Bettman Done As Commissioner?

McCowan has said it a few times, that he has heard rumblings of the end of Les Commish’s tenure at the helm of the NHL and now one of his co-hosts is echoing the same thoughts yet this time in writing:

“It is clear now that Gary Bettman has entered into similar territory during what must be late stages of his tenure as commissioner of the NHL.”

Them’s fighting words..

The similar territory that Brunt writes about is the road travelled by former CFL commish Lary Smith. The argument is that with Rome burning around Smith, he took to center stage and declared for all to hear that there were no real issues with his league at that time.

“It was absurd, but the point was, Smith couldn’t say anything else. The task of selling Canadian football to uncaring Americans was his defining mission. During a period of absolute desperation for the league, his employers — the CFL’s private owners and the custodians of its community-owned teams — entrusted him with that unenviable, bordering-on-impossible task because they had no alternate survival strategy. The plan failed, and Smith failed, but to admit that would be like admitting one of your own children hadn’t turned out quite the way you hoped. Smith couldn’t repudiate everything he stood for in the job, so instead he took his lumps at the microphone, all but begging to be ridiculed.”

So now, with the economy in the toilet and US teams experiencing varrying degree of difficulty Bettman is out there telling the world that all is well.

“This week, Bettman appeared at a sports-management conference in Toronto, trumpeting attendance figures that don’t differentiate between the paid, the unpaid, and the discounted, claiming the NHL had enjoyed a record October while the rest of the global economy was imploding, and stating categorically that all of his league’s 30 franchises are “healthy.”

As Stephen wrote about Smith, what else is he supposed to say? He championed a lockout to bring in a day economically, and to admit now that there are difficulties wouldn’t look very good.

“Objectively, there’s no shame in the fact the NHL is struggling, especially in non-traditional markets. It happens. Every other sports league has had its issues.But Bettman is incapable of stating the simple truth — we’ve got issues in big-league hockey, nasty ones, just like they have in other sports, and the recession/depression is only going to make them worse — because, like Smith, his entire term as commissioner has been defined by a single grand, flawed scheme.”

Once again them fighting words… One does have to wonder however, how much of this has been at the direction of the owners, and how much at Bettman’s own doing.

“Hockey never really took root in southern climes. The Coyotes, Nashville Predators, Atlanta Thrashers, Florida Panthers (and that’s not the end of the list …) haven’t been much more successful than the CFL’s Sacramento Gold Miners were in selling the locals on what is, by definition, a foreign game. Those weaklings certainly aren’t “healthy,” and sooner or later will face a painful day of reckoning. But that will be for the next commissioner to explain, acknowledging past mistakes, redrafting the NHL’s business plan, playing to its historic strengths and charting a new course. The current captain can’t steer anywhere but full speed, straight ahead, icebergs be damned.”

So let’s recap. The economy is in bad shape. People are cutting back because they are getting laid off or are fearful of getting laid off. Corporations aren’t spending money like the did. Franchises aren’t healthy and to top it all off, the NHLPA may reopen the CBA. As the old saying goes, “aside from that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?” Certainly interesting times in the sports business arena….

You can read Brunt here

Is The NHL Facing A Money War?

Interesting times in the world of money indeed. Let’s not talk about the world markets here, it is enough everywhere else. However, the Globe is running a pretty interesting story on the hockey $ markets, and it has me thinking, that this could get ugly….

“According to information compiled by The Globe and Mail from various sources, the six Canadian NHL franchises contributed more than $40-million (all figures U.S.) to their fellow owners last season, and about $50-million when playoff revenues are taken into account.And at the other end of the spectrum, several teams are becoming increasingly frustrated at the skyrocketing salary cap, which now forces teams to carry a minimum payroll of $40.7-million.”

It is amazing how the times have changed and how different things are in the various leagues. The Blue Jays rely on revenue sharing in MLB. Yet in the NHL, the Leafs (12m) Habs (12.5), Canucks (10), Flames (6) Senators (1)and Oilers (800k) are the ones shelling out the dough.

