Bettman interview I

Here’s the first part of my interview with NHL commission Gary Bettman today, in which he discusses the “kicked-in goal” from Game 3, the league’s television arrangement, the possibility of the Winter Classic in Los Angeles, relocation/expansion, the league’s online-streaming thoughts and the possibility of seeing Eastern Conference teams every year…

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Question: There’s been a lot of talk in the past couple days about the incident of Sedin kicking in the puck, a lot of talk about the “kicking motion.” What was your take on that situation? And does it bother you, even if it’s just in a joking way, to hear the word “conspiracy” being tossed around?

BETTMAN: “First of all, I don’t believe we had an `incident.’ We had a close call that was made by our professionals in hockey operations in the Toronto office. I am comfortable with their professionalism, their integrity and their judgment. Whenever you have a situation that’s a close call, you’re going to have one side that’s happy and one side that’s unhappy. For anyone to suggest, or use the word `conspiracy’ is simply absurd. There’s no foundation to it. My guess is, it’s no different than what we’ve seen and experienced in prior years in the first round of the playoffs. Emotions are up, passions are up and the stakes are high.”

Question: There’s been a lot of debate about that rule. Did you think it was clearly defined and explained?

BETTMAN: “No matter how clearly you define a rule, you’re going to see something. If the leg swung six feet, it would be a lot clearer than if it moved an inch or two. So there are always going to be tough calls, but it’s been well defined. It’s something that the general managers have reviewed. There’s been a DVD, with video examples, that was circulated previously, in seasons past. As I said, I’m comfortable with the judgment that was made by our folks in charge of video review.”

Question: There are a lot of fans asking about TV, and the idea of ESPN and Versus…

BETTMAN: “First of all, Versus is doing a great job. Their coverage is wall-to-wall and extremely well done. Their distribution, particularly now that they’re back on DirecTV, is close to 80 million homes. They give us the promotion, the scheduling and the coverage that we wouldn’t get anywhere else. I think a fair amount of the media talk about TV, and why we’re not on ESPN, actually comes from ESPN.”

Question: When I talked to Tim Leiweke, though, he said he respectfully disagrees with you and talked about the value of exposure on ESPN…

BETTMAN: “AEG has a studio on its property for ESPN. They are business partners, so while I respect Tim’s view, the fact is that we’re going to have to agree to disagree.”

Question: Tim Leiweke also talked about bringing the Winter Classic to Los Angeles. Is that something you ever see happening?

BETTMAN: “It’s not something we have studied, because I presume that, from a weather standpoint, it would be difficult for us to ensure that the ice and the game conditions would be consistent or stable enough for us to conduct a game that actually counts in the standings. But if they’re serious about it, then we’ll have to study it in more depth.”

Question: There are a lot of questions from fans outside the Southern California market about possible expansion to Canadian cities or to the Northwest. Could you just talk, in general, about the idea of relocation or expansion in the coming years?

BETTMAN: “I don’t want to make any promises to any city that doesn’t have a team, that they might get one in the immediate future. I don’t want to raise expectations. That’s been done, in other instances, by other people, and I think it’s been unfortunate, especially for the people whose expectations have been raised. We’re on record, and our record is clear, that we do everything possible to avoid relocation. At the present time, particularly in a recessionary environment, we’re not looking to expand. If we were to do either of those two things, an unavoidable relocation or expansion, then obviously we’re going to look at the places that have expressed interest in a team.”

Question: Given the growth of online viewership with the GameCenter Live package, do you anticipate any changes in how that is handled? There are some questions about games being blacked out, and similar issues.

BETTMAN: “First and foremost, we are very mindful of the important relationships that teams have with their local TV providers. We try not to do anything to interfere with those important relationships. If you’re going to see streaming of home-team games locally, it’s going to be through a joint endeavor with us, the club and the regional sports channel or local broadcaster.”

Question: Is that something that’s plausible?

BETTMAN: “There are always discussions ongoing, because this is a space that is evolving at record speed. So we’re very mindful of it. We went through a point in time where we wouldn’t stream games out of market because there were issues with gating. Those were solved. Technology has become spectacular. People continue to compliment us on how good our games look, streamed online, which is a credit to NeuLion, which is our technology provider. Our visits to NHL.com this season are up 30 percent. Our subscriptions to GameCenter Live, I think, are up over 50 percent. We have the most tech-savvy fans, and the fact that we may have been challenged in traditional media means it’s even more important that we’re using the digital space to connect with our fans..”

Question: In terms of scheduling, there are questions about whether or not there will be any more changes, particularly in terms of being able to see every team, every year…

BETTMAN: “You see them every year, either on person or on television, which is a change from where we were. The overwhelming feedback, since we made the last change, is that people seem to like what we have. Unless we see a groundswell of interest in making a change, I don’t see the point in making a change just for the sake of making a change. With our conference-based playoffs, which have resulted in incredibly competitive regular-season races, it seems to be working as we intended it, and quite well.”