I think the answer’s pretty simple—he likes it.

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 09/30/10 at 12:41 PM ET

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 09/30/10 at 12:41 PM ET

I agree, it raises his overall height amongst other things.

Posted by NathanBC on 09/30/10 at 12:48 PM ET

What did Lil’ Gary expect was going to happen?

This guy has overseen two work stoppages, one of which resulted in the cancellation of an entire season (a first in the history of professional sports leagues).

He lost the contract with ESPN, the largest cable sports outlet, and replaced it with VS. His contract with VS brings very little cash to the league. VS is unavailable on many residential cable systems (I think Lifetime Movie Network is available in more homes than VS.). His contract with NBC calls for the NHL to pay NBC to broadcast the games.

He has overseen the takeover by the league of a failing franchise, and instead of selling that franchise to the highest bidder (who was willing to pay 2x market value IIRC) he continues to throw good money after bad. That decision regarding Balsilie and the Coyotes has cost his employers (the owners) over 100 million dollars.

And yet he still has a job. I seriously miss the the corrupt days of John Ziegler. At least Ziegler loved the game.

Posted by CaptainDennisPolonich from Warm and sunny SoCal on 09/30/10 at 12:55 PM ET

” Why bring on the hatred by taking centre stage at centre ice?”

Try answering your own question to that face, Ken.

Posted by SYF from the bottom of my, what, 11teenth pint of Guinness? on 09/30/10 at 01:46 PM ET

I think this article makes an odd assumption: namely, that there are places where Bettman isn’t boo’d, and that therefore going to such places is an option.

I disagree.  I think Gary’s pretty much booed everywhere. 

At the dinner table, ‘Hon, would you like to order out?’  ‘BOOOOOOOOO!’
At church, ‘Bless me Father for I have sinned.’  ‘BOOOOOOOOOO!’
At Home Depot, ‘Hey, where are the 2x4’s?’  ‘BOOOOOOOO!’
At McDonalds, ‘I’d like a Quarter Pounder with Ch…’  ‘BOOOOOOOO!’
Golfing with ‘friends’, ‘Hey, did I get a 5 on that hole?’  ‘BOOOOOOO!’
At his doctor’s office, ‘Doc, what does my heartbeat sound like?’  ‘BOOOOOOOOO!’.

You cannot be the gigantic, towering a-hole that Gary Bettman is as commissioner of the NHL and not be a gigantic, towering a-hole in the other parts of your life.

To similar result.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 09/30/10 at 02:17 PM ET

At his doctor’s office, ‘Doc, don’t you generally give a sedative before starting a colonoscopy?’ ‘BOOOOOOOOO!’.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 09/30/10 at 02:17 PM

Fixt, because Lil’ Gary doesn’t have a heart

Posted by CaptainDennisPolonich from Warm and sunny SoCal on 09/30/10 at 02:34 PM ET

He lost the contract with ESPN, the largest cable sports outlet, and replaced it with VS. His contract with VS brings very little cash to the league. VS is unavailable on many residential cable systems (I think Lifetime Movie Network is available in more homes than VS.). His contract with NBC calls for the NHL to pay NBC to broadcast the games.

I’m loathe to defend Gary Bettman, but this is pretty selective. First, the NHL doesn’t *exactly* pay NBC: they have a profit-sharing agreement. So, whatever money is made from the broadcasts is split between the league and the network.

And second, it’s unfair to accuse him of negotiating a bad deal with NBC and also accuse him of “losing” the contract with ESPN, because ESPN was offering an even worse deal than NBC. When the negotiations were happening, ESPN was offering a profit-sharing agreement as well with all games airing only on ESPN2 except for the SCF, which would have aired on ESPN.

So, either you think the deal with NBC is bad or you think he should have made a deal with ESPN, you can’t logically think both things.

Posted by dzuunmod on 09/30/10 at 03:08 PM ET

And second, it’s unfair to accuse him of negotiating a bad deal with NBC and also accuse him of “losing” the contract with ESPN, because ESPN was offering an even worse deal than NBC. When the negotiations were happening, ESPN was offering a profit-sharing agreement as well with all games airing only on ESPN2 except for the SCF, which would have aired on ESPN.
So, either you think the deal with NBC is bad or you think he should have made a deal with ESPN, you can’t logically think both things.
Posted by dzuunmod on 09/30/10 at 03:08 PM ET

Seems logical to me. Accepting ESPN’s terms would have meant a continuation of: (1) multiple nationally televised games per week through the entire season (not just Jan.-Mar. as on NBC), (2) prominent and thorough highlight packages on sportscenter, and (3) the nightly highlight show NHL2Nite. Even if the money brought to NHL coffers under ESPN’s terms was minimal, the exposure to the general public would have kept hockey as a mainstream sport until it could negotiate a better deal. Soccer has replaced hockey on ESPN and now it gets better ratings than hockey on VS because ESPN throws its considerable might behind soccer.

Bettman forced himself into the crappy VS and NBC deal by not accepting ESPN’s crappy deal. You’re right, all the deals were crappy, so which would you rather have: a crappy deal on a little-known-hard-to-find VS (with part season Sunday afternoon games on NBC) or would you rather have a crappy deal with the 800lb gorilla of sports broadcasting and have your games in virtually every home in America throughout the entire season at night when those games are meant to be played?

Posted by CaptainDennisPolonich from Warm and sunny SoCal on 09/30/10 at 03:24 PM ET

Gary is redolent.

He will always have 1 safe place to go where he will never get booed….his multi-gazillion dollar jackatoreum in PEN_Sburgh where he sits on his big stained waterbed with little Rosby and the DC as they sip margaritas and talk about the good old days.

