I'm going to start this one with a nuclear bomb:
ALL SPORTS have seen their TV ratings decline over the past decade. So to complain about the visibility of sports is a little redundant when it is overkill. From Ira Lacher:
Bettman: Presiding over a sport that's gone down in popularity, done nothing to arrest this, much less reversed the trend. In cities without NHL teams, his league gets a pass. Des Moines even has an AHL team and it's hit or miss whether the paper prints the full NHL standings and schedule every day, much less the box scores. Grade: F
It is immaterial that a paper in a city does not print standings and schedules of a league where they have no standing.
Gone down in popularity? Only gone down in TV ratings, while the
financial health of the league is stronger than it has ever been.
Bettman has handled his tenure well. Two strikes (including one that blew away a whole season and playoffs) and a breaking of the players union to get the league's financial health in order? When Bettman started, there were four markets below I-70, one of which was a recent expansion team (Washington, St. Louis, Los Angeles and Tampa Bay). Now the NHL is the lead dog on a sports network where they would have been relegated to sixth sport status on the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.
The people in Canada will never forgive him for changing the "uniqueness" of the sport, by removing tradition. Those are the same people that complained when the two-line pass was no longer an infraction. Of course, that rule was instituted by the NHL in the 1950's to stop Montreal from winning Cup after Cup, so it appears the "traditionalists" are simply whining (I'll be happy to give them some cheese).
Stern: Despite recent franchise shifts and the decline of star players, the NBA is mining new sources of talent from overseas and combating the image of the "gangsta league" by bringing in white Europeans and Latin Americans. He also is growing the league overseas and I am certain we will see a World Division of the NBA or some such within the next 10 years. His major challenge now is trying to keep the league viable in the face of skyrocketing ticket prices and maintaining its appeal to the core audience -- African American kids and youg adults -- without alienating the demographic that pays most of the ticket money -- 25-49 whites. Grade: B
Oh, if one believes the NHL has gone downhill, one must take a look at the NBA and their plunging-like-the-stock-market ratings since signing with ESPN/ABC. Now it appears we will see both a Midwest and a Midwest-podunk division in the NBA. I'm waiting for Stern to grant Grand Island, NE a team.
The NBA has been mining worldwide talent for years. It is a matter of time for a team to field a bunch of eastern Europeans, like some NHL teams.
Ira Lacher said:
Gooddell: While he is sailing along largely on the groundwork laid by Pete Rozelle, it says something that the image of the sport continues to remain positive despite the increasingly thuggish image of many of its players; continues to rake in the bucks, as evidenced by healthy PPV revenue and skyrocketing "private seat license" fees; and he is growing the sport overseas as well, as evidenced by a sold-out Wembley last weekend. This is gold. Grade: A.
Sorry to tell you that most of that was done under Tagliabue, who gets ZERO credit for running the NFL. The jury is still out on Goodell. Since he appears to be trying to push the NFL and NFLPA to an 18-game schedule, this will be the first of the accomplishments I will reserve judgment upon. If successful after voiding the current NFLPA agreement, then I will put him above everyone.
No sense in mentioning Selig. France, well, if the Daytona 500 is pushed to the end of the schedule, NASCAR is toast.
Hockey has all but disappeared from the landscape under Bettman's tenure, while the other three sports are bigger than ever. I trying hard to think of something positive to say about this guy, but I can't come up with anything. Don't even get me started about the increasing "pu**ying up" of the league, involving checking rules, OT, etc... not to mention the inconsistentcy of penalty calling. As for drugs, maybe he's doing a better job of keeping any problems "swept under the rug"?
