He’s the man in change wat a time when P.A. announcers have stated to do this utterly assinine “(Home team) is on the POWER PLAY!” It makes a major league sports attraction come across as bush league. It must be stopped NOW!

The same goes for another of The Other Clueless Leader’s brainwave ideas, Ice Girls who wear dike pants. Attribute that sucky idea to The Other Clueless Leader’s NBA roots (figures).

Bettman must be fired, the sooner the better.

Bettman had to make sure “the face of the NHL” hoists the cup to try and win over borderline and non hockey fans so they had someone to relate to making all of them bandwagon Pens in the process. (i know a few) Plus all the other BS hes pulled, its all MARKETING AND IT MAKES ME SICK!!!!!

bettman=assclown

bettman sucks because as commissioner of the sport, he has overseen the corruption of the game by businessmen. businessmen who are more concerned with what is on the buffet table up in the club boxes and not with what is happening on the ice.

bettman=douchwaffle

bettman sucks because as commissioner of the sport, he has squandered the accessibility of the SPORT away from the sport’s enthusiasts. thank goodness i get vs., (message to ESPN, please find a way to ignore GB and sign a broadcast deal with the NHL.)

bettman=coward

bettman sucks because as commissioner of the sport he has shielded himself from fans of the sport. buttman is too cowardly to face his critics and too foolish to heed their passionate pleas for remedy.

bettman=history’s bottom dweller

bettman sucks because as commissioner of the sport he becomes part of the history of the sport and history shows us his “leadership” has reduced the sport to it’s worst status ever.

had enough??? yeah me too, i’m still watching though, no thanks to that asscrack bettman.

Keeping a team like the Coyotes in Phoenix has proven not to be a viable city for the team to remain in. For those who are saying give Phoenix a chance? Well, they have had the team since 1996. 13 years of ownership I believe is enough time to determine if the team is going to continue to grow.

I am in Southern Ontario, and am a true leaf fan, but I would love to see a team in Hamilton as well. For those who say that there are already two teams in southern ontario, well Ottawa is 452 kilometers away from Toronto (280 miles) therefore a good 4 – 5 hours drive away. There are no other teams in Southern Ontario.

Take a look at New York however, there is only a 38 minute drive betweeen the Islanders and Rangers. Even just less than 2 hours away from New Jersey. So the defence that Hamilton is too close, is not founded. It clearly works in other cities!

I really do believe that Gary Bettman finds it difficult to admit that Canada can be a much more viable option than many of the US cities. Take a look at the players in the league, and you will find that majority of the successful players are from Canada. That is predominantly because they have been fans from a young age. Why not allow the fans to receive another team in Hamilton? I would venture the guess that it has to do with a typical American Ego. That’s about it.

The defence that an American team should remain in America. That is fine, but where was that logic in 1996, when this team was stolen from Winnipeg. Return this team to Canada. Let us build this team to a strong team. And when they are done, we will accept Gary Bettman’s resignation, for not recognizing an excellent opportunity for the league and it’s fans.

The other argument is that the Toronto Maple Leafs are a strong force trying to prevent this from happening. While that may be the case, it is unreasonable. As much as I am a fan of the leafs by default, the MLSE has lost their die hard fans as well by making tickets extraordinarily expensive and now the audience is predominently attended by corporate people who are either not even really paying attention to the game and may not even be a fan. They are there for shmoozing, and that’s about it.

The MLSE needs to accept the competition, and give themselves reason to actually strive to win the cup again. So once again a competitive team nearby in Hamilton will only boost things for the league as well.

Why can’t the league and whomever else see how much of a no-brainer decision this is. At the very least, this should have been resolved months ago, as it has dragged on for much too long.

And that’s all I got to say about that!

Although Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the USA, it has a small market for the sport, low revenues and a small fan base. On the other hand, Baseball and Football are huge in that part of the country. The football stadium for Arizona State University can hold 73,379 people! There is no rink in the NHL that holds that many people.

This sports craze is perhaps what is enticing the NHL to want to stay in Phoenix.
The city is growing at an extraordinary pace (US Census estimated 18% population growth in 2008) and has about 5.7 million people (city and metro). The sport may be foreign to the city, but given the size of the population, the NHL may be betting on the chance of a growing fan base. They just need an owner whose willing to gamble on that happening.

The rink, other than having a horrible name, is a top-notch facility with a great view regardless of where you sit. The fan base is there too. They may be small now, and not as vocal as us Canadians (yes, I am from Montreal!) but they proudly wear their jerseys to games even if they at first needed a paper pamphlet to help them with the rules. Some already were fans, some became fans.

Besides all the court proceedings and flaunting of cash, the fans are the ones being kicked around. And that doesn’t help the cause for or against a team in Phoenix.

If both sides of the Coyotes “conflict” worked towards the best outcome for the sport, perhaps we’d see an end to this, and we could all go back to talking about Martin Havlat’s twitter feed!

Wake me up when it’s the 1st of October!