“Another part of the problem is that some teams build their business models around their revenue-sharing windfall and strive to keep their own revenues below the threshold where they will have to contribute. The Buffalo Sabres and Nashville Predators, like other teams who spend near the midpoint of the salary-cap range, are often singled out as examples.”

So, lets get this straight, you plan on making just under the limit to ensure you get the handout from the league????? What a great way to run a business… No wonder the PA is suspicious….

“”The cap was supposed to solve everyone’s problems, but all it’s done is prevent six or seven teams from spending $80-million,” said an ownership source who exchanged candour for anonymity. “Some folks are pretty upset: We sat out a whole year to get the cap, and some people are saying, ‘Well, why?'” As one long-time executive with an Eastern Conference team pointed out, the bottom of the NHL salary scale now exceeds the top-end figure from the first postlockout year ($39-million).”

Next to the “player to be named later” the “anonymous source” is my favorite sports character of all time. It is wild when you think that the league floor on salaries already exceeds the first year cap.

“”Some teams are pretty pissed off at the whole thing: We didn’t manage to get rid of salary arbitration, and some teams just can’t afford to pay their restricted free agents or arbitration-eligible players,” the executive said. “There are probably 10 to 12 teams that can’t afford a $40.7-million payroll,” added a source with extensive knowledge of league operations.

So, one has to ask the question then, what now???

The Canadian dollar exploded today (so much for a soft landing). The Canadian NHL teams will be taking in a devalued Cdn dollar and paying out in USD. Ouch.

You know who is going to pay for this???

“For example, Daniel Briere and Scott Gomez each earned US$10 million last season. They’ll both get back the $950,000 they paid into escrow plus interest and an additional $48,000 or so to cover the shortfall in overall salary payments.”

Remember, the league witholds, almost like a tax a certain % of each player’s paycheck as an escrow to ensure “cost certainty”, that is that salaries don’t exceed the threshold of hockey revenue…So guess what will happen when the canadian dollar heads south and the Canadian teams don’t make as much money or gulp, lose money? Guys like Daniel Briere and Scott Gomez aren’t going to be getting their 950k back. That will be a big issue when Paul Kelly contemplates re-opening the CBA…

So we are clear, the owners aren’t happy, the players certainly aren’t going to be happy, why did we have this lockout again??????

Al Strachan Comes Clean: He Can’t See The Game

In another useless blog on Fox sports, Big Al writes about the 5 ways Bettman should improve the NHL.

This one is by far the best:

“Move the press boxes closer to the ice. Hockey is incredibly fast, but because press boxes are as far from the action as they can possibly be, the game looks slow. Many American writers are new to the game and aren’t aware of the speed at which it is played. If they were, they would write in more glowing terms. Since basketball takes this approach, it’s surprising that Bettman hasn’t mandated it.”

So it’s just for the new American’s to the sport eh Al? There is next to no chance of this happening. Where would they put the pressbox and who is going to pay for the lost real estate in moving some seats to accommodate the pressbox? If I was going to list 100 things that need to be changed this wouldn’t crack it.

His number one is classic too, “Get a better TV deal”, yeah, like I am sure Bettman and co haven’t thought about that yet…I am sure they aspire to have the worst TV deal in pro sports. Don’t you think that if they could do better then their current deal they would????

Al, do us a favor, go back to doing what you do best….which is what you do in between these usless posts, NOTHING!

NHLPA on Campbell, McCabe and, ummm Sundin?

Editors note, Kypreos was on the fan this am and he cited a an article in the Sun today which provides:

” Whatever the case, a source close to McCabe said last night the veteran defenceman would not change addresses for at least another couple of weeks.

“(Bryan) isn’t going anywhere until Sept. 1, at the earliest,” the source said. “That’s the date (he) gets his $2-million US signing bonus from Toronto.

“Why would a team deal for (him) before that and be on the hook for that extra money? They’ll just wait until (he) gets paid, then see what happens.”