The NHLPA needs to form it’s own tea party and get rid of the crook at the top of that jenga tower.

Posted by The Hurricane on 09/30/10 at 03:31 PM ET

You’re mixing up the NBC and ESPN/VS deals - they are different beasts. (The NFL is a different animal altogether, so we’ll leave it aside for the purposes of this discussion.)

Leagues generally have two kinds of national broadcast deals: a cable one (or in the case of the NBA and MLB, two cable ones) and a network one, and they serve different purposes. Even if Bettman had signed a deal to get one game a week on ESPN2 (that was the offer, if I’m remembering right but if anyone has a link that proves me wrong, I’m happy to hear it), he still would have signed some sort of network deal, probably with NBC.

And you’re making an awfully big assumption there that NHL2Night would have been brought back. What makes you so sure that even if ESPN had retained NHL rights, that was part of its plans? I think the show was doomed either way.

The highlights thing, I can agree with you on - the fact that ESPN largely ignores the NHL now makes it harder to draw in casual fans. But hardcore hockey fans are now well-served by the deal with Versus: there is no way ESPN would televise the number of games that Versus will this season on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic or ESPN83. And in the playoffs (which occur at the same time of the year baseball is starting and the NBA is hitting its home stretch and playoffs), there is no way you’d see NHL doubleheaders on the air as Versus does through much of the first and second rounds.

So, whether you think the deal with Versus was a good one or not depends largely on whether you think it’s more important to try and grow the game, or cater to the fans you already have.

Posted by dzuunmod on 09/30/10 at 03:34 PM ET

hardcore hockey fans are now well-served by the deal with Versus: there is no way ESPN would televise the number of games that Versus will this season on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic or ESPN83. And in the playoffs (which occur at the same time of the year baseball is starting and the NBA is hitting its home stretch and playoffs), there is no way you’d see NHL doubleheaders on the air as Versus does through much of the first and second rounds.

Hardcore hockey fans get center ice or gamecenter and are largely unaffected when the national network decides not to air a game in favor of something else.  If hardcore hockey fans can’t afford either of those options, hardcore hockey fans find free streams online to watch. 

I think, in retrospect, an ESPN deal would have served both casual and hardcore fans better than the Versus deal has.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve severely curtailed how much ESPN I’ve watched because I’m angry with the way the network has handled hockey since the lockout and I’m very thankful that OLN completely changed their makeup as a network to cater to just about every demand the NHL has made, but from a business-first standpoint when looking back at could-haves and should-haves, Bettman would have been better served to take the bullshit ESPN deal and would now be talking to ESPN about how they’re going to be paying for a game that has reasserted it’s popularity since they lost a full season.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 09/30/10 at 03:42 PM ET

@J.J.: Fair enough, but it’s worth pointing out that the league has regained a bunch of its popularity in the past few years while it has been on Versus.

I’m not going to say that it’s *because* of the fact it has been on Versus, but it can’t be ignored that this mini renaissance has taken place on Versus’ airwaves and that there were nights during last season’s playoffs that Versus beat ESPN on the evening.

The fact is that nobody knows what would have happened if the NHL had taken ESPN’s deal, and I think the issue of whether jumping ship to Versus was a positive or a negative is something on which reasonable people can disagree.

Posted by dzuunmod on 09/30/10 at 03:47 PM ET

I think the issue of whether jumping ship to Versus was a positive or a negative is something on which reasonable people can disagree.

I can agree to that.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 09/30/10 at 03:57 PM ET

Say what you will the game is in much better shape now than when he took over.  If Comcast gobble up NBC and Versus he’ll be first in line to cash in. He makes good business decisions and that’s why the owners love him.  He doesn’t care what the fans think.  He knows it’s his league.

Posted by 13 user names on 09/30/10 at 06:49 PM ET

From a pure Latin American standpoint, Gary not tying knots with ESPN killed us. Versus is not an easy channel to get up there, just imagine down here.

Now, ESPN has some kind of rights to the NHL which were part of the package when they bought NASN (or something like that), who had rights to Eastern Europe (where there is ESPN America) and Latin America.

In short, ESPN International has exclusive rights to the NHL but local ESPN channels would have to buy them to broadcast it. Since only 400 people downhere like hockey, ESPN Brasil prefers to show poker or the same UEFA match four times a day.

Now, if ESPN (the original) had the NHL, it would influence the local channels (specially because now there’s three of them in here—one of them being HD only). So there, that’s why I’m mad at Gary.

Posted by Guilherme from Brazsil on 09/30/10 at 07:03 PM ET

(by the way, no official statement about it, just some leaks from inside ESPN Brasil and words on forums… no idea it that story is true, but no reason to think it isn’t)

(if anyone knows how international NHL deals work, please tell me)

Posted by Guilherme from Brazsil on 09/30/10 at 07:05 PM ET

Obviously, he needs to be in the house when the league’s champions are crowned.

What the hell for? I say no he doesn’t. He’s the commissioner, an employee of the owners, and doesn’t need to be with the champions. It’s a freaking photo op with the Cup, like a tourist.

I say he shouldn’t be anywhere near the ice. The Cup already has a posse; it would be easy enough, I think, to find someone with a wonderful speaking voice to add to the Cup and present it him or herself, as a representative of the Hockey Hall of Fame directly to the captain of the winning team. No odious lawyer hands in the way, just direct from the Hall to the winning Captain. Bettman doesn’t even need to be in the building, and certainly not on the ice.

Instantly no booing and a more dignified presentation.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 09/30/10 at 07:54 PM ET