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Archive for the 'Bettman' Category

Acting locally, not thinking globally?

Published by Puckhead 1 week, 4 days ago in Bettman. 8 Comments

It looks like there might be a local bid put forth by the end of this week to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in Phoenix (or Glendale). This news come a week after bankruptcy court Judge Redfield T. Baum ruled against Jim Balsillie’s attempt (and June 29th deadline) to purchase and move the team to Hamilton, Ontario.

The Coyotes organization lost at least $45 million last season, was last in the league with ticket revenue at $18.4-million, and has lost $316 million since moving to Phoenix in 1996. The organization did not even meet enough of the trigger criterion set by the NHL to receive their full ($15 million) league revenue sharing money, which is the highest in the league. The Coyotes also only averaged about 11,000 fans per game last season at Jobing.com Arena.

In other news…
the Montreal Canadiens were sold to the Molson brothers (mmmm, beeer) by George Gillett for perhaps at much as $555 million.

Over the weekend, our favorite mini-commish Gary Bettman made his first appearance at an NHLPA meeting in Las Vegas. The meeting lasted nearly two hours and the biggest topic of discussion had to do with steroid and performance enhancing drug use in the NHL. Bettman and the players seemed to agree that it wasn’t much of an issue in the league, and nothing was decided on the issue of drug testing in the future. For Bettman… typical talk and PR. Furthermore, the NHL’s TV contract also came up in the meeting… it seems as though players want the league to move to ESPN, but the little man sticks to his original terrible decision to put and keep the games on NBC and Versus.

Tags: balsillie, bankruptcy, drugs, gary bettman, hockey, meeting, millions lost, national hockey league, nhl, nhlpa, phoenix, Phoenix Coyotes, relocation, steroids.

Picture of the day…

Published by Puckhead 3 weeks, 2 days ago in Detroit Red Wings and Bettman. 4 Comments

Tags: check, funny, gary bettman, hit, kronwalled, national hockey league, nhl, niklas kronwall, Red Wings.

A letter to Gary, from Sidney

Published by Puckhead 3 weeks, 3 days ago in Bettman and Blog Entries. 19 Comments

Sidney Crosby sent us this letter to Gary Bettman today…

If you can’t read the graphic above, here is the text:

Gary,

Hi. Sidney here. I just want to compliment on the wonderful job you’ve done with the game; especially in this years playoffs. Although I hear rumblings of a bias towards our team thus far it is under the table. Lets hope it stays like that. If the media ever knew the refs were on the hook to get us to the finals and win in 7 it would be both our careers

I tried to talk to the guys in the room about Game 5 as we got a little carried away. With some of the cheap shots we gave the refs had to call them. We will be much better in game 6. Are the refs ready? We’re supposed to get a couple power plays in the beginning of the game so we can get a lead right? Hey, how did you like that dive I took? That sure was a beauty, eh?

OK, Gary. Well I know you are busy. As long as the refs are on board we will win game 6 and force a game 7.

Are you coming over for dinner after the finals? I reserved us a cozy little cottage with candlelight and no one will know us. I can’t wait. I have the eatable undies that you like.

Love you Gary.

Sidney Crosby

PS - Malkin says hi. Hey I was wondering if you would mind if he joined us?

Tags: funny, gary bettman, letter, nhl, sidney crosby.

Bettman’s NHL Strikes (out) Again!!

Published by Puckhead 1 month, 3 weeks ago in Phoenix Coyotes, Bettman, Blog Entries and Playoffs. 7 Comments

5/8/09 Update: The Phoenix Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing this case delayed it until May 15th… hoping that the NHL and Coyotes’ owner Jerry Moyes can figure out who owns and has control of the team. Buttman and the NHL will appear in court on the 15th to state their case, and Moyes will state his case on the 17th… with the decision to come on the 19th. You can read all about it here.

