Gary Bettman

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Gary Bruce Bettman (born on June 2, 1952 in Queens, New York City) is a Jewish American lawyer who has served as commissioner of the National Hockey League since February 1, 1993.

Contents 1 Education and Family 2 NBA 3 NHL 3.1 Expansion and Changes 3.2 Criticism 3.3 2004-2005 Lockout 4 External links 5 Footnotes

[edit] 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.

[edit] NBA

In the NBA, Bettman served as the assistant general counsel under his mentor David Stern beginning in 1981. Like Stern, Bettman is widely understood to have absolutely no connection to the sport and league over which he presides. Bettman helped to develop the soft salary cap model that is still used in the league today. He was also recommended for the NHL commissioners vacancy by David Stern.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. Three Sun Belt teams have won the Stanley Cup, the Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes.

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 entering 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.

[edit] Criticism

Gary Bettman's tenure has been critised by some fans. During his tenure, the NHL lost 1.8 billion dollars in 10 years. Four teams have gone bankrupt (Ottawa, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles), and as a commissioner or assisant, he oversaw lockouts in 1992, 1994, and 2004. [1].

[edit] 2004-2005 Lockout

The 1994-95 season was reduced to 48 games due to 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 rise dramatically.

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 MLB and NBA counterparts, 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 certainly" 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.

[edit] External links

• http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/cba/who/bettman_gary.html
• Gary Bettman as one of the worst managers of 2004

[edit] Footnotes

[1] Making argument for NHL Bettman's toughest yet

Preceded by Gil Stein

National Hockey League Commissioner (titled NHL President prior to 1993) 1993-present

Succeeded by Incumbent