I'm probably in the minority of fans who actually think Bettman's done a good job. A lot of people aren't old enough to remember how bush league the NHL was under Clarence Campbell and John Ziegler. Under Campbell you actually had a team (Cleveland Barons) fold, which I can't remember ever happening in any of the 4 major North American sports. And Ziegler was the one who allowed the Colorado Rockies to move to New Jersey. The New York area did NOT need 3 teams. Remember, this was in the midst of the Islanders dynasty in which despite winning 4 cups, still had trouble breaking the Rangers stranglehold on the NYC market. That's not even counting the lack of marketing. Ziegler couldn't market a canteen of water to a Bedouin in the Sahara Desert.
As a sunbelt fan, I am thankful for Bettman's attempt to grow the game in non-traditional areas. Despite what some "traditionalists" might think, there is no way the league could have moved into the 21st century using the regional format they had used in years prior. Plus, if the league wants that nice fat TV contract, they will need teams in large non-traditional markets. The current US TV deal is pretty underwhelming as opposed to the Canadian TV deal which is pretty much maxed out in terms of revenue potential. That is why I oppose relocating struggling US franchises such as the Coyotes to Quebec. Teams like the Panthers struggle, not because people down here don't like hockey, it's that people down here don't want to watch shi**y hockey. Before Vinnie Viola came along, the Panthers were owned by a cheap Jew (Alan Cohen) who only cared about bringing in those northern snowbird dollars during the winter months, as well as trying to get a casino built near the arena (the casino never came to fruition) He literally put nothing back into the team. This resulted in 15 wasted years in which the team lost an entire generation of fans. The millennials who are now in their 20's have never grown up with a winning team, thus have no reason to care about the Panthers.
As for Bettman, his job isn't to appease the whiny NHL fan base, it's to make money for the owners which he has done in spades (don't buy into that crap about the league losing money) He also crushed the players union in one of the biggest stare downs in sports history (I wish spineless Bud Selig could have done this) and he got the league cost certainty. As much as fans like to whine about having to prop up struggling franchises, this also helps teams like the Oilers and Flames, who without cost certainty, would be in some serious dire straits right now. As much as people would like to see a team back in Quebec (and don't get me wrong, I do too as long as it's through expansion and not relocation) and while Quebec may be worth more than a struggling franchise in Florida or Arizona, healthy franchises in Florida and Arizona would be worth 5 times more than a franchise in Quebec due to the sheer population sizes in those cities (The Miami/Ft Lauderdale/West Palm Beach market has 6 million which puts it at around the same size as Philly and DC) Not to mention all the corporate money that exists down here that doesn't exist in Quebec.
Anyway, I kind of started going off on a tangent here. I'm a huge hockey fan, but I always feel like I have to defend the sunbelt markets when they get crapped on by "traditionalists"
