MGoPoll: Worst Commissioner in Sports
After the B1G’s announcement about Friday night football yesterday, it got me thinking about all the commissioner blunders that have been occurring, especially lately. I found it odd that I knew so many of their names off the top of my head, all for bad reasons. Here are the candidates:
Jim Delany (B1G): Most recently, he released that teams would be playing on Fridays. He clearly didn’t ask the universities about this, because there was instant backlash. Responsible for adding Rutgers. Destroyed the CCHA. Anything to make a quick buck > tradition.
Greg Sankey (SEC):A few weeks ago he completely botched postponing the FLA/LSU game, and it is now a home game for LSU instead. Didn’t seem like a huge deal at the time, but now Florida is 1st in the East, and LSU is very much alive in the West. Also spent all summer complaining about satellite camps instead of addressing huge issues at Ole Miss and Tennessee.
Bob Bowlsby (Big12): Basically signed a death warrant for the conference. Was bullied by ESPN to not expand for a mere $10 million(a whopping $1 million per school). Except for Texas, the payouts for next year are expected to be about $30m per school. By comparison, B1G and SEC will be ~$50m. Not sure if the intent to expand was ever even there, or they just needed to convince themselves they were still relevant by trolling G5 teams all summer.
Roger Goodell(NFL): LOL needs no introduction
Gary Bettman (NHL): As recently as last week, he continues to vehemently deny that CTE is linked to concussions. He also went all in on a Las Vegas expansion team instead of more sustainable cities. Three lockouts have almost crippled the NHL under his watch.
Sepp Blatter (FIFA): Pinnacle of corruption.
Vote in the first comment below for this year’s Dunning-Kruger Incompetency Award
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:23 PM ^
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November 3rd, 2016 at 6:42 PM ^
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:53 PM ^
Agreed, it's Blatter, then everyone else going for 2nd. It's one thing to respond poorly to crimes committed by the players you oversee. It's another thing entirely to commit them yourself.
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:45 PM ^
November 4th, 2016 at 4:19 PM ^
How about a guy who takes payoffs to look the other way while a country uses slave labor to build the stadiums they need to host his event? Would that be kinda bad?
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:53 PM ^
Blatter? I hardly know her!
I, of course, will see myself out.
November 4th, 2016 at 8:17 AM ^
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November 4th, 2016 at 10:05 AM ^
if anyone cared about soccer. oh people care you say? who are these people i don't know any of them.
November 4th, 2016 at 10:05 AM ^
if anyone cared about soccer. oh people care you say? who are these people i don't know any of them.
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:59 PM ^
November 3rd, 2016 at 8:27 PM ^
November 4th, 2016 at 9:28 AM ^
November 3rd, 2016 at 8:34 PM ^
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:26 PM ^
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:49 PM ^
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November 3rd, 2016 at 6:52 PM ^
CEOs will do that. It gives organizations that have a lot of moving parts the time to set goals, prepare a succession plan, and delegate responsibilities that go beyond that time frame.
In my line of work, I know of a number of wise long-serving pastors who give that sort of notice so that everybody knows the plan and the timetable before things start to move.
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:27 PM ^
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November 3rd, 2016 at 6:28 PM ^
Goodell. Hit women, not bongs.
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:29 PM ^
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November 3rd, 2016 at 6:34 PM ^
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:35 PM ^
Bettman has grown the NHL's total revenue from around 300 million to 3 billion dollars. If anything the last lockout saved the sport when they squashed all of those 10-12 year contracts that teams were handing out.
As for expansion, Las Vegas put together an appealing bid. Just because it's in the desert doesn't mean it will be bad.
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:38 PM ^
It doesn't mean it will be, but it will be.
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:45 PM ^
That's what they said about Arizona, which has been a rolling disaster. And the South in general, which has never worked that well.
If increasing revenue is the main criteria, Goodell and Delany don't belong here either, because they've made their constituencies rich. Since virtually all sports organizations have made incredible piles of money in the same time frame as Bettman, I don't think you can use that as a measuring stick. One would have to be epically stupid NOT to increase revenues in this kind of environment. And Bud Selig, he of the tied all-star game and the permanent defenestration of important baseball records by the steroid era, would look pretty good too.
November 3rd, 2016 at 8:04 PM ^
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:36 PM ^
but Goodell is out of control right now. Oh and Delaney...cuz Rutgers
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:40 PM ^
Goodell-His Tom Brady circus show. He should not be judge and jury.
Bettman-Lockouts and lost season. Love hearing him get booed.
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:41 PM ^
Bettman is surpassingly terrible. People don't realize how long he's been a cancer on the NHL.
