Gary Bettman's most recent failed deal has cost the NHL 35 million potential viewers

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Sam Hutch
August 28, 2023 (10:19)

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Gary Bettman has been the National Hockey League commissioner for just over 30 years and in that time, he's helped grow the league as a business, but not the audience. In fact on recent years because of him, the growth of the game and trying to attract new people have virtually stopped. Something that is no secret, but still he continues to be in charge, torpedoing the on-ice product. In doing that among other things are a list of failed deals, whether that be TV, jersey or otherwise.

According to famed player agent Allan Walsh, Gary Bettman has cost the NHL 35 million potential viewers since signing a TV deal with ESPN who is going into their 3 year of a 7 year deal; take a look.

The NHL is going into its 3rd year of its 7 year media rights deal with ESPN. Since that time, ESPN's subscriber base has fallen from 80 million to 45 million. Disney (parent company of ESPN) is now actively searching for a «strategic partner» for the network.

This is further proof that Bettman is bad for the sport, he's only still in charge because he makes the owners a boat load of money, but at this point, the question has to be asked: does losing the vast majority of your audience mean nothing? Because it's certainly looking that way.

To have a parent company like Disney actively searching for a strategic partner sends the message that Bettman can make deals, sure, but he cannot keep them. Something you would expect a business man of his acclaim to be able to do.