Worst commissioner in sports?

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Depending on who you ask, you'll get a different answer. Each of these men have their flaws. I thought it would be interesting to see what people think about men running their favorite leagues.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Bettman. I hate Selig but the overwhelming incomes from MLB can not be dismissed.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I don't see how it can be anyone but Bettman

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah I voted for Bettman. The other guys haven't been perfect but at least under them MLB, the NFL, and the NBA haven't lost nearly every bit of TV aside from a weekly NBC game.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Yeah. One of these things is not like the others... 3 of them run wildly successful leagues. And one of them is Gary Bettman.

[CanadianChris 0]

Anyone who has an answer other than Bettman clearly doesn't follow the NHL.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Anyone who has an answer other than Bettman clearly doesn't follow the NHL.

 

So...Bettman is managing to avoid some votes due to his horrid mismanagement of the league that should net him votes...if he hadn't ruined the league to the point where they don't watch it...

 

It's a paradox.

 

 

[HarleyQuinn 0]

The thing with Bettman... I by no means like him but think some things should be pointed out. I also was the lone vote for David Stern, BTW.

 

#1: Expanded the league from 24 teams to 30.

#2: Implemented a hard salary cap and free agency after 7 years of service.

#3: Signed a 5 year deal with ESPN & ABC in 1998 for $600 Million. It was the largest television contract the NHL ever signed.

#4: ESPN declined the $60 Million option to broadcast the NHL in 2005. He then proceeded to sign a 3 year deal worth $207.5 Million with Versus. The question is the choice in network but they got a great deal out of it.

#5: The NHL has been growing in revenue. $2.20 to $2.25 Billion in 2007

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Didn't he also get like...a dollar from NBC?

 

And a lot of those teams aren't profitable...so expansion isn't really a feather in the cap.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Didn't he also get like...a dollar from NBC?

 

And a lot of those teams aren't profitable...so expansion isn't really a feather in the cap.

 

Fair enough but Forbes shows that some teams improved over last season. In terms of operating income, Nashville and Minnesota are doing quite decently actually.

 

The NBA has 10 teams at a negative operating income. NHL has 12 teams but the disparity is that more NHL teams are losing 6% or more. What's more amazing is that in the NBA, they have games airing on TNT and ESPN. The NHL has Versus, local channels like NESN, and NBC once a week.

 

Forbes on the NBA. No team in the NHL is as bad as Dallas (-13.6%) or Denver (-26.3%) in operating income. Carolina is the worst NHL team at -11.5%.

[bob_barron 0]

1, 2, and 4 were all bad ideas.

 

So Bettman fails

[Czech please! 0]

The thing with Bettman... I by no means like him but think some things should be pointed out. I also was the lone vote for David Stern, BTW.

 

#1: Expanded the league from 24 teams to 30.

#2: Implemented a hard salary cap and free agency after 7 years of service.

#3: Signed a 5 year deal with ESPN & ABC in 1998 for $600 Million. It was the largest television contract the NHL ever signed.

#4: ESPN declined the $60 Million option to broadcast the NHL in 2005. He then proceeded to sign a 3 year deal worth $207.5 Million with Versus. The question is the choice in network but they got a great deal out of it.

#5: The NHL has been growing in revenue. $2.20 to $2.25 Billion in 2007

These are things that Gary Bettman did, but they're not necessarily good things. Adding six teams doesn't look so good now, when we're looking at possibly subtracting at least one. It's common knowledge by now that the expansion was fueled by the desire to collect expansion fees and make some quick cash to the long-term detriment of the league. Implementing a hard cap after Quebec City and Winnipeg no long have to stay on pace with New York and Detroit is closing the barn door after the horse is out, and has hamstrung today's general managers in ways they ought not be hamstrung with "cap hits" and silly deferred contracts and resignation to the fact that any team with numerous young stars cannot be sustained (unless you're the magical Red Wings, apparently). I've said it in other threads: if you want a check on irresponsibility, you can have a hard salary cap, or you can have guaranteed contracts. You can't have both; it's a nightmare. You popped your own balloon on No. 4, because any deal with a channel most people cannot watch is intrinsically a Bad Deal. Bettman really did buy the proverbial Kansas beachfront property on this one.

 

So Bettman got a big contract out of Disney. Okay. Do you think another commissioner could've gotten a similar deal (let's say up to $500MM) without presiding over expansion and relocation patterns that falsified the prosperity of the owners, an exponential rise in contracts disproportionate to the scale of the league that eventually resulted in an unprecedented wire-to-wire cancelled season, annnnd a league whose nationally televised games are largely unavailable to American viewers?

 

Runners-up: Selig is an asswipe and a crook who allowed steroids to scar baseball for years to come, but he's doing something right. Roger Goodell is a draconian idiot and something about him just bothers me. David Stern has had some slip-ups in recent years but still has a hell of a track record and can be largely forgiven for any transgressions based on what he's done for his league. Shaking down the city of Seattle is pretty bad, though.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Bettman has ruined the NHL as far as I'm concerned. This isn't even close. At least Selig has done some good things, and MLB is in as good a shape as it has ever been financially.

[Hitler Cubano 0]

I'm throwing another vote David Stern's way for fucking over the city of Seattle, and partnered with that, going along with the owners of the franchises rather than the fans, who are more important to a league's success. Also for having the worst officiating in all of the major sports.

[Czech please! 0]

The commissioner is supposed to act on behalf of the owners, though. That's pretty much how it's always been, except for Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

[bob_barron 0]

I'm throwing another vote David Stern's way for fucking over the city of Seattle, and partnered with that, going along with the owners of the franchises rather than the fans, who are more important to a league's success. Also for having the worst officiating in all of the major sports.

 

Gary Bettman fucked over every city and fan.

[Hitler Cubano 0]

I'll have to admit I don't follow the NHL, or at least I haven't since the beginning of decade or so, so how did Gary Bettman exactly screw over every city and fan?

[Czech please! 0]

Well, that's probably hyperbole, but I don't suppose the lockout really helped.

[MFer 0]

Yeah, the lockout pretty much killed my interest in hockey. Still follow the NHL a little (mainly during playoff time), but I just can't get into it the way I used to.

[Star Ocean 3 0]

Behind-the-scenes talk never really interested me much, so I can't say that any commissioner can ruin a sport for me. The NHL threads are regularly the most active threads on the board, but Bettman ruined it for everyone? I know it's in bad shape with TV and everything, but at the core all I care about are the standings and if the games are still watchable.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

I still think Stern deserves it over Bettman just for the referee scandal alone (and the fact that the refereeing still seems questionable in games I've watched). Donaghy BET on games for over 13 years while refereeing them. Are you kidding me? The bias there alone is amazing and Stern had no idea? The NBA also has market trouble (Charlotte and Seattle moved although Seattle IMO got fucked over, Indiana is trying to figure out how to survive. Memphis is the NBA's equivalent to Atlanta or Carolina in the NHL).

 

As bad as Bettman has been for the NHL in terms of TV coverage, at least his game is mostly clean and he's been trying to clean up the game a bit more since the lockout (i.e. the new rules about staged fights). And the "poor" TV coverage is arguable as of late given the increase in ratings within local markets (even Atlanta was up 21% from last year).

 

Also in regard to the Sharks.

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area’s Sharks household ratings have averaged 1.3 for the 2008-09 season (54 telecasts) – a 63% increase over 2007-08’s household rating of 0.8, as of March 3, 2008 (55 telecasts). Approximately 31,450 households are watching per game.

 

A total of eight Sharks games this season have delivered higher ratings than any regular season games during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons.

 

NBC will also be airing games 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7 while Versus will get games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup.

