Bettman on CBC
Well, on the whole I have to say that Gary Bettman's performance surpassed my own very low expectations. If you have seen him on Hockey Night in Canada you'll know why I say that.
The questions were fairly good, some brutal of course, but on the whole I think fairly representative of fans concerns.
The question I would have asked is this; "Do you think Bob Goodenow is Satan?" The answer is too predictable though to have made it through the CBC screeners.
Seriously though, there were a couple of very weak spots that I don't think Bettman should have gone to - ticket prices and overly defending his expansion record. On ticket prices, I noticed that he was nuanced in his approach - trying to bring the question to price inflation - not on whether tickets would actually go down if the owners get their 55% hard cap. Of course, in Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, where the team salary basically wouldn't change, tickets would not change. The concept is however that those clubs will remain competitive with a hard cap and not have to trade away their developing players as other clubs wouldn't be in a position to sign them as freely in the past. (Weight, Yashin - thank you Milbury, Joseph, etc). Likewise, while his point that it's hard for Carolina and Nashville to gather fans when they aren't competitive is valid, they still suck as hockey markets.
Will Goodenow get some heat tomorrow? I hope so - look for the predictable answers, like Bettman, but will the fans and Mansbridge let Goodenow get away with the total joke of the PA answer of 'market salaries'?
The questions were fairly good, some brutal of course, but on the whole I think fairly representative of fans concerns.
The question I would have asked is this; "Do you think Bob Goodenow is Satan?" The answer is too predictable though to have made it through the CBC screeners.
Seriously though, there were a couple of very weak spots that I don't think Bettman should have gone to - ticket prices and overly defending his expansion record. On ticket prices, I noticed that he was nuanced in his approach - trying to bring the question to price inflation - not on whether tickets would actually go down if the owners get their 55% hard cap. Of course, in Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, where the team salary basically wouldn't change, tickets would not change. The concept is however that those clubs will remain competitive with a hard cap and not have to trade away their developing players as other clubs wouldn't be in a position to sign them as freely in the past. (Weight, Yashin - thank you Milbury, Joseph, etc). Likewise, while his point that it's hard for Carolina and Nashville to gather fans when they aren't competitive is valid, they still suck as hockey markets.
Will Goodenow get some heat tomorrow? I hope so - look for the predictable answers, like Bettman, but will the fans and Mansbridge let Goodenow get away with the total joke of the PA answer of 'market salaries'?
