This blog has nothing to do with transgender
athletes or any gender issue at all.
This blog is about the ongoing lockout that the National Hockey League
is going through, and what has been a way to common occurrence under the commissioner
Gary Bettman. Bettman has overseen three
lockouts now since he took over as commissioner in 1993 after he left the NBA;
as he served under David Stern, who is a questionable commissioner himself. Bettman has supposedly taken the NHL to new
heights in regards to revenue, but that is a bunch of crap. He has single handedly saturated the league
with unnecessary expansion teams, not to mention the labor disputes that he has
helped use to bully small market teams time and time again. He has put NHL teams in markets like
Columbus, Nashville, Carolina, Florida (Miami and Tampa), Phoenix, and created
a team based off of a Disney movie (the Mighty Ducks) who have no place to
succeed financially. Bettman has put
teams in cities such as these to create a fallback during labor disputes to pad
his pockets because the owners of these teams cannot oppose what the majority
of owners say because their teams have very little pull due to being small
players in a large financial game.
Phoenix is owned by the NHL and cannot draw fans to their games even
though they are somewhat successful; a team does not belong in the southwestern
portion of America; let alone the Grand Canyon.
Put that team in Canada Bettman; where it belongs. Fire Bettman, and this is the end of my rant.
Go Rangers! And lets play some hockey.
Derek Zyski
Derek,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Gary Bettman hasn't made wise moves during his reign as commissioner. Although he was successful in spreading the NHL to southern states such as North Carolina, Florida, and Phoenix, it also has placed a bad image on the league. For instance, when any league has to step in to buy a team because the team's fans base is slacking, the team's location should be re-evaluated. Another instance of a city lacking in it's strength of its fan-base happened back in the 2005-2006 Eastern Conference Finals. The Buffalo Sabres would fall to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games but when the games were in Carolina, it was extremely evident on TV that the Hurricane's had planty of empty seats in their arena. For the average sports fan to turn on their television and notice that an NHL Conference Championship game isn't selling out, it puts a bad image on the league. One would only wonder, "Why would there be an NHL team in a city that doesn't appreciate their team being a game away from playing in the Stanley Cup Finals?" Bettman, therefore, needs to find cities that are better suited to cheer on and support an NHL team for the majority of the regular season and throughout the ENTIRE playoffs.
-Chris Cournan
Chris you would bring up Buffalo, haha. But you are right. Look at New Jersey in the most recent playoffs, they couldn't sell out a high school arena let alone a 18,000 seat arena.
ReplyDelete-Derek Z
I agree with what you're saying but at the same time, a large part of his job is to grow the game of hockey. That is similar to how Wayne Gretzky was acquired by Los Angeles in part to, "grow the game in America." You would think after several attempts and fails Bettman would have learned but I guess not. I also enjoy watching the Stanley Cup presentation at the end of the year because he is booed obnoxiously in every rink, no matter where it is located.
ReplyDeleteWes Gates
Derek,
ReplyDeleteThat was a great post whether it had to do with transgendered athletes or not! I found it interesting that you brought up the smaller market cities that currently employ an NHL franchise. For some of them like Columbus, Anaheim, and even San Jose, they are not competing with other major franchises in their market. So maybe you can see the benefit of that, but it also clearly isn't working. I agree that the struggling teams in parts of the US that don't exactly follow hockey would be better suited for Canada. Lets just change the divisions US vs Canada. USA! USA!
Aaron Mehling
Derek,
ReplyDeleteI agree Bettman is a terrible commissioner and these lockouts are doing nothing but hurting the NHL. Personally the NHL could surpass the NBA in my eyes if they made a few small moves like you mentioned. I strongly agree they need to get teams out of the south. Keep the Lighting but teams like the Panthers and Coyotes have to move. People do not care about hockey down there and trying to “expand” the NHL to those markets has not worked yet. Personally I think they need to cut down on the number of teams they have if they cannot find a strong enough market to place them. Just to have teams for the sake of having teams is not a smart business decision.
Josiah Blevins
Now that is a quality post. I agree that Bettman is a horrible commissioner. The only reason the NHL bought the Phoenix Coyotes is to prevent them from moving to Quebec. I'm all for expanding the game of hockey, but how about expanding into states that don't have a professional hockey team but would no doubt fill the seats. Wisconsin, Maine, and Alaska come to mind. Having a team in Columbus is not terrible. The problem is that no one wants to come watch them because they are terrible. Back in 2008, when they made the playoffs, just watching those games on t.v. was intense. The atmosphere at Nationwide Arena was incredible. However, if this entire season is lost to the lockout it only means bad news for the NHL. It will take a few years for the NHL to regain the popularity they will lose.
ReplyDelete-Derek Brewer
I have to agree with Josiah, and that if the NHL got there heads on straight and stop this lockout and make a few changes here and there they could surpass the NBA. Hockey is more popular in the north rather than the south. Yes, there are teams in the south but compared to the teams in the north their audience and fan based are lower compared to the teams in the north. I believe that is because you associate hockey with cold weather,snow, having to be bundled up to watch a game and well you do not have any of that in the south.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Derek when he says it will take years for the NHL to regain their popularity they are losing due to the lockout. Fan have had to move their attention and love of hockey somewhere else and once the NHL comes back will need to prove themselves to their fans so they come back and support the sport.
--Jenny Kelley