Gary Bruce Bettman (born on June 2, 1952 in Queens, New York has served as commissioner of the National Hockey League since February 1, 1993. Prior to this, he was general counsel to the National Basketball Association, and a lawyer.

Education and family

Bettman studied labor relations at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he was a Brother of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity, and graduated in 1974. After receiving a Juris Doctor degree from New York University in 1977, Bettman joined the large New York City law firm of Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn.

He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Shelli, and their three children Lauren, Jordan, and Brittany. His brother Jeffrey Pollack is the Commissioner of the World Series of Poker.."^[1]

NBA

In the NBA, Bettman served as the assistant general counsel under his mentor David Stern beginning in 1981. Bettman helped to develop the soft salary cap model that is still used in the league today. He was also recommended for the NHL Commissioner's vacancy by Stern.

NHL

Bettman was hired as the first NHL Commissioner (the position was formerly styled as president) to try to give the NHL some of the same success that the NBA was enjoying in the United States. His mandate was to make hockey appeal further to many American audiences unfamiliar with the game, and who are traditionally more interested in professional baseball, football and basketball.

Expansion and changes

Despite popular opinion, Bettman was not responsible for the majority of the league's southern movement. The decision to expand to Miami, Tampa, San Jose, and Anaheim were all made before he took over as Commissioner of the NHL. In fact, the only cities that the league expanded to under his watch were St. Paul, Atlanta, Nashville, and Columbus. During his tenure, teams also moved from Hartford, Winnipeg, Minnesota and Quebec City to Raleigh, Phoenix, Dallas, and Denver, respectively. Four Sun Belt teams have won the Stanley Cup, the Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes and the Anaheim Ducks.

Soon after Bettman took office, the NHL's traditional conferences and divisions were renamed to reflect geography (like the NBA) rather than the league's history (i.e., the Wales and Campbell Conferences, and the Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe Divisions). In addition, the league adopted a two-referee system; goal lines, blue lines, and defensive-zone circles were moved, and the playoff format was altered so that teams were now bracketed and seeded by conference (also like the NBA), as opposed to the previous bracketing and seeding by division.

In 1993-1994, the NHL entered its greatest period of growth and landed a 5-year contract with FOX/ESPN. The expansions were due in part to Wayne Gretzky's popularity, and Bettman capitalized on it by reaching out to a broadcast partner which would give the NHL national exposure. This differed significantly from Bettman's predecessor, John Ziegler, who saw little future in national television, instead having each team rely on regional coverage. Some even predicted that the NHL could overtake Major League Baseball in popularity (which suffered greatly from a strike during that time).

In 1998, with the league having reached an agreement with the IOC, NHL players were finally able to compete in the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. This marked the first time that all NHL players were able to compete in the Olympics. To serve as a tie-in to the Olympics, the All-Star Game altered the format to become a match-up of players from North America against players from everywhere else in the world (effectively Europe). This format was abandoned in 2003 when the All-Star Game returned to the traditional conference vs. conference format.

Criticism

Bettman's tenure as NHL commissioner has come under criticism by fans and the media. He oversaw work stoppages in 1994, and 2004. Four franchises (the Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, and Buffalo Sabres) declared bankruptcy during his commissionership.

Bettman was also largely held responsible for aggressively pushing the game into non-traditional markets at the expense of traditional ones, supposedly for major American television contracts and expansion fees. Though the expansion plans were set in motion before he became commissioner, most of it was implemented when he took office. This resulted in the league slowly losing its significance in the sports world.

During his tenure, franchises have been established in Raleigh, Denver, and Phoenix through relocation from Hartford, Quebec City, and Winnipeg, respectively, and in Nashville, Atlanta, St. Paul (Minnesota), and Columbus through expansion. While Denver and St. Paul have been success stories, Raleigh (Though as of lately the Hurricanes have drawn sizable crowds), Phoenix, Nashville, Atlanta, and Columbus have not enjoyed such fan support. Nashville was unable to draw 14,000 in paid attendance during the 2006-2007 season, even though it was one of the top teams in the league.

Furthermore, many believed that the late 1990s expansion diluted the talent pool, thus resulting in a lower quality of play and the introduction of the neutral-zone trap, designed to allow teams with lower-skilled players to keep up with teams with higher-skilled players. Many suggest that the result is declining TV ratings. Consequently, Bettman implemented numerous rule changes to speed up the game and increase scoring opportunities for the upcoming 2005-06 season.

