Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteMoss
The NBA has virtually lapped the NHL by about 100 fold since Bettman's come into the league so not sure why anyone would bring up the NBA which manages to get its games on three strong networks (ABC,ESPN,TNT) while the NHL gets a sprinkling of games (and not even the entire Stanley Cup) on NBC and the rest of a channel no one watches.
Bettman has done one good thing - the salary cap - which saved a bunch of small market teams (or at least made them competitive). Any other positives he's brought have been done by every other league and you can argue he's hurt the league by its visibility in the US and the tiny US TV deal he got them locked into on a channel no one watches.
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Are you suggesting hockey could have fought basketball for market share?
Personally I hate the sport for viewing but it's massive in the southern states(120m) and it's massive with african americans(42m).
If hockey had 42 million built in hockey fans in the US we might compete but because it's expensive to play it'll never be as popular.