Gary Bettman loves view from on top of the hockey world
(FOX Sports 1's Julie Stewart-Binks sat down with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman for a one-on-one interview. For more, watch "FOX Sports Live" on Tuesday night and "America's Pregame" on Wednesday.)
NEW YORK — Only a matter of hours stand between now and the Wednesday puck drop on the NHL 2014-15 season, and, not surprisingly, the league is rife with storylines. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman — in his 21st year on the job — discussed a number of topics Monday in an exclusive sitdown interview with FOX Sports at the league's offices.
One of the major initiatives the commissioner disclosed is his desire to bring back a World Cup, an event that began as a successor to the Canada Cup in 1996 and ran until 2004, with the tournament occurring twice.
"My personal view is that we should do a World Cup in the offseason, at least initially," Bettman said.
"We think it's something that is important for us to do, that would be extremely well received all over the world," the commissioner said. "We continue to go to the Olympics — there were time differences in Sochi, and we went — it's really more important about what's good for our game and players, and that's something we're going to have to focus on in the future, and we will."
30 is enough — for now
Though a World Cup is something the league is looking to adopt (again), expansion — at least immediately — is not on the docket. Given the league's financial success and unbalanced alignment — and Bettman's affinity to grow the game in America — one might believe another NHL team, whether by relocation or expansion, is on the horizon. It's not.
"Well, first of all, we're not going to expand just to be symmetrical," Bettman said. "We can go to my office and check. I don't have this master list hidden away where we rank the cities. We haven't gotten that far. We're aware who's interested and what areas are interested. But we haven't decided to do anything beyond that."
NHL vs. NFL
Bettman, who was able to catch his breath this offseason after the first full NHL season since the most recent work stoppage, didn't have to spend his summer in CBA negotiations as in 2012, or trying to find a viable owner for the then-Phoenix Coyotes in June 2013. Also, he wasn't a commissioner under fire like the NFL's Roger Goodell.
"I'm not going to reply on the NFL's situation, and I don't think any of us know enough about it from the inside," he said. "From my standpoint, I'm very proud with how our players conduct themselves. We've been involved in education and counseling, which is more important on things such as substance abuse, domestic violence, and that's something we reinforce to the players on a regular basis."
Though the NFL and Goodell have come under harsh scrutiny for their handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence situation, Bettman and the NHL are working to use the sport of hockey as a vehicle for social change.
The NHL commissioner may not have been a fan favorite in recent years (three work stoppages in 20 years will do that), or any time he presents the Stanley Cup (which, ironically, is his favorite time of the year), but he is most certainly looking good against the backdrop of a crisis-plagued Goodell.
"We believe a number of our initiatives — whether it’s Hockey Fights Cancer or others — we pride ourselves on being diverse and knowing we have a platform that can get people's attention.
"The number of women attending our games is higher than any other sport, the number of stories I hear about first dates at a hockey game is overwhelming — we want to be diverse, whether it’s sexual orientation or gender."
Bettman says the league is well-positioned to support a gay hockey player.
"For a few reasons . . . if a player wants to come out, he can feel comfortable doing it knowing he has support," he said. "Players are role models, sports are role models. We want to make a statement to people that your orientation doesn't matter.
"We want everyone to believe hockey is for everyone."
