[news] How NHL Owners are Destroying Professional Hockey

[Resist!ca]

"(The National Hockey League's) road to (armageddon) began thirteen years ago when they hired a slick (basketball) marketing whiz named Gary Bettman to be their commissioner. Bettman stated proudly that he had never set foot in an NHL arena, but knew how to 'grow' the sport....Bettman took one look at this blue-collar league built on the backs of hardscrabble French Canadians, toothless grins, and rabid fans, and recoiled....As sportswriter Dan Wetzel put it, 'There is no denying that under (Bettman's) stewardship the NHL has been run into the grave. The league has been mismanaged, misplaced, overexpanded and overpriced, all because Bettman turned his back on the core fans - believing there was a pot of television and corporate (fool's) gold at the end of the small market rainbow.'"

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2005/3/5/161012/0540