Time after Gary Bettman? | Page 5 | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League

Time after Gary Bettman?

OK, can we try this again, without the inane conspiracy theories?

officiating in the NHL is no worse than reffing, umpiring, etc in the other major professional leagues. You listen to the fans of any of the other big 4 sports (I'm including MLS in the #5 slot) and it's the same. Waah waah, the refs ruled against my team in particular, it's a plot to make me personally unhappy, waah waah.

Not poking fun at you, or at least not at you in particular, but if you sat representatives of the fanbase of each of the 32 teams down and asked them who the refs are most biased against, I guarantee every single fanbase would be convinced that their team was the victim of the most horsecrap.

It's universal. and it's not just the NHL, everyone's convinced the refs are out to screw over their team in particular, it's part of why fan is short for "fanatic."
The other sports at least try to address the issue. Hernandez got fired, the NFL admits when mistakes happen. The NHL had written proof of Colin Campbell's misconduct and he's still in the same position. Sutherland has never been held accountable for openly disgracing the sport. The NHL simply doesn't seem to care about the integrity of the sport and it's at a point where the refs are endangering player safety through criminal negligence.
 
A new Canadian commission could mandate that the Canadian teams have rosters composed 60% Canadian players, 30% European, and 10% everywhere else, while forcing the American teams to have at least 75% American players on their rosters, as a means of restoring Canadian team dominance as Canadian hockey players are by far better than Americans.

You do know a commissioner can't do that, right? I'm pretty sure every owner would have a problem with that and would fire them immediately if they tried. Plus, I'm also sure the union would also have a problem with that.

I know, this is just the latest weird response in a long list of weird responses to a team based in the US winning the Cup, but this too will never happen.
 
You do know a commissioner can't do that, right? I'm pretty sure every owner would have a problem with that and would fire them immediately if they tried. Plus, I'm also sure the union would also have a problem with that.

I know, this is just the latest weird response in a long list of weird responses to a team based in the US winning the Cup, but this too will never happen.
Somehow, three decades of damage from Bettman's anti-Canadian bias needs to be undone though.
 
There is another solution to bring the Canadian teams back to the top of the NHL:


Canadian TV networks may not have demanded it as a condition of keeping the league on Canadian national TV, but the country can certainly require it by law.
 
There is another solution to bring the Canadian teams back to the top of the NHL:


Canadian TV networks may not have demanded it as a condition of keeping the league on Canadian national TV, but the country can certainly require it by law.

I'll give you one thing. You're at least consistent. It's a terrible idea for all the reasons we've already discussed (and no reason to re-hash), but at least it's consistent. :laugh:
 
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i should definitely believe the guy who believes The CW is a viable broadcast partner for any league, nonetheless the NHL, is believing that everybody else (who is significantly smarter and hold actual power) is ruining it

like, at the very least, I have no qualms about the fact that I'm just some Joe Blow voicing my opinions on a topic that I take a passive interest in. so many in this thread, and really all throughout modern history since about, oh, 2004, basically grind an axe against Bettman for batshit insane reasons that range from fervent Canadian nationalism because they don't want to admit the NHL is operating under sound (and frankly, incredibly obvious) business rationales, to personal bugbears that basically hold no bearing on how a league should be run in 2025.
 
If you believe Bettman is biased against Canada, you also have to believe every owner, including Canadian owners of American teams, is also biased against Canada.
Double post, but this is the funniest thing about this entire belief system. If there was truly a bias and conspiracy against Canadian teams and ownership, then we would basically still be in the late 70's set-up of the league where TOR, MTL, and VAN specifically would be fighting tooth and nail for the broadcast money that comes from being the only games in town that HNIC broadcasts and telling EDM, WPG and CGY to pound sand. But we're not, because of one simple reality - the larger the team pool is, the more revenue grows, especially through national broadcasting rights packages.

The fact of the matter is that basically anywhere that is *seriously* bandied about for potential Canadian expansion has had their failures written clearly into the stars. Toronto 2 / Hamilton is a pipe dream simply due to the fact that Rogers now owns the entirety of the sports scene in Canada, and if it's going to happen, then the first owner (more then likely Bell, who has essentially exited the sports scene) is going to not only have to pay invasion fees to the Leafs and more then likely the Sabres, but also will be a loss leader for decades until the next guy buys in. Quebec City was simply a political stunt by Peladeau and the PKP to angle for a new arena - and now that they got it, and realized how much money it's going to take to actually own a team when Vegas's expansion bid was announced, they've turned into the Canadian Kansas City: a nice, modern arena with no anchor tenant because they built at the wrong time and there's no real driving force to actually move teams there in a market that otherwise is tapped out for sports.

But people ignore all of that to push a supposed anti-Canadian agenda...when it's patently obvious there isn't, and it's simple economics at play.
 
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Somehow, three decades of damage from Bettman's anti-Canadian bias needs to be undone though.
There is no anti-Canadian bias. If Bettman did what he did because he had an agenda against Canada, the Whalers would still be in Hartford. The Whalers aren't Canadian. So why did they move?

What there is, is a pro-growth bias. And the Canadian markets that are growing the fastest (or in many cases growing at all) already have teams. And a couple that are shrinking (Ottawa, Winnipeg) have teams too.

If you compare both population and economic numbers, Canada is still vastly overrepresented in the NHL both in terms of teams and players. The US has about 300 million people, and Canada has about 35 million. And yet Canada has 1/4 of the teams and more than half the players are Canadian? They're doing fine.

Surprise surprise, the Commissioner of the NHL feels it's important to align the teams to maximize the potential growth of the sport. And surprise, surprise, the nation that outnumbers the other 10 to 1 and has an economy at least 5 times bigger gets the lion's share of the teams. That's not bias. That's just knowing what butters your bread.

You can have whatever opinion you like, but the fact is that the league is healthier when the entire continent is learning to embrace NHL hockey rather than just your little dusty corner of it. That's not my opinion. It's simple brass-tacks economic reality.
 
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