[naiwf 0]

I voted for Stern for the Seattle scam, the Donaghy incident (which I don't believe was isolated) and his complete inability to find competent officials. I also feel like the NBA product is not interesting to watch because teams are more concerned with shedding payroll this year and next year than they are at winning games for (at least) those two seasons. 1/3 of your league shouldn't be tanking a couple of seasons to potentially sign a handful of free agents especially when some of those teams have no shot in hell of getting the guys they want anyway. There's no reason to have a salary cap if you can go over it by paying your own players more, and selling draft picks for cash to stay below a luxury tax threshold is just as stupid. The Suns haven't had much of a bench because the owner was too cheap to have his GM draft some warm bodies when he could sell the picks for a couple of million bucks each. It's a fucked up league when you can try to trade for Keith Van Horn or Raef LaFrentz' expiring contract and neither one of those guys has played meaningful, or any, minutes in years.

 

[Czech please! 0]

Those are all very salient points, don't get me wrong, but only one guy has an entire lost season on his hands. Not that it means the NBA isn't full of corrupt referees and bullshit salary caps and expiring contracts and all that crap, but the NHL got so fradulently bloated that it stopped existing for a year. That's the lowest of the low. "But he's working to eliminate staged fights!" Big fucking deal.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Those are all very salient points, don't get me wrong, but only one guy has an entire lost season on his hands. Not that it means the NBA isn't full of corrupt referees and bullshit salary caps and expiring contracts and all that crap, but the NHL got so fraudulently bloated that it stopped existing for a year. That's the lowest of the low. "But he's working to eliminate staged fights!" Big fucking deal.

 

I wouldn't completely blame that on Bettman as the NHLPA under Bob Goodenow was arguably more dickish about the whole scenario. On February 14, the union offered to accept a $52 million salary cap under the condition that it was not linked to league revenues. The league proposed a counteroffer with a $40 million cap plus $2.2 million in benefits, which the players association refused. The next day, Bettman sent Goodenow a letter with a final proposal of a $42.5 million cap plus $2.2 million in benefits, setting a deadline of 11 AM the next day to accept or refuse the offer. The NHLPA presented a counter-offer involving a $49 million cap, which the league rejected.

 

They ended up settling on a $39 Million cap after it was all said and done anyway for the first year of the CBA.

[Czech please! 0]

Labor is at fault for the lockout too, but it was the logical conclusion of years and years of bad financial decisions by the league, which have to be blamed on ownership. Everyone was resigned to the fact that the league needed an entire year off to get its shit together, and that has little to do with Bob Goodenow and oodles to do with the diseconomy of scale created throughout Bettman's tenure.

 

I'm surprised Goodell doesn't have a single vote yet. He must really be keepin' those niggers in line.

[909 0]

Those big free agent groups will never materialize because by the time next summer rolls around, even less people are going to be able to afford going to sporting events, and thusly, money dries up, and we've got a whole bunch of players sitting around either getting stiffed on short-term, low money contracts, or they'll be sitting at home with nothing to do. (That sentence was way too long) Maybe a few more players will head to Europe where they can get a few bucks.

 

The house of cards that professional sports in America has built is going to come tumbling down in short order.

 

I'm surprised nobody voted for Goodell. He's taken the pussification of football to new heights, and failed to punish Belichick properly over Spygate because he coaches a team that's popular. The precedents he's set for supposedly violent hits are an absolute joke. You can't even hit a guy anymore without getting into trouble. Before too long, every player's going to have to sidestep the guy with the ball and find a way to arm tackle them rather than leave a small bruise on one of their fingers. Maybe players will start getting suspended for celebrating touchdowns. Roger Goodell. He's a lot like Hitler.

[Red Baron 0]

Labor is at fault for the lockout too, but it was the logical conclusion of years and years of bad financial decisions by the league, which have to be blamed on ownership. Everyone was resigned to the fact that the league needed an entire year off to get its shit together, and that has little to do with Bob Goodenow and oodles to do with the diseconomy of scale created throughout Bettman's tenure.

 

It also didn't help that another major concern is how to keep the Canadian teams afloat during the situation because of bad economics in the NHL alone.

 

I'm surprised Goodell doesn't have a single vote yet. He must really be keepin' those niggers in line.

 

He hasn't fucked anything up that as bad as the above three.

[Just John 0]

Goodell is a big step down from Tagliabue, but he doesn't have anything as bad as Donaghy, steroids, or a year-long lockout to his credit.