Where are all these rules and regulations about how a team is operated and sold that Bettman talks about?? Where are the rules about not letting a crook like Boots Del Biaggio invest in a team??? We think Bettman and his compadres don’t want Balsillie to have ownership of any of these teams, because Balsillie will not relocate the team to Kansas City or Las Vegas, where the little weasel hopes to put the next NHL team. You know… a place in the south where no one cares about or knows anything about hockey… instead of in Canada, where people live and breathe hockey. Makes sense, doesn’t it? hah. Mr. Bettman, wake up and get over yourself and how you are ruining the game… and do what’s best for the game, the NHL and its fans!!!

Yes, we’re still alive here at FireBettman.com … once again, sorry for our long absence.

The playoffs are finally here again (like us), and Bettman’s NHL is at its worst…

The Phoenix Coyotes have filed for bankruptcy… anyone with a brain (not Bettman) could have told you this one was coming. Since Bettman couldn’t see it coming, he and his NHL morons are challenging the bankruptcy filing in court this afternoon. Now why would they challenge this? Because the Canadian millionaire Jim Balsillie is once again interested in owning an NHL team, and has offered Phoenix majority owner Jerry Moyes $212.5 US million with the clause of moving the team to southern Ontario (ie, Hamilton).

Bettman says he doesn’t believe Balsillie would be a good owner, rather than admitting that he does not want a successful team in Canada! He thinks giving Phoenix another chance and trying to *make* them succeed in Phoenix will work out in the long run. Our guess is that Bettman is convincing another one of his crooked buddies (remember Boots Del Biaggio and the Predators??) to be an idiot and offer more money than Balsillie to keep the team in Phoenix. Didn’t he learn from the first time? Oh yeah, we forgot… he ain’t that smart and cares more about his ego than about NHL quality and success.

Apparently, Phoenix fans are smarter than Bettman… the main fan site has already been put up for sale. We recommend not buying it. Furthermore, Balsillie has gotten support from around 100,000 NHL fans (and we suspect there are more of you on this site), and from Prime Minister Stephen Harper! Yeah Canada!

In other NHL news… did you see the disallowed goal in the Detroit vs. Anaheim game on Tuesday night? If not, here is some of the worst officiating you will ever see from Bettman’s boys:

Simply ridiculous and inexcusable. We’re not saying Detroit should have won… but this is a great example of how terrible the officiating has gotten in the NHL due to rule changes, terrible new officials, and the ambiguity of what constitutes a penalty in the “New NHL”. This play should be reviewable!! Especially since it could have made a difference in the outcome of the game.

It’s good to be back and updating you on the latest news in the NHL and the terrible path that our mental midget commish continues to lead the league down… so stay tuned and keep checking back!

Tags: gary bettman, hamilton, Jim Balsillie, NHL Playoffs, ontario, Phoenix Coyotes, playoffs.

We’re back!!!!!!

Published by Puckhead 10 months, 3 weeks ago in Nashville Predators and Bettman. 28 Comments

We sincerely apologize for our lack of posts this summer… it has been a very busy summer filled with higher priorities. We know we have missed out on covering some major and controversial stories surrounding our favorite little man… but we are hoping to get things back into full swing for the upcoming NHL season, and plan on increasing our coverage and making sure we do everything we can to get rid of the man we all love to hate… Gary Bettman.

In the meantime, here is an email that Paul Lefebvre from Delaware, OH sent us, which sums up the summer’s top Bettman stories and our opinions on them quite well:

“Not bad enough that Mr. Bettman threatens to strip ownership of the team in NY (Rangers), and decides to suspend the Anaheim Ducks owner indefinitely for off ice legal issues, now comes word that maybe he himself may have been caught with his own hand in the cookie jar. The Nashville Predators sale has stunk from the beginning. How does an owner (Craig Leipold), a businessman, turn down cash money from Jim Balsillie in excess of $220M for a financed deal of less than $200M tt which he himself contributed $10M? Here’s maybe how.

Mr. Bettman promises Leipold clear and very quick sailing to ownership in Minnesota. After the commish sees the investor group trying to buy the Nashville franchise having trouble getting financing together, he either A, closes his eyes and says go ahead boys, I don’t want to know, or B, gets on the phone to his two closest confidants in LA Kings owner and Nashville owner (Leipold) and says make this happen, Balsillie cannot have a team. Either A or B is cause for termination.

