Bettman receives Sports Business Journal Lifetime Achievement Award

NEW YORK -- NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman realizes how important it is to remain on the cutting edge in an attempt to take the game to new heights each season.

It's been his goal, his passion and his priority the past 30 years.

"The world is evolving, and if you don't move forward, think big, then you're going to fall backward," Bettman said. "It's about finding new ways to connect. It's about looking to use the things that are part of our world now that weren't part of our world when I started in sports, and it gives you an opportunity to use the platform that sports represent to do more than ever before."

It's because of that belief and foresight that Bettman received the Sports Business Journal Lifetime Achievement Award on Wednesday. It was presented during the national weekly trade magazine's 2023 Sports Business Awards at the New York Marriott Marquis.

"I've always tried to never make this about me," Bettman said. "It's about the owners, it's about the fans. It's about the people who work here and at the clubs, and if I reflect all of that effort, then I'm good with that."

Bettman celebrated his 30th anniversary on the job Feb. 1 and surpassed the late David Stern, who was NBA commissioner from Feb. 1, 1984 to Feb. 1, 2014, as the longest-serving commissioner of the four major men's professional sports leagues in North America.

Bettman was NBA senior vice president and general counsel under Stern before being elected the first commissioner of the NHL at age 40 on Dec. 11, 1992.

"The specifics of basketball vs. hockey isn't what I learned," Bettman said when asked about his time at the NBA. "What I learned was the importance of relationships, the importance of being thorough and doing your homework. The importance of focusing on what your goal is and the importance of making decisions for the right reasons, meaning you do your homework, you make as informed a decision as you can and you don't do it for political reasons, because political and popular reasons can change in the moment.

"You've got to do what you think is right because if you're wrong, at least you did it because you thought it was right. And that's how you sleep at night."

Sports Business Journal listed among Bettman's accomplishments the growth of the NHL during his tenure from 24 to 32 teams and an increase in League revenue from about $400 million per season to a record $5.2 billion last season. Bettman confirmed Wednesday that number has since risen to $6 billion.

"It's gone in the blink of an eye," Bettman said about his 30 years on the job. "I have trouble understanding how it could go this quickly, but my job is to worry about playing a game, and that's a business? It doesn't get any better than that and not just because of the game but because of everything we can do with our platforms to make a difference."

Bettman has presided over 55 percent of the games in NHL history, and 600 million-plus people have attended games during his tenure.

Sports Business Journal also credited Bettman's "penchant for creativity" through expansion and relocation for establishing thriving teams in nontraditional markets, with the Dallas Stars, Nashville Predators, Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights as prime examples.

The NHL became the first major professional sports league with a team in Las Vegas when the Vegas Golden Knights joined the League in 2017-18. The Seattle Kraken joined the NHL in 2021-22 as its 32nd team.

The NHL Winter Classic, the annual outdoor game launched in 2008, has developed into a major regular-season tentpole event, and the League's willingness to sign media rights agreements with nontraditional broadcast partners, beginning with Fox Sports in 1994 and later Comcast's OLN, led to a long-term relationship with NBC Sports and, starting last season, partnerships with ESPN and Turner Sports.

The League announced April 11 that it will appear in Australia for the first time when the Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings play preseason games at the 2023 NHL Global Series in Melbourne on Sept. 23-24. It will be the NHL's first attempt at hockey in the Southern Hemisphere and the farthest it has trekked from North America, after playing in Europe and Asia.

Australia represents the fourth continent to host an NHL game. The Coyotes and Kings will play at Rod Laver Arena, home of the Australian Open tennis tournament, on a rink the NHL will construct with many of the same parts used for outdoor games.

Will venturing Down Under be the NHL's boldest move yet?

"No, how about selling 70,000 tickets in 20 minutes to play outside in the snow, which if it was two degrees warmer would have been rain," said Bettman, referring to the 2008 Winter Classic featuring the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. "I don't view things in terms of this is risky or not. I view it in terms of, 'Is this an exciting opportunity?' and 'Do we think we can do it?' understanding that not everything you try to do comes off the way you plan to do it.

"I look at what it is that we could do, that we're not doing, that we could do better and that's how we move forward. It's about what can we do to continue to connect with our fans, grow the game, and to make this game as exciting and as entertaining and appealing as anything else you could do with your leisure time."

Though Sports Business Journal noted the three work stoppages under Bettman, it pointed out the Commissioner delivered "significant victories for the League at the negotiating table." Those included obtaining long-term cost certainty for owners in 2005 "with the establishment of a salary cap, improvements to the on-ice product and greater parity between the large- and small-market teams."

Bettman said, "I love the game, and I love everybody associated with the game, and it's challenging. Every day is different and you're not just dealing with the issues of the day, you're trying to focus on what do we need to do to move forward, and we've done lots of things to move the game forward.

"Working here and doing what I do is part of the ultimate team effort in the ultimate team sport. And that's why I think, with everybody working together, why we've grown as much as we have."

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said the award for Bettman was "a long time coming but very well deserved."

"I see the leadership qualities he has all the time, so every day I've worked with him I've seen him in every situation," Daly said. "In tough times -- the pandemic being one of them -- some of the work stoppages we've been involved in and some of those negotiations, even some of our media negotiations ... It's where he really elevates himself and separates himself from the pack."

Emmy-winning actor and St. Louis Blues fan Jon Hamm, who introduced Bettman at the ceremony Wednesday, said of the Commissioner, "It's been nice to get to know him over the course of my fandom, really. And it's been impressive to see what he's been able to do just with the League. … I've been a fan for pretty much my entire life. The Blues franchise is, I think, 54 years old now or whatever (56) and I'm 52, so it's a couple years older than me, but I kind of grew up with that franchise. It's been nice to get to know Gary, and it's really been nice to get to see what he's done."

Also during the ceremony, the NHL won the award for Sports Breakthrough of the Year for its Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards, advertising technology that debuted this season.