 

I don't follow the NHL as closely as the other leagues, but I'm going to vote Selig turning a blind eye to the rampant steroid usage in baseball. An entire generation of baseball is permanently scarred due to his apathy.

[Kageho 0]

Bettman easily wins it.

 

Has anyone seen how stupid this league is?

 

- It expanded to 30 teams when there was no reason nor financial power to do so. Most of the locations that were decided on make no sense. Atlanta lost the Flames for damned sakes. Why would you send a team back there?

 

- We got a lot of teams that either don't have the people wanting to go to the games nor care. You know the teams.

 

- Instead of trying to actually find the way to sustain two teams, Quebec Nordiques and the Winnipeg Jets, they instead let both teams leave. Sure the Jets didn't have a suitable building (nor is the current MTS Centre able to host a professional team for anyone wanting a new Jets team) yet, Nashville's getting every opportunity to fix itself. Hell, the Edmonton Oilers were nearly kicked to the curb when they had their own management issues. Yet, Nashville got a silver platter to remain.

 

- Hooking and stick work: This still hasn't been dealt with. When I was a kid, you nearly never saw a stick come up unless the guy had no choice but to hook someone. Nowadays, all I see is "red alert: sticks up". I don't mean as in high sticking, just a lot of stick work that can and will hurt someone.

 

- Graphite Sticks: Though these things don't break as often as a wood stick, you can't feel the puck worth a damn. Because there's no give, you can't get the puck onto your stick as good as a wood one, and you have errant plays because of it. You want to know why guys can't hit the net, or catch a saucer pass? Problems right there.

 

- Trades: When you can get a fourth rounder (Leafs) for a medically unclear player, let me know. Yes, yes, I know, Lafrentz of the NBA hasn't played in forever. But at least you are collecting insurance pay. The Leafs got a fourth for a guy who hasn't played, and there is a possibly would never play (I don't know if he has or hasn't), and there is no insurance.

 

Yes, I do realize there are and were other players in that trade going to the Leafs, but for all intents and purposes, it was strickly the fourth rounder, the other guys were just there to make a smoke screen.

 

- Sloppy contract system: How exactly can you have a hard cap if you've got guarenteed contracts? The two can't co-exist. I feel bad for the teams that are signing these guys for like 8-9 million for multiple years and realize that you can NEVER get rid of these things. If a guy gets injuried, you are stuck with the bill. If they are permanently injured there is no insurance to recover for them.

 

...you don't know how much I was hoping DiPietro was done for when he went down the first time to make people realize how stupid this was. Then again, they did get stuck with DiPietro for 15 years, so I guess that's a good trade off.

 

- Waiver system: There are no options down like in the MLB. In the NHL, unless its put into your contract, you need to put the player through waivers all the time. And guess what? You get shafted half the contract if he gets picked up.

 

- The lack of superstars/scoring: It used to be a time when you could look at a players goals, assists and point totals and go "ah, a superstar". Now if we can get more than one or two players cracking 50 goals, 80 assists, or 100 points, its a f'n miracle.

 

Note, I say "superstar". I know there are stars in the league, but superstars? Like 5 at most. I'd add goalies wear too much, but I think everyone agrees on that one.

 

- OT/Point System: Seriously, if you are introducing a shootout, get rid of the OT during the regular season (real men win in 5 overtimes in the playoffs) and just let them fire away at the end of regulation. Just change the point totals to 3 per Win, 2 per Shootout Win, 1 per Shootout Loss, 0 per Loss. This way I also don't need to see nearly 70% of the league with .500 or better. Wins still count as wins, losses still count as damned losses. It would be like this 51-31 (14-3). Isn't that simple and lovely?

 

I could rant on, but I think I'll stop here. Let's just say I'll take the commissioners, Goodell, Stern, and Selig over Bettman.

 

I still like hockey, as it is of course been smacked into me by my national heritage, but honestly, the damage done by this one man and his inability to do things that benefit the league.

[Red Baron 0]

I'm going to throw a write in nominee here and mention Bernie Ecclestone. Sure he's made the sport very safe in his tenure, but has fucked a lot of people in the history of F1.