Gary Bettman claims he had no clue that two of his closest NHL confidants - L.A.’s Philip Anschutz and Minnesota’s Craig Leipold – had lent San Jose banker Boots Del Biaggio a combined $17 million (U.S.) to help him pay for a $25 million stake in the Nashville Predators. C’mon Gary.

Nashville investor, ‘Boots’ Del Biaggio filed bankruptcy. Turns out that the ownership group of the LA Kings, AEG Facilities lent Boots $7M. Also turns out that the Nashville owner (Craig Leipold aka Seller) lent him $10M. AEG Facilities also owns the venue for hockey in KC. Del Biaggio has long been searching for a franchise to move to KC. The reasoning for the seller of the team lending money to a buyer leaves the door open for many explanations and we’ll have to see what floats to the surface. How is this tolerated? Maybe these two owners are able to say to Mr. Bettman, “if we go down Gary, you are coming with us”. This seems to me to be the only way they can escape Bettman’s well documented wrath.

How in the world is Bettman getting a free pass on this!? He is quite the politician, and seems to always have an answer for everything, but I have seen or heard nothing of anyone press him since the series, before the wheels came off Del Biaggio.”

Thanks very much Paul!!!

We will try our hardest to help make sure that the little man doesn’t get a free pass on all of this… so get ready and look forward to more posts from the FB stuff. Once again, sorry for our lack of posts over the past few months… it is GREAT to be back and covering the worst commissioner ever!!!

cheers,
Puckhead & JB

Tags: boots del biaggio, crooked, crooks, gary bettman, nashville, national hockey league, nhl, predators, were back.

Bettman and NHL counterfile against and threaten the Rangers… plus other Bettman news

Published by Puckhead 1 year ago in New York Rangers and Bettman. 29 Comments

Just when you think Gary Bettman couldn’t get more full of himself and ‘his NHL’… today he and the NHL filed a counterclaim against Madison Square Garden LP (owners of the New York Rangers), threatening disciplinary action for “materially breaching their contractual commitments to the league and the other 29 member clubs - as well as for compensatory damages stemming from those breaches.”

At the beginning of the 2007-2008 season, MSG LP sued the NHL for violating anti-trust regulations, and monopolizing teams’ promotions. The suit came after the NHL made every team turn over the private operations of team web sites and promotional activities to the NHL offices in New York. The lawsuit was taken to court three times, and the NHL won every time. The Rangers owners have challenged the decisions based on anti-trust regulations, and now the NHL will have nothing to do with it… so they have filed this counterclaim with an intent to stop MSG’s continuous actions against the NHL… with a threat of fining, suspending or making MSG lose ownership of the Rangers.

What?? The Rangers or no team can challenge the “rules”??? Everything the NHL does is completely correct and no one can say otherwise??? This is typical Bettman style… never admitting he’s wrong, sticking to his rules even though LOTS of people who know much more about business and hockey disagree, and doing anything he can to counter-attack and shed the blame when there is constructive criticism about the way he is operating the NHL (”NHL Hour” anyone??). Why would any team want to turn over their web site or promotions operations directly to the NHL? The only thing the NHL cares about is posting Sidney Cry-baby’s face all over their ads, putting teams in markets that will never survive, putting NHL games (even almost all of the playoff games!) on a TV network (Vs.) that no one really knows about or receives, turning the game into the NBA or other over-dramatic productions/sports, and making the owners money no matter how much it costs/hurts the fans and game.

In other news, apparently the NHL Players Association isn’t too happy with Mr. Bettman either. Before the infamous lockout of 2004-2005, one of the main reasons Bettman and his cronies insisted on a salary cap was to reduce ticket prices for fans. Just the opposite has happened… ticket prices have gone up… and there are still teams, such as Phoenix and Florida, who are losing money. Point being, no one but certain team owners are reaping the benefits of the salary cap and the new collective bargaining agreement. The players, fans, and many teams are worse off than they were before 2004-2005. It’s apparent the NHLPA is getting more frustrated with Bettman and his antics and tactics… as the article states “The union also agreed to form a committee to decide whether to opt out of its labour agreement next summer”.