And there you have it folks, the reason why this is on hold. As stated previously, everyone is too positive this will happen, but not for another 2-3 weeks. Any suitors are waiting for the Leafs to pay McCabe this bonus and then he will be dealt. The proverbial other shoe may have just dropped.

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Relatively new NHLPA gran poobah Paul Kelly was on the morning show with Gord Stellick and Damien Cox. It was a pretty interesting interview. The Guy certainly is bright and doesn’t come across nearly as snively as Ted Saskin nor as big an egomaniac as Bob Goodenow. The interview can best be described as The Good, the Bad and the HUH…

The Good: On McCabe, Kelly didn’t say anything when it was suggested to him that the Leafs threatened to keep McCabe away should he not waive his NMC. To be clear, it was part of a long question that went a little something like this, Here locally fans are interested in the Bryan McCabe situation were originally the Leafs were telling Bryan he wouldn’t be welcome at training camp and now it seems like there has been some positive developments, how involved are you in the situation?

Kelly’s response was, more or less, I am not directly involved, however I am heartened by the things I hear from Cliff Fletcher and am pleased where things are headed and that is a credit to both sides and it looks like this will be resolved amicably.

Again I am more convinced that the other shoe just needs to drop on this one. All the parties seem to be saying the same thing. This is a good sign. Let me make it clear that I think McCabe isn’t the Alexander Karpotsev he appears to be. I think, however, there is no way he can perform to his ability here in Toronto. That doesn’t mean he won’t go to another team and become a top level player again. Nor does it mean that dealing him is a mistake. I truly believe that sometimes it really is in everyone’s best interest that a player move on. This is one of those cases.

Interesting to note that Kyrepos is reporting McCabe has waived his no trade clause to a limited number of teams. One is apparently the Florida Panthers as Hanky reported (e3, I believe). Florida Panthers writer George Richards is speculating it will be a package of Mike Van Ryn and a prospect coming north in exchange for McCabe. KuklasKorner has good comentary on this too here.

The Bad: Kelly was asked about his relationship with the Commish and the NHL in general as compared with Saskin who seemed to be in bed with the league and Goodenow whom no matter what the issue was, Bob was always in conflict with the league. Kelly said that he has respect for everyone. That when he was a trial lawyer he fought hard battles in the court room but always tried to respect his opponents and treat them as people. He said that he was trying to establish a relationship that was somewhere between the Saskin love in and the Goodenow scortched earth. He then said that he speaks to Bill Daily or Bettman numerous times a week and he speaks to the business guys a lot.

Where’s the bad, well, Kelly then said that he speaks to Clarence Campbell about on ice issues! So either Kelly is Cole Sear or he meant Colin Campbell. I am impressed that he even knew the name Clarence Campbell, but its not too great either that he mixed him up with Bettman’s on-ice guru either…

The huh: Ok, so the boyz were trying to be funny, but they did ask Kelly about Mats Sundin. It’s interesting that he said he isn’t directly involved in the McCabe situation (which must be pissing of Hanky to no end) but he talks about the Sundin issue as if he IS directly involved in it. While he says he doesn’t know what Sundin is going to do, he does say that he knows Sundin is working out and is in great shape (um, you trying to sell something Paul?) He continued that Sundin is skating and re-emphasized that he doesn’t know what is going to happen but that he think we will hear from Mats shortly.

One of the alleged complaints from several agents about Goodenow was that he constantly meddled in player business that wereclearly issues as between player and agent. Those agents represented the players and that specific players best interests, where Goodenow was allegedly always trying to get what was best for the union. Sometimes those two interests were not aligned. The amount of pressure Goodenow allegedly put on the agents was at times immense. One has to wonder if that is continuing in the Kelly era already.

