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Bettman Delivers Solid "State of the League." |
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At 5:15 pm in Raleigh North Carolina as we sipped on the best damn sweet tea around, Gary Bettman addressed the media prior to game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals..Gary was sharp and composed. It's never an easy room ...Gary found himself before a room of jaded lifers who questioned the sports stability and TV ratings and they are in Raleigh (which has an awesome tailgate going on outside if they cared to look)...Do we forget what we were doing this time last year...I was in a chat room with 250 people getting coded messages from within the talks that had been going for hours. I was trying to make "still meeting." sound fun and exciting. It is natural and the job of the media to be a watchdog...but considering how sick this dog was, arguing over OLN being in 67 million versus (no pun intended) 70 million homes feels a bit trite.
Highlights of Bettman's Talk...
First off, everytime I have seen the Bettman show live I feel he is better, "off the cuff" when he answers questions..the pre-question section doesn't really show him. And unfortunately that is what the public usually sees. He is quick on his feet and very consistent...Hockey longs for consistency these days...
On Ad Campaigns;
"We will continue to market the players in our ad campaigns as we have recently in the playoffs..."
He gave truly nice props to my buddies at XM:
"Our ten year deal with XM gives us a 24 hour Hockey Talk station that keeps our fans very entertained and informed throughout North America."
On OLN:
"We are delighted with the job OLN does. When we started they were in 67 million homes, now they are in 70 million. " When questioned indirectly about leaving ESPN Bettman added, "We needed a partner who would treat us with a greater importance." When people brought up the first ill-fated venture away from ESPN to Sportschannel Gary responded, "Not a good comparison, Sportschannel was in 6 million homes, and people forget that we went to Sportsnet in Canada before they were in any homes."
On the Playoffs being in small markets Gary said;
"If these playoffs have shown us anything it is that market size is irrelevant. the four conference final teams were from small markets, next year they could be from large markets teams."
When asked if he was worried if big markets wouldn't watch this playoffs Gary rightly said.
"It is exciting for people here in the triangle people in Edmonton and if your teams aren't in it you are watching if the hockey is good and you don't care what size the market the team is in. If the hockey is good, people will watch."
When asked about teams getting compensation for signing GMs you got the impression that Gary wasn't thrilled with what has gone down. He said he could see why a team would want someone to honor his contract but also subtly alluded to a time when a team would give a guy their graces and let them out if opportunity presented...
Gary addressed the Blues sale implying that he expects they will be bringing it to the board on June 21.
He re-iterated the Penguins sale is tied to the Isle of Capri slots license, Or another owner who will build.."If a stadium can't be built they will have to move," he said.
The most interesting moment to me came when he was questioned on the rule about shooting th epuch out being a mandatory penalty, "This is a Game of mistakes.. We need to create offense. I love the rule that says a team can't change lines when they ice the puck, I even suggested to Colin that we extend that to teams not being able to change when the goalie freezes the puck. We need to create offense."
Finally when asked if the NHL could expand to back to Canadian cities it left, he first said, I could completely see Winnipeg supporting a team with a new building. That being said, there are no teams looking to relocate and we aren't looking to expand." Then Gary joked, "I get enough heat about expansion...I don't know that I could endure that right now."
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