Also, tomorrow night (June 20th) is the beginning of the official 2008 NHL Draft in Ottawa!! The thing we’re most excited about is to see how loud the “boos” are at Scotiabank Place when lil’ shit-fer-brains steps up to the microphone.

Tags: boos, counterfile, countersuit, draft, gary bettman, hockey, lawsuit, MSG, new york rangers, news, nhl, nhl draft, nhlpa, players association, Rangers.

Duh Commish’s greatest quote: “Trouble’s a funny thing.”

Published by jb 1 year, 1 month ago in Bettman, Blog Entries and TV. 18 Comments

Saturday night’s CBC pre-game show featured Ron MacLean interviewing our favorite hockey snake, Bettman. Ron touched on several hot NHL topics and a few of dim-wit’s nerves. MacLean asked a question about Boots Del Biaggio’s troubles with a federal fraud investigation. Ron asked what the NHL position was given ol’ Boots’ recent part ownership of the struggling Nashville Predators. Shyster boy immediately went on the defensive and stated that he believes that Boots has not been charged, but only under investigation. Quickly distancing himself with “I don’t know anything more than was in the papers”. Ron then asked about the decision to push out Balsillie over the Boots Group. With more than a little more squirming the miniature shark said he was not involved in that process and then, without need, said the Canadian Competition Committee had conducted a year long investigation and concluded that no rules were broken. (Funny, why did he have to offer that last part without being asked?) Hiding something Gary? Here is the video:

Ron also brought up the fact that Canadian teams are providing the bulk of the revenue and asked Gary if he had seen the Toronto Star article which reported the disparities in revenue. “I haven’t read that article” was Ding-dong’s response. (Of course, why would the commish read anything from the top revenue team’s home town newspaper? gimme a break!) Our little Napoleon then got testy and cut-off Ron when asked about American teams in (financial) trouble. “Whoa, whoa; trouble’s a funny thing” spewed out of the hole in his face. Funny when you’re a Coyotes owner losing $30 million? Funny when the two bottom-earning Canadian teams are producing more revenue than eight, yes, eight, American teams? Yes, our ignorant commish has a great sense of humor. Too bad he doesn’t have any honor (and resign).

There is more to the interview including Numb-nut’s cheap patronizing of Ron and Don, Wipe-oid’s ever-prescient employment interview of Colin Campbell, and more commish double talk.

Coaches Corner star Don Cherry noted that Ron did a fine interview and followed his advice by “takin’ it easy on him”. With all the squirming and double talk witnessed in the interview, one gets the feeling that Bettman wouldn’t agree with Don.

Tags: boots del biaggio, CBC, don cherry, gary bettman, interview, nhl, predators, revenue, ron maclean.

Vincent Lecavalier will be today’s guest on NHL Hour with Gary Bettman

Published by Puckhead 1 year, 1 month ago in Tampa Bay Lightning, Bettman, xm radio and "nhl hour". 0 Comments

Vincent Lecavalier

Update: To listen to yesterday’s NHL Hour please click here.

Today’s (05/29/08) guest on “NHL Hour” with Gary Bettman will be Vincent Lecavalier — the high scoring, powerful forward for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The show airs at 4p.m. EST on XM Radio channel 204, or you can listen through the NHL’s live stream. You can call your questions/comments in at 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail NHLHOUR@NHL.com. If you miss the show today, we will post a link to the NHL’s podcast of the show tomorrow.

Tags: gary bettman, hockey radio, nhl, nhl hour, tampa bay, Vincent Lecavalier, xm radio.

Tracking the NHL…

Published by Puckhead 1 year, 1 month ago in Bettman, xm radio and "nhl hour". 6 Comments

Update (5/16/08): You can listen to the podcast of yesterday’s NHL Hour by clicking here.

According to Michael McCarthy of USA Today, the NHL and Versus are considering (re)introducing “puck-tracking” technology into broadcasts of NHL games, which they might put into effect as soon as next season. However, the Globe and Mail reports that this tracking technology would only be used in replays (see bottom of article) and not during live action.

