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Update @ 5:45p.m. EST: We recorded the first “NHL Hour” XM radio show with Gary Bettman and Bill Clement today. You can listen to it here (MP3 file, 58.5 MB). Not too many surprises for us… they kept it “clean” and even put on guests who admired Gary Bettman and were very courteous to him. The one thing that was super frustrating was the number of advertisements (played over and over) during the show… and there was more chatter by Bill Clement, Gary Bettman and Marty Turco (who was a guest), than fan questions answered. We hope next week’s show will be more representative of the fans’ true feelings about what Bettman has done to the NHL, and hopefully will have more content/substance, rather than advertisements and Bettman worshipers.
Update @ 12:20p.m. EST: We have gotten word from the NHL that there will be a streaming link for the show prominently posted on the home page of NHL.com sometime this afternoon. You should send your questions & comments to NHLHOUR@NHL.com and/or dial 1-877-645-6696.
Gary Bettman will debut the new “NHL Hour” show on XM channel 204 today at 4p.m. EST with co-host Bill Clement. If you do not subscribe to XM radio, you should be able to listen to the show through NHL.com. We haven’t found the exact link to listen to the show, but there is a “Listen!” link in the bottom right corner of their site under “NHL Radio”. We have emailed the NHL asking for more specific information, but have not heard back from them yet. The “NHL Hour” will continue as a weekly show every Thursday from 4-5p.m. EST.
The only email address that we have come up with to send questions to the show is homeice@xmradio.ca. So get your tough questions ready and let the little commish know what fans really think about the job he has done!
Stay tuned to FB for your chance to win a free Fire Bettman t-shirt!
Good luck getting on. I’ll try to listen at work, if possible. If all he gets are easy questions, I’ll be very annoyed.
I found another email address its: NHLHOUR@nhl.com
I wouldn’t be able to phone in, but I would be very annoyed if he was not questionned about the whole Winnipeg/KC/Las Vegas Expansion ordeal… I really think the time is perfect to Bring Back the Jets (i.e Salary Cap, Canadian Dollar, HUGE Fan Base, etc.)
I have remained loyal and stayed away from NHL and just go to minor league games that I enjoy. I also follow Eliserien in Sweden and hope a new league emerges in Europe to challenge our NHL and that is what IIHF and a few people would like including the Russians.
It would be good to have competition and maybe then owners and pundits will look at the NHL and figure where the future really truly lies and its not as a third rate pro team feature product in the sunbelt cities with better clubs ‘making subsidies’ and equalisation payments of sorts to hope a product can stay there.
By staying away from pro games and not sponsoring boxes and signage till Bettman gets the long overdue proverbial boot sends a strong message to the sport and its owners.
Its up to fans not being complacent and kid themselves that ‘this is a good product’ because some media pundits tell them that. Its not and the signs are now starting to show when you study the business of sport. T
he Lerners and Glazers buy teams and clubs in different sports and markets where they see strong future growth; they don’t see that in the NHL. Even Anshutz is not relying on the product in his diversified club portfolio mix.
If anything it has to reflect where the sport is evolving in the rest of the world where it could grow to be a strong No.2 in certain European markets for eyeballs if euro networks work it as hard as Champions League play in soccer on a weekend.
Europe and Russia is our future whether we like it or not with more profitability and security for players and fans; not geography where you try and hope our sport will ‘catch on’ in sunbelt cities with too many pastime distractions and little historical/cultural/sociological attachemnt to the game.
If the NHL expands to Europe, then what I keeping the Russians/Fins/Swedes/etc. from just staying home and playing in their home country?!?
The NHL would lose close to half their players to teams across the seas, and that would force the NHL to shrink as a league, though I wouldn’t mind dumping the sunbelt teams…
Agree Hobble as they will likely stay there; at least the interest level and reach for a Stanley Cup final with a European/Russian and North American club means something and would have heightened interest to those who watch other sports to tune in and see a confrontation that has some meaning. Networks over there would focus on it as well if not also in other areas such as Asia.
At least some players in North America in minors will be playing in the NHL clubs left here. All of a sudden, we know every year we have to play well to beat ‘them’ over there. It can only be good for the game globally to grow.
Betmans comments in London UK in the Ducks-Kings confrontation were particularly sad even though the games were sold out; the media level was poor in how much PR was generated with nobody in UK media giving a hoot unlike the NFL Jets-Dolphins encounter at Wembley. Future games should be played in cities like Helsinki, Stockholm and Prague etc. as they want to see their NHL heroes from their home countries in action and rightfully so.
The fact that no NHL players may play in 2014 winter olympics shows how little Betman is serious about growing this sport where it is supposed to emerge with the little foresight and ingenuity he has other then his personal agenda.
A two week Stanley Cup allowing for jet lag rests tests the intensity between clubs of who really wants the cup in the first place really bad and can only enhance the product that is on offer.
Its pretty obvious to see hockey gain eyeballs that we have to gain the attention of fans of football (soccer), rugby, basketball and other team sports outside of North America if we will ever see hockey have a greater impact for its future.
I don’t know, I still can’t see the NHL branching off to Europe… I mean, Lord Stanley brought the Cup across the Atlantic, and it would kill Canadians to give it back to the London Knights (possible NHL name :P)…
The way the NHL thinks now, it will for the most part remain the ‘conformist league’ it is unless they see NBA do it (Bettman alumni) or watch NFL games be played overseas. IIHF and NHL do not see for the most part ‘eye to eye’.
And for the ‘London Knights’ taking the cup off Canadians, in the global age we live in imho its a small price to pay to grow the game overseas where it needs to be nurtured and where disposable incomes to watch sports is rising. Its up to the Canadian clubs like any other club to really want it and to defend it.
“London Knights”? Ugh.
Besides probably taking all the European and Russians away from the game in North America, could you imagine what the travel schedule would be like? Look at the schedule now! Put the Atlantic Ocean in as a factor, and see how it works out.