Gary Bettman NHL Commissioner 1993-Present

Name: Gary Bettman Commissioner: 1993-Present Born: June 2, 1952 Previous Occupations: Lawyer Profile: Born in Queens, New York on June 2, 1952 Gary Bettman became the first Commissioner in the NHL after the role of NHL President was restructured in 1993. Bettman a lawyer by trade, worked as a senior executive in the NBA league office for 12 years before joining the NHL, was an unpopular choice among hockey traditionalist, who charged from the start that making money, and not the love of the game was motivating Gary Bettman. Some also said the commissioner was trying to "Americanize" the game and didn't appreciate the place hockey occupied in Canada's culture. Among his first decisions was to rename the NHL's conferences and division to carry geographical names instead of the names of NHL pioneers. Expansion, which began under President John Ziegler, continued as the league grew from 24 to 30 teams by 2000. Gary Bettman also had to deal with labor strife within his first few years in office as the owners who were unhappy with the 1992 CBA, voted to the lock the players out at the start of the 1994/95 season. The lockout which wiped out half of the 1994/95 season was also poorly timed as the 1994 Playoffs, which were among the most exciting in NHL history helped the league land a National Television Contract with the Fox Network. Getting a National television Contract was a priority for Bettman, and the lockout got its new network partnership off to a bad start. During Gary Bettman's tenure the NHL became a global sport as for the first time preseason games were played in Europe and regular season games in Japan, as the NHL started to shut down their season for a few weeks during the Olympics so their players could play in the Winter Games starting in 1998. During this global outreach the NHL All-Star Game format was changed to have North American born players taking on European Players. The format that had great interest at first quickly grew tiresome and the East vs. West format would be returned after 5 years. In an attempt to draw more fans Gary Bettman has been at forefront of rule changes that have changed how the game is played, changing overtime to 4-on-4, and awarding 1-point to teams that lose in overtime have not gone over well with traditionalist. As with other professional sports economics became a major issue during the Bettman era as teams in smaller markets were forced to move. This especially angered Canadians as two Canadian teams moved to the Unite States. Meanwhile the six teams that remained in Canada have struggled to compete as since Bettman took over as Commissioner in 1993, only one Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup, while no Canadian teams made the finals for a ten year period ending in 2004. While the NHL left some of their loyal Canadian fans they tried to establish new fans in the Southern United States, as Dallas, Anaheim, Miami, Phoenix, Carolina, Nashville, and Columbus all got NHL franchises for the first time while the league returned to Denver, Atlanta, and Minnesota, growing from 24 teams in 1994 to 30 in 2000. While expanding, the NHL realigned itself going from four to six divisions in 1998. However in some of the new market the teams have struggled to establish a strong fan base, as critics charged the NHL expanded to fast, hurting its financial solvency. In 2004 the league found itself in another lockout as the owners wanted the players to accept a salary cap, and revenue sharing to help struggling teams like the Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, and Buffalo Sabres, who all declared bankruptcy. Unlike the 1994 lockout this time Bettman was willing to sacrifice an entire season, and that is exactly what ended up happening as a deal was unable to get done, forcing the NHL to become the first league to lose an entire season to a work stoppage. However, the owners and Bettman were not going to blink and eventually a deal was done capping salaries capped player salaries at 54% of league revenues, meaning the amount of the cap can go up or down annual based on how well the league was doing.  When the dust settled the NHL had to try and win back fans, Gary Bettman devised some ideas to speed up the game by allowing two line passes, while enforcing holding, and making it illegal for players to deliberately send the puck into the stands. Bettman also eliminated ties, adding a shoot out at the end of the five minute overtime during the regular season. However, the lockout caused significant damage, as the league could not get a big deal from ESPN, and had to strike out and find a new American cable partner, his choice ended up being a peculiar one in the Outdoor Life Network, which was available on a fraction of the cable systems that ESPN had. While OLN had big plans for the NHL, eventual rebranding their network to Versus, it still has hurt hockey's exposure, and television ratings, as there was a 1.1 rating during Game 3 of the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators, lowest in NBC broadcasting history. As the league continues to move forward, Commissioner Gary Bettman continued the league's global outreach, with the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks starting the 2007/08 season in London, with plans for NHL games in Prague and Stockholm in 2008. In North America, the idea of outdoor games has take foothold, as the Buffalo Sabres hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins on New Year's Day, as the game broadcast on NBC was the highest rated NHL game in a decade, leading the league to plan more outdoor games in the near future. © MMVIII Tank Productions. This site is not affiliated with the National Hockey League.  This site is maintained for research purposes only. Return to NHL Commissioners. Page created on February 14, 2004. Last updated on January 30, 2008 at 10:30 pm ET. HOME