Bettman has also been criticized for selling broadcasting rights to NBC for 3 years at $70 million, which will not guarantee any revenue upfront, then allowing NBC to dictate the scheduling. A perfect example of this is Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres. NBC cut the broadcast of overtime (with the exception of the greater Buffalo area) in order to show the pre-race show for the Preakness Stakes. Instead, overtime was broadcasted on Versus, a little-known digital cable channel that is not available throughout most of the country. Defenders of the NBC contract argue that it was the best TV deal that the NHL could have gotten, as ABC/ESPN was only willing to renew for 2 years at $60 million per year. Previously, Bettman had signed a $120 million per year over five seasons contract with ABC/ESPN from 1999-2004, with ABC executives later conceded that they overpaid for it, so their offer to renew the TV rights was much more tepid in 2004.[1]

Bettman has most recently been criticized for his handling of the sale of the Nashville Predators. Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie attempted to purchase the Preds for way above market value in 2007 and many speculated that he would move the team to Hamilton, Ontario. While many within the NHL thought of this as a potential economic shot in the arm for the NHL, ESPN.com has reported that Bettman directly interfered in the sale of the team to Balsillie, paving the way for talks to be opened up with Nashville-area groups to buy the team.^[2] The reaction throughout this incident in Canada and in the Canadian media was one that felt Bettman cared little about the game in Canada, and consequently spawned an article in Canadian magazine MacLean's entitled 'Why The NHL Hates Canada'.

Bettman was also often criticized in Canada for "Americanizing" the game, and because Quebec and Winnipeg relocated under his tenure. He was satirised in this vein in the 2006 film Bon cop, Bad cop where a character named Buttman aims to move a Canadian team to the U.S. It must also, however, be remembered that he convinced US-based teams to donate to a fund to keep the remaining Canadian franchises afloat. The new CBA did allow small-market teams to be more competitive, as shown when teams such as Tampa Bay, Calgary, Carolina, Edmonton, Anaheim, and Ottawa were able to make the Stanley Cup finals; Canadian teams made the finals three years in a row. Nonetheless, support is often contingent upon big market teams, such as the Detroit Red Wings, as there was a 1.1 rating during Game 3 of the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators, lowest in NBC broadcasting history.

See also:  and

2004-2005 lockout

The 1994-95 season was reduced to 48 games because of a labor dispute. Bettman had locked out the players over the issue of a hard salary cap, which the NHLPA refused to accept. Without the support of big market owners, Bettman had to drop the salary cap from his demands. The resulting collective bargaining agreement appeared to favor owners heavily, despite having no salary cap or luxury tax. Over time, agents under Bob Goodenow began exploiting loopholes in the CBA to favor players, and salaries continued to increase.

In 2004, negotiations commenced for a new collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players Association. The agreement expired on September 15, 2004 (one day after the World Cup of Hockey final in Toronto). Bettman's goal during negotiations was to win an agreement that provided what he termed cost certainty for all clubs. However, NHLPA head Bob Goodenow, along with most of the NHLPA membership, called Bettman's "cost certainty" a euphemism for a salary cap; the union had long been adamantly unwilling to accept any form of a salary cap. As negotiations went nowhere between the two sides, Bettman locked out the players. The union eventually agreed on a salary cap but the amount was still disputed and Bettman canceled the entire 2004-2005 season once the February 16, 2005 deadline passed.

Bettman was successfully able to extract a significantly revised labour agreement which capped player salaries at 54% of league revenues. This is essentially a hard salary cap, as the cap amount increases or decreases from year to year based on the previous year's league revenues. This form of cap was something that his NFL, MLB and NBA counterparts, Roger Goodell, Bud Selig and David Stern, respectively, had been unable or unwilling to do.

To maintain the league's resolve, the owners gave Bettman the authority to fine owners who spoke out on prohibited topics during the bargaining process. While many claim this was a "gag order" instituted at the behest of Bettman, it was in fact a policy initiated and voted in by the majority of owners to prevent certain teams, most likely big market teams such as Toronto and Detroit, from breaking ranks. (During the 1994-95 lockout, it was the big market teams that had broken ranks and Bettman had to give up his push for a hard salary cap.) This policy allowed Bettman to focus on gaining a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that would have both "cost certainty" and financial stability; capping player incomes but also establishing revenue sharing (both aspects opposed by the richest teams). Many believe this tactic was necessary to save small-market teams from eventual bankruptcy. Thus, at the cost of losing the 2004-2005 season, Bettman managed to forge an agreement that would impose financial regulation on the league.

References

External links

• http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/cba/who/bettman_gary.html
• Gary Bettman as one of the worst managers of 2004
• Unhappy anniversary: Bettman's 15 years with the NHL

Preceded by Gil Stein	National Hockey League Commissioner (titled NHL President prior to 1993) 1993-present	Succeeded by Incumbent