He is responsible for an entire lost season and two more prolonged lockouts. He is responsible for the NHL's disastrous southern strategy that removed teams from hockey hotbeds like Winnipeg and placed them in cities that continue not to care about them to this day. Like clockwork he attempts to remove NHL players from the sport's greatest showcase, the Olympic games, in favor of an irregular and uninteresting early autumn product called the World Cup that nobody watches. He makes a mockery of the sport's pinnacle moment, the presentation of the Stanley Cup, by acting like a petulant child who has been forced out of bed too early.
I could go on. Goodell is a jerk and a fool. Delany occasionally acts like a buffoon. Sankey and Bowlsby are unremarkable administrators who have their ups and downs.
Bettman is a class apart.
...however, this poll oddly includes one inactive commissioner/president, Sepp Blatter. Sepp Blatter is one of the most corrupt men in the world of sports. And if you want to widen the criteria like that, you also need to look at guys like Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid (retired former presidents of the ineffective and generally embarrassing UCI, the cycling governing body, during peak doping years) and IOC leaders Juan Antonio Samaranch and Jacques Rogge, who have led the Olympics into an era of unfettered corruption.
Including Blatter in this poll is like including The Rock in a poll of "best fighters" that otherwise includes Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Mike Tyson, and Floyd Mayweather. It's not the same category. But he gets my vote because he was terrible.
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:12 PM ^
First off, the Jets moving had nothing to do with Gary Bettman. None of those teams moving had anything to do with Gary Bettman.
The Jets were falling apart anyway because of the exchange rate and they had an arena that was built in 1955 in a city that wouldn't give them a new one.
Same with the North Stars. No attendance and a bankrupt franchise. Quebec City was killed by the exchange rate. Hartford was bankrupt too. Throw in the Rockies as well. Small markets just weren't surviving.
And Bettman isn't pulling NHL players out of the Olympics. It's the teams. They already didn't like their players playing, but the second that John Tavares tore his MCL in the Olympics NHL players were done.
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:17 PM ^
Interesting that the North Stars couldn't draw fans when their replacement franchise has basically been sold out for 15 years. Maybe it wasn't the location? It turns out that most of these places you mention can support a team just fine in Bettman's new NHL, and I am inclined to hold him responsible for not working to preserve the game in areas that cared about it. It's no secret that he wanted franchises moving south.
Bettman is, in large part, held responsible for the Southern strategy. Atlanta and Nashville were on his watch, and he has continually doubled down on keeping teams in southern regions, preventing sales of both Nashville and Arizona (which was bankrupt and under League protection!) to people who would move the franchises north. The move of Atlanta north took serious effort.
Two teams in LA, which doesn't care about the sport (I lived in SoCal when the Ducks won the Cup and regularly followed local sports media--nobody every mentioned them, at all, even in passing), but just one for Ontario. Naturally.
Bettman is as responsible for pulling players out of the Olympics (or not, as the case has been so far) as he is for the growth in revenues. If you're interested in federalizing responsibility, you cannot give him credit for riding the tailwinds the teams are using to make all of that money.
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:26 PM ^
You edited in the Tavares part before I posted, though that doesn't materially change the argument. If teams were really that concerned about injuries, the World Cup would not have been held this fall; the Olympics issue is and always has been about money, instead of about what is best for the game.
Regardless, you make some valid points. I have deliberately not argued about issues like the tv contract, because though I continue to believe it was harmful to leave ESPN, the fact is that hockey was buried at ESPN and NBC actually gives it a fair shake, and ultimately it is a product that better serves what the NHL understands is a bit of a niche audience.
But the work stoppages are simply impossible to look past. They have irrevocably harmed my ability to enjoy the sport. They killed all their momentum coming out of 1994, wiped out an entire season just as some of the lesser clubs were getting momentum (the Stanley Cup Finals between Tampa Bay and Calgary, before the stoppage, didn't have great name value but were terrifically engrossing) and then killed yet another half season just a couple of years ago. One can argue that the players share some responsibility for this, particularly 2005 (I sure do) but responsibility ultimately falls on Bettman.
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:32 PM ^
You realize that Bettman is only a moutpiece for the owners right? He didn't just wake up one day and decide, "Hey, let's have a lockout!".
All of those decisions were made by owners, or in the case of teams moving south, things out of his command, and Bettman was left trying to explain/rationalize it to fans.
And as far as the Stanley Cup presentation goes, a mockery of the sports pinnacle moment? Are you kidding me? It's a freaking trophy presentation. You sound like one of those #pleaselikemysport twitter morons
November 3rd, 2016 at 8:28 PM ^
If only there were a post by me on this thread that explained exactly what you're talking about.
Oh, wait, there *is* such a post, from an hour before you typed this:
I am hard on guys like Bettman and Delany, but it is worth noting that their job is basically to serve their respective ownership groups. Delany in particular is basically doing what he is asked by the B1G ADs, and if they are unhappy with something they will flag him on it. There are some areas where he has gotten rolled (the satellite camp regulation fiasco, for example) but a lot of the mistake the B1G has made in our view are the consequence of choices by member institutions, not Delany.
(Edited for excessive snark) You skimmed without reading everything. What, exactly, is #pleaselikemysport about outlining the failings of a commissioner I am not fond of?
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:45 PM ^
1. Blatter
2. Bowlsby
3. Delany
4. Goddell
5. Bettman
6. Manfred
7. Sankey
Meanwhile, the NBA, MLS, ACC seem to "get it." I don't know anything about the Pac-12 commish, but that could be a good thing...however he just made news recently, news that could put him #8 on my list.
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:43 PM ^
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November 3rd, 2016 at 7:33 PM ^
What things did he signal handily screw up or plane give up on?
November 3rd, 2016 at 8:03 PM ^
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November 3rd, 2016 at 6:44 PM ^
Blatter is the worst. But he's out so he doesn't count.
That leaves Goodell as the worst. We know the many reasons.
But the worst college commissioner: I'd say Sankey but the Pac12 guy is clearly a joke based on his member institutions comments after the satellite fiasco
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:44 PM ^
Delany and Goodell close 2nd
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:49 PM ^
I am hard on guys like Bettman and Delany, but it is worth noting that their job is basically to serve their respective ownership groups. Delany in particular is basically doing what he is asked by the B1G ADs, and if they are unhappy with something they will flag him on it. There are some areas where he has gotten rolled (the satellite camp regulation fiasco, for example) but a lot of the mistake the B1G has made in our view are the consequence of choices by member institutions, not Delany.
He didn't railroad Rutgers and Maryland into the conference. The schools wanted Rutgers and Maryland in the conference, or they would have voted "no."
November 3rd, 2016 at 6:51 PM ^
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November 3rd, 2016 at 6:54 PM ^
As others have said, Blatter is the worst, but he's gone, so he doesn't count.
Goodell is just a joke. He's the "born on 3rd base and thinks he hit a triple" of commissioners. Handed the best run pro sports league in history and has taken a giant dump on it because his ego is 10 times bigger than his brain. Biggest problem is that he is just not very smart, but thinks he is a genius.
Delany is like 99% a tool, but then there is the BTN, which has just printed money for the conference. It won't last forever, but for the time being it has created a windfall like no other. So despite the fact that I hate him with almost every part of my being, I have to give him a salute with my pinky finger for at least generating tons 'o cash.
Betteman is tough to judge. I think he's been pretty bad, but it is hard to claim that a better commissioner would have made the league more popular. I mostly hate him for abandoing Canada and real hockey fans for new markets, but then again a league without new fans will eventually wither and die, so catch-22.
The other two guys--whatever.
November 4th, 2016 at 8:29 AM ^
What would you say he has done well?
What has improved in the league under his watch?
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November 3rd, 2016 at 7:00 PM ^
Blatter is no longer the President of FIFA. It's Gianni Infantino.
Bettman gets a lot of shit and rightfully so.
I despise Roger Goodell. He has the most popular sport in the United States. However, he's made the product worse and worse. It's hard to follow a sport that has infinite commercials, slow pace of play, and terrible rulings on player discipline. That's not just the whole Brady thing, which hits close to home as a Michigan grad and Patriots fan. It's about the domestic violence. It's the priorities. It's having breast cancer awareness month, but not really benefitting breast cancer awareness much. It's penalizing guys for celebrating plays. It's for sucking the fun out of the game. I can't stand the guy.
Silver has been good. I think that Manfred has tried to improve MLB. Goodell is my pick.
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:04 PM ^
As much as I dislike Jim Delany, it's largely due to his foresight that the B1G sits on a huge pile of money that is the envy of all other leagues and is largely seen as the country's strongest (from a branding and business perspective) and most stable conference. There's a reason he's been commissioner since 1989.
Dan Beebe was a disaster of a Big XII commissioner, since it was under his watch that the league was decimated by the departure of four members.
How could you leave Mark Emmert off the list?
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:24 PM ^
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:39 PM ^
Going off script just a little, at the top of my list is Mark Emmert of the NCAA. What a total waste of power. He has such an opportunity to spearhead real reform, in so many ways, that would improve so many people's lives, and he squanders it.
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:59 PM ^
I actively loathe that man. Watching him fly across the country in his private jet and lie through his teeth while attempting to defend the NCAA's model of amateurism was almost painful.
November 4th, 2016 at 4:38 PM ^
I 100% agree with this.
November 3rd, 2016 at 7:39 PM ^
I'm surprised Goodell only has a plurality of the votes, instead of a true majority.