all time reign under their watch (Ziegler and Bettman).
Yup, Wayne made all that happen.
Wayne also sunk the Titanic and Lusitania, killed the dinosaurs, shot JFK and Archduke Ferdinand, and is the sole reason for global warming and rising oil prices.
Posted by HockeyJoe from NY on 08/08/08 at 10:30 AM ET
It’s never tiresome to read the same b*tching and moaning from hockey fans every day. It never ends.
Posted by PredNeck from Hicktown on 08/08/08 at 12:11 PM ET
It’s never tiresome to read the same b*tching and moaning from hockey fans every day. It never ends.
As long as the situation remains unchanged, fans will complain. If they didn’t, they’d be drones who simply sit back and accept whatever is thrust upon them. That’s both common sense and human nature.
If you’ve given up Preddie, don’t read this stuff. Just sit there and take it…you know, like your team takes it from the Wings every year. Sorry, couldn’t resist…it’s just human nature. 
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/08/08 at 12:42 PM ET
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Blame Wayne?
Oh, I don’t think so.
Blame the NHL hierarchy for failing to properly capitalize on the tremendous advantage Gretzky gave them.
Posted by Lyle Richardson from Charlottetown, PEI on 08/08/08 at 07:26 AM ET