Besides giving into homophobia and other ethical issues, he’s not even good from a business perspective.
Look at the growth of other sports compared to hockey during his tenure. Multiple failed teams and moves. Phoenix is a joke. There are 3 teams in CA and 2 in FLA… Despite wanting to spread the NHL to new regions.
He’s made TV viewing a nightmare. You can’t just buy an NHL package. There are home game blackouts, games and multiple networks that aren’t packaged together for away games. And most recently this dipshit decided to make the boards a green screen with moving fucking ads DURING PLAY. As if hockey wasn’t challenging enough to track the play.
I don’t even watch it anymore, haven’t for about 10 years, ever since I ditched cable. I would love to watch again, but it’s way too expensive for a subscription, and like you said, blackout dates, fucking bullshit. I’m not paying nearly $300 a year, to not be able to watch any fucking game I want.
The issue is that Bettman has repeatedly not given teams to cities because he wants to spread the sport geographically. For example Milwaukee will never get a team because Bettman figures those people can either be fans of Minnesota or Chicago. Yet the LA and Anaheim arenas are just 35 minutes apart. I’m pretty sure if Anaheim didn’t have a team their fan base would just watch the Kings play.
It takes the same amount of time to drive from Milwaukee to Chicago as it does to get from Downtown LA to Anaheim at game time.
Milwaukee has 500,000 people and Orange County alone has over 3 million. I don’t think you’ll convince me that an expansion in Orange County doesn’t make sense.
It’s also easy to forget that until very recently, LA and California in general were the new markets true NHL was trying to establish a foothold in.
Milwaukee and Chicago are an hour and a half apart. Milwaukee county is about 1 million people. So it’s not small.
I’m not even saying their isn’t logic in tapping the big markets, but two that are on top of each other? And using that as the reason not to put teams elsewhere? That just doesn’t make sense. At least go to San Diego.
Maybe we have too many other choices of winter activities we can do outside in the sunshine. In Minnesota people play hockey because it’s warmer on the ice in the arena than on your driveway. And less exhausting than shoveling snow.
Bettman is a laundry list of massive failures.
Besides giving into homophobia and other ethical issues, he’s not even good from a business perspective.
Look at the growth of other sports compared to hockey during his tenure. Multiple failed teams and moves. Phoenix is a joke. There are 3 teams in CA and 2 in FLA… Despite wanting to spread the NHL to new regions.
He’s made TV viewing a nightmare. You can’t just buy an NHL package. There are home game blackouts, games and multiple networks that aren’t packaged together for away games. And most recently this dipshit decided to make the boards a green screen with moving fucking ads DURING PLAY. As if hockey wasn’t challenging enough to track the play.
Fuck Bettman.
Any commissioner that still has blackout restrictions in their league is a crappy commissioner.
I don’t even watch it anymore, haven’t for about 10 years, ever since I ditched cable. I would love to watch again, but it’s way too expensive for a subscription, and like you said, blackout dates, fucking bullshit. I’m not paying nearly $300 a year, to not be able to watch any fucking game I want.
Die in a fire Bettman.
There are plenty of pirate streams. You may have to switch streams if one dies mid-game, but that’s the tradeoff.
Yeah, I’d rather not watch than deal with that.
The NHL is stuck in the 90s with that Clown
I don’t get why the owners keep him around.
deleted by creator
I completely forgot about that embarrassing fiasco.
What a joke.
3 teams in California, the most populous state and also the third largest? What’s the issue, exactly?
They meant Canada. The three teams in Canada are Toronto, Toronto, and Toronto.
Fuck Toronto.
The issue is that Bettman has repeatedly not given teams to cities because he wants to spread the sport geographically. For example Milwaukee will never get a team because Bettman figures those people can either be fans of Minnesota or Chicago. Yet the LA and Anaheim arenas are just 35 minutes apart. I’m pretty sure if Anaheim didn’t have a team their fan base would just watch the Kings play.
It takes the same amount of time to drive from Milwaukee to Chicago as it does to get from Downtown LA to Anaheim at game time.
Milwaukee has 500,000 people and Orange County alone has over 3 million. I don’t think you’ll convince me that an expansion in Orange County doesn’t make sense.
It’s also easy to forget that until very recently, LA and California in general were the new markets true NHL was trying to establish a foothold in.
Milwaukee and Chicago are an hour and a half apart. Milwaukee county is about 1 million people. So it’s not small.
I’m not even saying their isn’t logic in tapping the big markets, but two that are on top of each other? And using that as the reason not to put teams elsewhere? That just doesn’t make sense. At least go to San Diego.
Maybe we have too many other choices of winter activities we can do outside in the sunshine. In Minnesota people play hockey because it’s warmer on the ice in the arena than on your driveway. And less exhausting than shoveling snow.