Gary Bettman

Gary Bruce Bettman ( born June 2, 1952 in Queens, New York) is an American sports official. Since February 1, 1993 he has been the Commissioner of the North American Hockey League National Hockey League, before he was employed as a consultant and vice president, among others in the Basketball League National Basketball Association.

Career

Studies and career

Gary Bettman studied at Cornell University law with a focus on labor law and graduated in 1974. He then attended the New York University School of Law, where he received a Juris Doctor in 1977 's degree and worked the following year for the prestigious law firm of Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn in New York City.

Involvement in sport

1981, joined Bettman of the North American Basketball League National Basketball Association ( NBA), where he worked initially in marketing and in the legal department. In the following years he got further and further into the hierarchy and was appointed Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the league. During his time in the NBA he was involved among other things, the introduction of the salary cap.

In 1993, Bettman in the North American Hockey League National Hockey League ( NHL ), where he was appointed on February 1, the first Commissioner of the League and thus, replaced the last president of the League, Gilbert Stone as the highest-ranking officials.

During the 1990s Bettman pushed for the expansion of the NHL. On taking office, the league consisted of 24 teams and two other franchises were announced even before his term of office. With the Nashville Predators, the Atlanta Thrashers, the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets number of teams was expanded by 2000 to 30 teams. In addition, four teams from the northern U.S. and Canada were relocated to southern U.S. states. The trend map of the NHL in the south extend to new markets, led in part to criticism, as it moved away from the " traditional markets " in North America. From Canada, there were also allegations that Bettman would pursue an anti -Canada policy because he did not attempt the relocation of the Quebec Nordiques and the Winnipeg Jets to prevent. These accusations came on again when the entrepreneur Jim Balsillie tried to buy in 2007 with the intention of the Nashville Predators to relocate to Canada, the sale but eventually failed. However, Bettman was also responsible for a fund that was created at the end of the 1990s to support the four small markets of Canada in Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa and Calgary.

Since the beginning of his tenure Bettman also had to overcome two labor disputes in the NHL. In the fall of 1994 led to the first lockout, when the team owners, the players aussperrten and it thus came to a three-month delay of gaming operations. Armed topics were the fear of the owners before escalating player salaries and therefore suggested a salary cap, a salary cap on. Thus, the small markets should be supported as well as new rules for free agents. The players' union, however, NHLPA wanted more likely to accept a luxury tax for the players. Finally, after 104 days you could find an agreement in January 1995, even if the demand for a salary cap could not be implemented. However, the NHLPA was able to assert that the league their game operating in Olympic years, interrupts, so that players can participate in the Olympic ice hockey tournament. The 1994/95 season was finally reduced due to the lockout from 84 to 48 games in the regular season.

After the collective bargaining agreement, that was the Collective Bargaining Agreement, expired in the fall of 1998, all the parties opted for an extension, but in the autumn of 2004 it came to the second lockout of NHL history. Once again sought the team owner for a salary cap, while the players' union was more like a luxury tax again and would also have accepted a pay cut of five percent. Bettman negotiated again with both parties, but the negotiations proved difficult than ten years earlier. When they still had not acquired any agreement in February 2005, Gary Bettman announced the cancellation of the entire season 2004/05. As this was the first cancellation of an entire season in the North American professional sports, hit the news waves and many critics bed Mans saw confirmed and the opposition among fans to grow. In summer 2005, Bettman finally able to announce that a new collective agreement was concluded, providing for the pay cuts to the players amounting to 24 percent and required by the team owners salary cap, which should be based on the profits of the franchises.

As one of the great merits bed Mans holds that have occurred since he took office of 400 million U.S. dollars to 2.2 billion U.S. dollars more than fivefold among other things, by the conclusion of highly paid television contracts in the 1990s, the revenues of the league.