NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was featured in a Q&A
with Rick Barger of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Bettman, asked
if he is concerned about a drop in league-wide attendance:
"I don't think we have too many teams that are struggling.
There are peaks and valleys in attendance or teams. Some of
it's related obviously to performance year to year. ... If
you exclude the Hurricanes, I think as of (Tuesday) we were
down three-tenths of a point" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 12/14).
BURKE-ISMS: NHL Senior VP/Dir of Operations Brian Burke
was interviewed in the HARTFORD COURANT. Asked if Hartford
could receive another team after Atlanta and Minneapolis/St.
Paul were awarded expansion franchises after losing teams:
"[S]ince the team moved out of Atlanta, I think the city has
-- if it hasn't doubled in size, it's close to -- doubled in
size. I think Atlanta is a slam dunk for us. I'd have to
see the same type of growth and corporate growth in Hartford
before I could predict that" (HARTFORD COURANT, 12/14).
NO FAN OF NAGANO: Blackhawks Owner Bill Wirtz, on the
NHL's participation in the Nagano Games: "The Games will be
on at 1, 2, 3 a.m. This is exposure? Do it in Salt Lake
City (in 2002). The World Cup, that is what we should be
building up" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 12/13). Wirtz was asked
about the "thousands of empty seats in the United Center,"
and Rich Strom of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE wrote that while Wirtz
"skated around his thoughts. ... He did say people
throughout the league are talking about the lack of
intensity of the game and that could be one of the reasons
attendance is down" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 12/13).