In the wake of the Wetzel article lambasting Gary Bettman, I was curious if anyone could give me a satisfying answer to a simple enough question - "How much power does the Commissioner really have?"As Chris DeGroat points out, it's the Board of Governors - not Bettman - who approve everything from rule changes to expansion plans. Sure, Bettman serves as the owners' mouthpiece, but at the end of the day if, for example, the owners favored something that was in their best interest but not in the best interest of the game (in Bettman's eyes), could he stop the change from being made? Some people hint that Bettman very much wanted realignment, but was shot down by enough owners that the proposal died.
In short (pun intended), is Gary Bettman just a high-salaried whipping boy or a legitimate steward of the game?
1 comment:
1) Bettman has as much power as the owners want him to have. No more, no less. He isn't 'above' them in any way.
2) If the collective group wanted to do something "that was in their best interest but not in the best interest of the game" Bettman could NOT stop it.
3) As someone wrote today as bad as Bettman has been (and we have been on record stating he has been God-awful for many reasons) compared to previous commissioners/presidents, he's been Pete Rozelle!
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