Let me declare up front I don't much care for hockey. I gave up on the pro game sometime during the nauseating reign of Harold Ballard and I've never been back. While Sandra Schmerler was alive I watched women's curling and it was like taking a hot shower with sweet smelling soap. Watching athletes dedicated to their sport, busting their butts to win and playing with class and good sportsmanship, left you fresh and feeling great afterwards.
Baseball and football I enjoy for different reasons but my patience is now wearing thin with the overpaid, juiced athletes who parade their pathetic egos before the camera and have no clue about the integrity of the game or the concept of team. Terrell Owens - what a loser. Barry Bonds - wouldn't cross the street to meet him. It may not be long before I give up on these two sports as well.
Under Bettman's leadership the NHL has remained stuck in the mud in the US. Revenues from TV have never materialized, rinks are half empty and he thinks Phoenix and LA are natural locales for ice hockey. Canadian teams? Does he know any?
Moving the NHL's head office to New York just reminds people everyday that Bettman isn't Paul Tagliabue or David Stern. Hell, he isn't Roger Goodell either, who's left him in the dust in terms of performance.
The only thing Bettman's got going for him is Bud Selig, perhaps the most unispiring commissioner ever to lead a sport. But Bettman wins the race for the dorkiest, stupidest sports czar that ever was. His handling of Jim Balsillie's efforts to buy the Penguins was a text book example of how to shoot yourself and your sport smack in the head.
Pittsburgh has been in financial trouble for years, saddled with poor management and a lease in a crumbling, unattractive arena. Mario Lemieux took the team over to protect his financial interests. That was the only way he had any hope of recouping the money owed him by the franchise. Lemieux has done very well but he wants out and he's entitled to his money and to getting on with his life.
Enter Balsillie, the Blackberry billionaire from Kitchener, who has deep enough pockets to pay off all the debts and put the club on a budget that will allow them to compete. Balsillie is highly competitive, a tough and savy businessman who is exactly what is needed to create and run a healthy business. Bettman's response? He puts down so many conditions that Balsillie tells him to take a flying leap. Does it matter? Hell no - there are billionaires around every corner, standing in line begging for an NHL franchise.
It's a reminder that just when you think no one can be dumber than a politician, Bettman pops up and makes Stockwell Day and Peter Peter Pumkin Eater look like geniuses.
My answer? Get Belinda Stronach to buy out the entire NHL with Daddy's spare change. Get Martha Hall Findley and Deborah Grey to help her run the show. I can imagine the Stronach Stare: "You said what to Balsillie?"
Deborah Grey could drop around on her motorcycle when some of the boys get foolish. And Martha? She could feed back the feeling of the folks who bujy the tickets to pay the freight. Works for me and would be a vast improvment over Buffoon Bettman.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment