Boreal

How to end the embarrassment of Bettman making a mockery of our national sport

A large portion of the National Hockey League's revenue comes from Canadian broadcasters who depend on Canadian viewers for advertising dollars. Canadians are actually subsidizing expansion into markets with empty hockey arenas at the expense of cities like Hamilton and Québec City.

All Canada would have to do to get teams into these cities would be to declare hockey revenue generated in Canada stays in Canada and southern teams like the moribund Arizona Coyotes would be clamoring to move north to stay in business as Bettman’s business model is not viable without subsidies from Canadian broadcasters.

Bettman will probably move the Coyotes to Houston (or Salt Lake City in spite of its water woes) knowing he can depend on his Canadian patsies to pay the bills. Canadians, if your government will not address this embarrassing takeover of what used to be our national sport with our own money, simply stop watching; stop being Bettman's patsies!

If you still must watch the game, do what we did when the NHL added six teams, all American; we boycotted Hockey Night in Canada’s advertisers and Molson, then owner of the Montreal Canadians, which had voted against adding Vancouver. It did the trick.

Bernard Payeur, May 27, 2023