Although it's easy to pin Bettman as the bad guy, it might not be his fault. |
Listen to this statement carefully, then take a second to think about it: There have been three lockouts under Gary Bettman's reign as commissioner.
Yeah, it elicited the same response out of me. Wow. Three lockouts? Three work stoppages? Three failed negotiations? That's just pure insanity. Want me to make it even more ridiculous? It has all happened in an 18 year period. One more tidbit to make your stomach turn over? He's the only commissioner to oversee a lockout that killed an entire season in any North American professional sport. An entire season. The 2004-05 NHL season never happened, and despite rises in revenue since then, I'm not sure the league has truly prospered in its last eight years.
Bettman has seen his league go from an ESPN mainstay, to the Outdoor Living Network, to Versus Sports to a comfortable position on the newly crafted NBC Sports Network just last year. There was a fall, a rise, and now we've seen a fall once again. I see nothing wrong with that, sometimes a league needs to take a step back to take two steps forward. It certainly improved its on-ice product by eliminating the antagonizing two-line pass rule and promoting offense, offense and offense. The game is faster and much more enjoyable to watch, though that hasn't correlated with the sort of ratings boost the NHL was looking for. But that was the second lockout of his tenure, and it already was pushing forth plenty of questions about the league, owners, sport and commissioner. However, this latest episode of failure at the negotiating table brings about a new, more simplistic question, "Is it Bettman's fault or is it simply the nature of the sport?"
It's easy to just tag this as the commissioner's ineptitude and simply expel him from the league. But there's another aspect that might be somewhat overlooked. I hate to say it but the NHL might fall under cult league status, the same way people look at American EPL fans and lacrosse. There is a small, (relatively in this case) diehard following that sometimes grows to a major following in the latter rounds of the playoffs. People do care about the NHL, but is it enough to label it as a "major" sport. While it is considered a "major" sport, its airtime on ESPN (the absolute arbiter of all things sports) should make us at least reconsider our stance on it as a "Big Four" sport. Would the NBA, MLB or NFL ever appear on the "Outdoor Living Network?" Not a chance in the world. ESPN and other stations go to absurd lengths to retain the rights to at least some of those leagues' games. The NHL, on the other hand, only received a risk-reward type offer by NBC that the station felt was the right move. If it wasn't for NBC, I'm not sure where the league would be right about now.
Why is the NHL a cult sport you ask? I have no idea. It's the fastest sport out there, it has unbelievably exciting plays, monster hits and of course, everyone's favorite, legal fighting. I don't understand how a society that salivates over violent action movies doesn't bring that same lust for hockey. It's a man sport, there is no doubt about it. Yet, for some people it just rubs them the wrong way. Maybe it's the fact the strategy isn't easily deciphered or maybe it's because the consistency of high scoring games is a turn off. It baffles me to why it can't stay in the boxing ring of interest with the other big boys. My best guess? It's a northern, winter game, and there is plenty of the country that never experiences natural pond hockey. So really only the northern contingent of America (and the world) has a direct relation to the sport.
Take my stance as you will, but don't think this is a defense of Gary Bettman. I'm not really confident in his abilities as a commissioner, but then again maybe it's because I don't like how he handles himself. Either way the reality for NHL fans is the sport just doesn't have the same traction in America than its three counterparts. I know this blog has a majority of people that truly enjoy the NHL (including myself) but coming to grips with the idea that America isn't that jazzed up about puck is slowly becoming a necessity.
A lockout in any league is a travesty, but we as NHL fans have to become numb to it because as long as hockey doesn't hold the importance the other three leagues do, the National Hockey League will always lack stability.
0 comments:
Post a Comment