League Meddling
June 10th, 2008 by Jason ChenThis isn’t something new or groundbreaking, but admittedly it has been part of the game behind closed doors. This year’s NBA has been a shining example of this. Although still a conspiracy theory, it’s got some weight. Rumour is that commissioner David Stern (and perhaps some owners, shareholders, and investors) told officials to call games a certain way to ensure that the team they want in the finals gets there. The San Antonio Spurs were apparently kept on a tight leash by officials to ensure that the Los Angeles Lakers got to the finals against the Boston Celtics - a dream match-up for the NBA, a sure-fire moneymaker, considering both teams are situated in big markets with plenty of money to be made. This is another black mark in the NBA, following a Tim Donaghy investigation in which he was accused of betting on games and calling the game unfairly, but he alleges that the NBA execs were the mastermind behind the conspiracies and that he was merely caught in the middle.
Tonight on The Spin, Al Strachan reports that Marc Crawford’s firing earlier today may not have been purely motivated by hockey reasons. And he’s got an interesting theory (for once). The growth of the NHL in the US is dependent on big markets, that’s obvious. Among the top markets are New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, all 3 with storied histories in the NHL. The Rangers are doing well, the Blackhawks are an up-and-coming team, but Los Angeles has lagged way behind. Strachan reports that perhaps Dean Lombardi was pressured by the league to fire Crawford and make sure that the Kings are on their way back to respectability. For two years the Kings have failed to make any real progress, and seeing as how the Celtics-Lakers match-up has put the nation in a frenzy, the league (or really, Gary Bettman) thinks that if all 3 cities can put together winning teams, a potential NY-LA or NY-Chicago matchup/finals (should that ever happen) would bring a major boost to hockey’s popularity in the US.
As an aside, John Tortorella seems to be front-runner for the Kings job, John Anderson of the Chicago Wolves for the Thrashers, and perhaps both Bob Hartley and Craig Hartsburg for the Sens.
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3 Responses to “League Meddling”
By David Johnson on Jun 11, 2008
If that is the league’s plan it completely goes against everything the league has done the past 10-15 years: Expand to small or non hockey markets and them lock the players out for a season for the purpose of making those small hockey markets more competitive with the big markets all effectively making a NY-LA or NY-CHI cup finals far less likely.
By Jason C on Jun 11, 2008
That’s very true, but a part of me thinks that the franchises in small markets were meant to establish grassroots hockey fans. Dallas itself is not considered a big hockey market, but since their relocation from Minnesota grassroots hockey has really taken off and hockey has never been more popular in Texas. I think Bettman was hoping for much of the same in Nashville, Carolina, Florida, and California.
However, the big money still remains in NY, Chicago, and LA, and I’m sure he would be much more thrilled with a NY-LA or NY-Chicago final than a Atlanta-Nashville or Florida-Nashville final.
Bettman’s just out for the money - he doesn’t really care about hockey.
By Steve on Jun 11, 2008
Two things:
1) I think you might want to correct the spelling on League in the title.
2) As far as grass roots growth goes in the US, I finally realized it had a chance two years ago while I was in Buffalo (I was going to Canisius at the time). I picked up a copy of USA today, and they had a 2 page spread on the growth of the USHL and junior hockey across the midwest. This can NOT be overstated - the real reason Canada is such a hockey “hotbed” along with most of northern Europe is because of local grass roots hockey for youth and club development. Having an NHL franchise is nice and cool to go see games with, but if there’s nowhere for people to play the game themselves the game will never grow.
One side effect of all the NHL franchises is they’ve gotten local rinks built. If you follow the growth in hockey in Colorado, and California, they would be prime examples.
Personally I think a good region for the NHL to expand to would be Washington state or Oregon. There’s a solid base there because of Tri-City, Spokane, and Portland already.