NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman Talks NHL Playoffs
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Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. We know that political tensions, as we keep talking about U.S.-China, they are definitely high. They're also high between the United States and Canada. Pretty tense on the ice as well, as tonight is game two of the Stanley Cup finals between the Edmonton Oilers and the defending champion, Florida Panthers. Oh, God!

And that, of course, was game one. The Oilers leading the best of seven series thanks to a win in game one. Our next guest was watching, of course. He'll be watching again tonight, we assume, as he has watched all other finals and guided and grown the league for the last 32-plus years. He's the National Hockey League's first-ever commissioner, making him the longest-serving executive, chief executive among major North American pro sports leagues.

With us, we've got Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the NHL, joining us from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Also joining us, too, our in-house hockey expert, Scarlett Fu. She's a Bloomberg TV anchor of The Close. She's back in our New York studio. Commissioner Bettman, welcome to the program. It's good to see you. No Canadian team has won. Just thinking, are the Canadian fans a bit more edgy considering the political tensions between the U.S. and Canada right now? Can we talk politics a little bit?

We can do that. Thank you for having me. It's good to be with you. Our fans are passionate for the teams that they root for. There's no question about that. But there seems to be a little bit of movement towards Edmonton being Canada's team, because as you said, the Stanley Cup hasn't been awarded to a Canadian team in the last 30 plus years, Montreal being the last club to win it in 1993.

In terms of the tensions, initially, and it was around the same time as our Four Nations tournament, which Canada won, back in February,

There was some booing of anthems in both countries. That's all simmered down. People are focused on playing hockey, rooting for their team, and the competition throughout the end of the regular season and into the playoffs has been terrific. And the question that I get most frequently asked is, well, what does that do for the Canadian clubs with respect to the tariffs and everything else, because our players

in Canada still get paid in U.S. dollars? And the answer is the Canadian dollar is actually up a little bit since all this started a few months ago. I think three, four months ago the Canadian dollar was at 70 cents. It's now at 73. And so we'll watch what goes on. But I think what the great thing about sports is it brings people together. And even if there's a little political tension around the edges,

ultimately fans get into and focus on rooting for their favorite team. So you just answered a question I was going to ask you about, you know, the possible negative implications of U.S.-Canada tariffs on the Canadian dollar. It does feel like things have settled down, but are you still a little bit on pins and needles about concerns about how this could escalate again? We know from the White House, Commissioner, that things can change rapidly.

And we have to be flexible and adaptable, and we always are. And, you know, that's been something that I've dealt with over three decades. The issue on the Canadian dollar, which is where any sort of

league issue would come is really a function of what happens with the Canadian economy. And if the Canadian economy stays stable and the dollar relative to the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar doesn't change dramatically, things should be fine. I think what we've seen worldwide is a little bit of softening of the U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar has been holding its own. If that changes, if it becomes a problem, we'll address it.

But so far, so good. And again, the good news is people are focused on the hockey, which has been sensational, as you mentioned, game two tonight. And so, you know, we're looking...

forward to a really terrific conclusion to what has been a great season. All right. Well, let's talk about the hockey for a moment here because this will be the sixth straight year that a Florida-based team is participating in the Stanley Cup final. And of course, a lot of people will talk about the state's tax benefits as a reason why Florida teams are doing so well. I know that you and Bill Daley have kind of dismissed that as a factor. But I'm curious,

Mr. Commissioner, what is it about Florida's operating environment that enables its teams to consistently outperform? Well, that's a recent vintage since we had the salary cap in the economic system we have in 2005-06. Nobody was talking about this for the first 15, 18 years. Players choose to go to teams for lots of reasons and maybe

There's a little element of local state taxes, but the fact is they look to go to a market they want to live in, where they want to raise their families, where their kids will go to school. They look at the organization, they look at ownership, they look at the coach.

they look at the general manager, there is the cost of living. And so, and by the way, if the players are getting paid in U.S. dollars and they're living in Canada, that sort of offsets any differences in local taxes and

As I think you know, players get taxed by the jurisdictions that they play in on the road. So I think that gets a little overblown. I think it's too much of an excuse for clubs that may not be performing as well as they'd like to. And I think it's a little bit of an injustice to the great job that the ownership and organizations have done in South Florida and in Tampa.

And of course, the Florida teams were expansion teams, and there's always going to be a lot of talk, Mr. Commissioner, about expansion into other markets like Houston, like Phoenix again, and like Atlanta again. The NHL currently has 32 teams, which is kind of considered the sweet spot because the structure creates this really consistent and clear format for competition and scheduling. You've got two conferences, each with two divisions, with eight teams each.

What are team owners' specific concerns about balance if you do pursue expansion and that format changes? Well, the answer to that question is we're not focused on a formal expansion process. Yes, we've been getting interest from a number of places, including the three you mentioned, but we've said

We're not going to announce a date, and if you want an expansion team, everybody apply. The criteria at 10,000 feet we look at are first and foremost ownership, market, arena, and what does it do to make the league stronger. And we've told the interested parties, if you're ready to come in and make a presentation to check those boxes, come talk to us and we'll focus on what needs to be done.

In terms of what it would do to our structure, our format of the schedule, that's not something we're even focused on right now because at the present time, expansion is in front and center on our agenda.