When FOX covered NHL games in the 1990’s, they introduced a “glowing puck” technology… the puck had a blue streak behind it when traveling at low speeds, and then would have a red streak behind it when traveling at higher, slap-shot like speeds. It was supposed to make keeping track of the puck easier for fans watching the games on TV, but most people thought it was a foolish idea and interfered with their ability to focus on other aspects of the game. Players also complained that the FOX puck reacted differently than normal pucks and caused some problems for them.

Either way, we don’t see how this would help the NHL or its fans in any way. The idea has been tried and tested in the past, and it failed. There are obviously plenty of people who can follow the game without being taken by the hand and told exactly how to watch it… it is pretty easy to catch on to where the puck is just by watching the motion of the players and the flow of the game. Furthermore, with HDTV spreading rapidly through North American homes and bars, viewers can almost read the “NHL” logo on the puck We see this as another decision by the NHL to help attract non-market fans, while turning off long-time and die-hard fans at the same time… which would result in a net loss in NHL fans’ enjoyment of the game and possibly the number of NHL fans. With Versus’ commentary of the games already being about the worst we’ve ever heard (try listening to Doc Emrick & Eddie Olczyk for a whole game) , they must be trying to see how far and low they can go with their awful coverage of the NHL. Who knows, maybe they’ll want to put virtual ads on the glass and ice during the game. Ahh, never miss an opportunity to make an extra penny Gary!!! You might need those pennies to pay off another owner in the future.

On a much brighter note, Diane Brady of Business Week emailed us a link to a video of an interview that she recently conducted with Gary Bettman. During the interview she asks Bettman what he thinks of sites such as ours, and also asks some other very good questions. Check it out!.

Additionally, today’s NHL Hour with Gary Bettman will feature guest Ken Holland — the great General Manager of the Detroit Red Wings. The show airs at 4p.m. EST on XM Radio channel 204, or you can listen through the NHL’s live stream (which now includes advertisements for your viewing pleasure). You can call your questions/comments in at 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail NHLHOUR@NHL.com. If you miss the show today, we will post a link to the NHL’s podcast of the show tomorrow.

Tags: bettman, business week, fox, glow puck, glowing puck, hockey, interview, nhl, nhl hour, puck tracking, stupid ideas, versus, VS., xm radio.

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NHL Hour with Gary Bettman - 03/13/08 @ 4pm EDT

Published by Puckhead 1 year, 3 months ago in Bettman, xm radio and "nhl hour". 2 Comments

Update: To listen to the NHL hour from yesterday (03/13/08), please click here (MP3 file). The RSS feed for the NHL Hour podcasts is http://www.nhl.com/podcasts/nhl_hour.xml.
The issue regarding games on the NHL Network not being shown on NHL Center Ice was not addressed by Mr. Bettman once again. And it appears as though nothing has been done about it. Tonight, the Atlanta Thrashers vs. Washington Capitals game will be shown on the NHL Network, but will not be shown on NHL Center Ice. Multiple emails have been sent to the NHL (including Mr. Bettman), the question was asked last week on the NHL Hour, and still there has been no response or reasoning given from the NHL, besides Bettman saying last week that he will “look into it”.
Gary Bettman must have gotten our emails… because he confirmed on this show that his email address is indeed gbettman@nhl.com, which we posted here on FB a long time ago. So keep sending him emails and demand action!

Today’s (03/13/08) guest on “NHL Hour” with Gary Bettman will be Maple Leafs executive Richard Peddie. The show airs at 4p.m. EST on XM Radio channel 204, or you can listen through the NHL’s live stream. You can call your questions/comments in at 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail NHLHOUR@NHL.com. So get some tough questions ready!!

We’re waiting to hear Gary Bettman’s answer/solution to the ongoing issue of games on the NHL Network not being shown on NHL Center Ice… which is making fans who have already paid at least $145 a season, pay another monthly fee to get what they originally paid for. If you listened to the NHL Network last week, you probably heard a question asked about this problem.

We will post a link to the NHL’s podcast of the show later today.

Tags: center ice, email, gary bettman, gary bettmans email address, nhl, nhl hour, nhl network, xm radio.

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