If you listen to the interview, it is also interesting when Kelly says, when asked whether the infighting and apathy within the PA is diminishing, that he is trying to keep the players abreast on all the issues in case something creeps up in two years the players won’t be caught by surprise. Remember, this is a VERY experienced trial lawyer. The Clarence/Colin Campbell is a slip up, a mistake, making comments like a reference to issues appearing in 2 years is not anecdotal, you have to believe he says that for a very specific reason. It will be interesting to learn over time what that purpose was.

you can listen to the interview here:

Kelly on the morning show

Stephen Brunt goes a little of the deep end on the NHL

Again, I think the saltwater of the east coast has effected Steven Brunt. The normally well written columnist for the Globe and Mail seems to be sounding the alarm bell a little early in his most current article which can be found here.

Here is the relevant evidence:

“But the collective agreement has proven to be a disaster from the owners’ point of view. The spiking Canadian dollar pushed up overall league revenue (and thus player salaries), with no coincidental spike in the U.S. hockey business, and the revenue-sharing system didn’t do enough to protect struggling U.S.-based franchises from the wild inflation.

Bettman said over and over again he was only interested in negotiating a deal that worked for all 30 franchises in their current markets. If that was the goal, he failed miserably, and some of those owners doomed to perpetual operating losses must have noticed.

A flawed contract, problem franchises, spiralling salaries, a tough guy (Paul Kelly) again running the union: So why did they sacrifice that season again?

And now there is the continuing fiasco with the Predators — a franchise that, if the labour agreement was all it was cracked up to be, surely wouldn’t have had any trouble attracting stable, deep-pocketed ownership.”

Wait wait wait. The current deal is a disaster? I think, if memory serves me correct the geniuses who claimed this to be a one sided deal for the owners were the press. It was the hockey blogosphere, especially the good folks at http://www.spectorshockey.net who said this was probably a more balanced deal then being portrayed by the sports media.

While the current deal isn’t perfect, I don’t think I have heard anyone call it a disaster. Yes the Canadian dollar is up, way up. Yes this has had a huge effect on the well being of the league and a cause of the rapid increase in the cap. to call it a disaster is a but much Stephen. I think we need more time to see how the dust settles before we can call it a disaster no?

NHL Governor Bashing Toronto

These are funny times in the NHL. Lets get this straight, just for the record:

The NHL approved a minority owner in Nashville named Boots Del Biaggo.
Del Biaggo has since filed for bankruptcy
Since that time we have learned that 2 different owners funded Del Biaggo’s purchase
Allegations are now that Bettman may have waived part of the due dilligence process to let Del Biaggo in to the NHL club.

Ironically, the media seems to be interested in the fact that the NHL has once again let someone into the club who is not what they have appeared to be (the most recent incident involved the previous owner of the NY Islanders).

It says here, what is more concerning is that 2 guys who already owned teams lent Del Biaggo cash to pay for his piece of the Predators. Wholly conflict of interest Batman! The actions by these two owners is much more offside then the actions by Mr. Del Biaggo. Not only that but the two owners are Bettman’s right hand men, both sitting on his executive team. This is what the press should be making the noise about.

Of course I digress. The news tonight is that this is a non story; In fact it is only a story here in Toronto:

“Only in Toronto would this story make headlines and go on and on,” one governor said. “Maybe the league didn’t scrutinize Del Biaggio like others and maybe it did. The thing is this guy was a minority owner with the San Jose Sharks for some time and nobody complained about him.”

“I know the doomsday people in Toronto like to point out the fact that under his watch they lost franchises in Quebec City and Winnipeg. The truth is, though, that when the owners of these two teams put their franchises up for sale, no Canadian owners stepped up, and even the great Montreal Canadiens were purchased by an American owner.”

WOW- I could write a book on these two comments.

One the first point, yes only in Toronto would this be a story (except in Nashville where it is front page news, a place Hockey NEVER is during the regular season). Again, the story should be that 2 owners have been caught in a huge conflict of interest. Instead the press here is desperate to bring down the administration.

As for the unnamed Governor. Here is an idea, grow up and speak on the record!

On the second point, I just don’t get why anyone would be bashing the city where hockey is the number one sport, the proverbial center of the hockey news universe. Again, if you are going to make those comments, do so on the record.

The rest of the story can be found here