Seravalli: BOG Notebook- Did Gary Bettman get a contract extension?
MANALAPAN, Fla. — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s future with the league was reportedly on the agenda of the Executive Committee at the Board of Governors meeting here in South Florida.
Bettman neither confirmed nor denied that premise when asked.
”I plan on being here for a long time,” Bettman said, smiling. “So you’re still stuck with me.”
Details remain unclear, but the timing lines up with previously reported details.
In 2016, Bettman reportedly signed an extension that brought him through the 2021-22 season. If accurate, that means Bettman is in the final year of his deal. His answer Friday when asked about his contractual status was the same as it was back in 2016.
”I never discuss my personal situation,” Bettman said. “As I said, I’m going to be here for a while, which shouldn’t surprise anybody because I don’t know why anybody thought I was going anywhere.”
While rumblings of Bettman retiring have never surfaced on the radar, the big unknown is whether a succession plan was discussed with the Executive Committee.
Bettman was widely criticized for his management, tone and response to the Chicago Blackhawks’ sexual assault that roiled the league in controversy, launching questions of his credibility to continue on in his current role that rose to volumes never before heard in his tenure. Bettman apologized again to former Blackhawks player Kyle Beach on Thursday in his opening remarks after the board meeting.
Bettman will turn 70 in June. Bettman will mark 30 years at his post as commissioner on Feb. 1, 2023, needing only another year beyond that to match Clarence Campbell as the league’s longest-serving top executive. If Bettman did receive a contract extension this week, or one is in the works, a new deal may well push him past Campbell, who served as NHL president from 1946 to 1977.
Olympic Update
Bettman put the puck on NHL players’ sticks on Friday, saying it will largely be up to them to decide whether they will head to China for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
”We have real concerns on a whole host of issues, but we made a promise to the players and ultimately subject to COVID messing up our season so we can’t deal with the break, it has to be a joint decision,” Bettman said. “In good faith, we made a promise to the players and this is going to have to be a player’s decision – unless we jointly agree with the Players’ Association to the contrary.”
Both the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association are awaiting updated guidelines in the Olympic playbook from the Beijing Organizing Committee, which should outline the specific quarantine requirements should a player test positive for COVID-19 during the Olympics.
As the last version of the playbook was written, athletes would be required to quarantine for three weeks in a Chinese isolation facility.
The question the NHL and NHLPA have asked: Can a player be medically evacuated or exit on a charter flight to isolate in North America?
While Bettman said on Friday that it will largely be up to the players to make the call, the NHL may ultimately decide that a firm three-week isolation period in China is unpalatable for league business.
Could you imagine the disruption to the NHL if there is a mass outbreak among players in China in the late stages of the tournament? They’d be forced to cancel games for a period of weeks, well beyond the Olympic break that they’re already unhappy about in the schedule.
“I actually find difficult to believe that a player would want to go, if he was risking being in China for an extra three weeks,” Bettman said. “I don’t want to speculate. There are enough things going on that we’re going to just have to deal with this in real terms. So I don’t want a sensational headline, I don’t want anything suggesting that we’re speculating. We’re dealing with this with the Players’ Association on a day-by-day basis.”
A significant disruption would also hurt the players financially, given that they split revenue 50-50 and any lost revenue as a result of cancellations would further balloon the debt to owners.
Which is why NHL deputy commissioner might have said it best: “I don’t anticipate being on a different page than the Players’ Association on these issues, particularly that [quarantine] one.”
”The players, for the most part, seem to continue to be saying they want to go,” Bettman said. “I don’t think that this is going to be the ideal Olympic experience in terms of the lockdown in the Olympic Village and everything else that’s going on, but we made a promise to the players, and I’m going to the best of our ability adhere to it, understanding that there may be promises and consequences that nobody’s going to like. But we made a promise.”
NHL projecting $5.2 billion in revenue
Bettman said the NHL is projecting $5.2 billion in hockey-related revenue for this season, up significantly from the $4.8 billion the league projected before the season began.
That will ultimately cause the salary cap to rise $1 million next season to $82.5 million, which we reported would happen back in August.
Given the uptick in revenue, Bettman said the league is now projecting that the players’ $1 billion debt owed to owners will be paid off in three seasons. When that is paid, the salary cap will re-link to revenue, causing it to rise significantly – and signal the end of the ‘flat cap’ world.
”I think three more seasons, we’ll be caught up, give or take a season,” Bettman said, which would be a year or two ahead of schedule.