Commissioner, I want to ask about the media relationships and the way that people here in the U.S. are watching and consuming hockey and the way that they're not. Why does the NHL network, in your view, not have a streaming option or a digital app that you can authenticate with a third-party cable sign-on? Does it feel like you're leaving money on the table by not offering streaming availability like other leagues do at this point?

Well, actually, we do have a streaming capability. Warner Brothers Discovery streams the games that they have on Macs. ESPN streams us on ESPN+. As it relates to the NHL network itself, we're kind of in a transition period and we're looking at our options, but

99% of our games are available either linear or streamed in the United States. And frankly to us, the most important thing in the short term is always making sure that our games are available to the most number of people. And we think we do a good job of that. What we do with the NHL Network, which relative to everybody else has

far fewer games. That's something that will evolve over time with the changing landscape, but we do have a large, full-breadth capacity for streaming, both in the US and Canada.

Hey, one of the things I do want to ask you, I mean, there's just so much, I feel like, on your plate. And you talked about this in your, Mr. Commissioner, in your status of the league address prior to game one of the finals. And you talked specifically about the status of collective bargaining talks that are going on. I'm curious, what are you hearing? Where are you? What are the priorities for the league? And what do you expect to be the sticking points? And can you get something done before the current agreement expires in September?

Actually, the current agreement expires a year from September, so... 2026, forgive me, yes.

Yes. So we have plenty of time. We started having conversations with the union probably end of February, early March. I think we're having good constructive discussions. I think for the most part we're on the same page that it's important to work together. We get together on a regular basis. We even got together yesterday here in Edmonton.

And I'm very optimistic that we're going to get this done in relatively short order. I don't mean today or tomorrow. But at the end of the day, the relationship between the NHL and the NHL Players Association, which is now...

Under executive director Marty Walsh was I think many of you know him as former mayor of Boston and former Secretary of Labor We're in a good place and I think we're gonna get it done and I think the best the beneficiary from all of that will not just be the clubs and the players but our fans

I'm not anticipating any fundamental problems or issues that are going to cause us to have fundamental problems. Are you on the same page when it comes to international competition? You guys had a very successful four nations tournament and we know the NHL players are going back to the Olympics next year. So I'm sure there is a desire on both sides to keep the energy of international competition going once the Olympics comes and goes.

There's no question about that. So going back in ancient history, because it predates me, the league and the Players Association have been joint partners in the execution of international competition, particularly best on best, which is the Olympics, the World Cup, and things like Four Nations that we did to an outstanding result in terms of fan interest and the competition itself.

Prior leaders of the Players Association weren't as immediately focused as Marty is in terms of understanding the importance of moving this effort forward. We know that our players, a third of which come from outside of North America, love representing their countries. It's important to them, which is why the competition at Four Nations was so good, so competitive, and so compelling. And so,

He is focused on not just doing that in terms of building interest, but it also speaks volumes of how well we're working together. And so we're looking forward to having the Olympics two years later, the World Cup two years after that, the Olympics and so on, on a regular basis, because we know it's great for the game, it's great for fan interest, and again, we know how important it is for our players to represent the countries

They come from, and I don't think there's anything that really compares in the international landscape to best on best in hockey.

Hey, one thing I do wonder, Commissioner, is where does women's hockey fit into this? And we've seen, you know, certainly interest in women's sports skyrocket on so many different levels. And we've certainly seen some early success, initial success with the Women's Hockey League, the PWHL. I'm curious about the involvement by the NHL specifically when it comes to women's sports and what kind of investment and solid investment are you guys looking to maybe do in that area?

Well, certainly at the grassroots level, we're fully supportive and our programs are very, very inclusive and welcoming. The PWHL, which is the Women's Professional Hockey League, is off to a terrific start. They launched very quickly two seasons ago. We helped them get off the ground using our infrastructure and resources, and we work well with them. We try to include them in our major events.

And they just recently announced a two-team expansion. So they're off to a great start. And again, we're thrilled and fully supportive. It's great for the game of hockey. Commissioner, let's just return to playoffs for this year. When you look at viewership numbers, they're actually down about 20% from last year's playoffs. To what extent does that concern you? And do you believe it has any kind of, I don't know, future implications? Does it suggest anything about the future of the league?

Actually, on a North American basis, which is how we look at these things, because we're a little bit different than baseball, basketball and football, because seven of our 32 teams are in Canada and they don't show up in U.S. ratings. But when you look at North America as a whole, we're about flat. And you have to take into account that this may be the first time in the history of the NHL where none of the

four original six U.S. teams were in the playoffs, and that's Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Boston, all of which rate extraordinarily well. And Boston and New York, the Rangers, had great runs last season, even though they didn't make it to the Stanley Cup final. So it's a little bit of apples and oranges, but when you look at it

on a North American basis, it's fine. When you look at, for example, game seven in last year's Stanley Cup final, which was, this is a redo this year, Edmonton and Florida, I think we drew 16 or 17 million fans.

North American wide, and I think we had about 9 million in the United States. And the final game of four nations was at about the same level. And so our ratings are strong. We tend to be a little bit variable. But don't just look at the U.S.

We won't. We won't. Thank you so much. Busy time for you. Good luck with game two. Are you still quoting 30-year-old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back.

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