NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will be in Vancouver this
morning to announce that the Canucks and Mighty Ducks will
play two games in Tokyo next season on October 4 and 5,
according to Neil Campbell of the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL.
Campbell: "Vancouver's hockey team will play a home game in
Tokyo next season. Unfortunately, they'll return to General
Motors Place to play the other 40 home dates." Campbell
notes the rigorous travel players may endure from the start
of training camp through the Olympics: "Just how much can
the body take? Just how much can the mind take? One
doesn't have to be a genius to see that the NHL's attitude
of more, more, more has badly diluted its product" (Toronto
GLOBE & MAIL, 3/26). Yesterday in Calgary, Bettman said
that the future of the remaining six Canadian NHL teams is
"bright," according to Mark Miller of the CALGARY SUN.
Bettman: "We want to have our Canadian franchises stay where
they are. We want them as strong as possible and we're
working hard to that end with things such as the Canadian
Assistance Program [CAP]." But Miller notes the CAP, which
ends after next season, is "unlikely" to be renewed by the
NHL Board of Governors "if the expansion into as many as
four U.S. markets proceeds" (CALGARY SUN, 3/26).
BETTMAN PROFILE: Bettman is featured in the current
HOCKEY NEWS by Bob McKenzie who notes that Bettman's reign
"will ultimately be judged on how he handles the business of
hockey between now and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt
Lake City." Bettman "is embarking on a five-year business
trip that will determine whether the NHL sheds its image as
a regional sport that is No. 4 out of four." Bettman:
"We're not the fourth sport where we are. We're the fourth
sport because of where we're not." McKenzie notes
"critical" elements for Bettman and the NHL over the next
five years: expansion, a new CBA with on-ice officials, a
new national TV rights deals in the U.S. and Canada, the '98
Nagano Olympics, another World Cup, a new CBA with the NHLPA
and the 2002 Winter Olympics (HOCKEY NEWS, 4/4 issue).
TV & OLYMPIC TALK: McKenzie notes that TV ratings for
the NHL are down on Fox, Hockey Night in Canada and TSN.
Bettman adds that although ratings are down 8.5% for Fox in
NHL markets, they are up 18% in non-NHL markets -- "a huge,
huge increase." Regarding the Nagano Olympics, Bettman said
that it's important not to over-value the '98 Olympics, as
he calls it a "building block," not necessarily "a watershed
event" (HOCKEY NEWS, 4/4 issue).
