For those of you who may have missed the memo, or if you just happen to live in North America, you may have missed the opening of the 2007-08 hockey season. Commissioner Gary Bettman decided that the English may be a good market to go after, despite the fact that are plenty of other countries who would've loved to see a game.
Why do all of these commissioners think we need to go and globalize their sports? When English football (soccer) teams come over here to showcase there game, they do not count these towards the standings. These games are played merely to bring attention to the game, but they are not cheating their loyal fans from seeing one less regular season game. Right now the NHL is aching for ratings, as proven by the fact that hardly anyone knew the games were going on. So why go ahead and take away some games from the fans who do support you. I do not see Australian Rules football teams coming over here for their regular season games.
With the ratings being as low as they have, why does the NHL have a deal with a provider like Versus, where people either don't have, or don't even know its on. The NHL by far has the best playoffs of any sports.
If Bettman is going to remain the commissioner of hockey, then the game may get a higher and higher cap, as it has recently, but eventually if everyone just forgets about it totally, what will happen to the game. Well hopefully they will start up an English league after the little taste of the game that they have recieved.
Paul Blackborow
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