The Worst Commish
The post below this is about about one of sports all-time feckless boobs, Mark Emmert. It got me thinking: who is/are the worst commissioners (and for that sake Presidents of leagues who carry a similarly-weighted title) of all time? My votes:
Mark Emmert - inept, out of touch, always stepping in it, tone deaf
Rob Manfred - has set the game back 50 yeaea
Roger Goodell - literally an idiot, loves the smell of his own farts.
I love that you've had this account for almost five years. There have been so many posts that needed for you to have the first comment in the thread.
Jack Tunney
The only correct answer to this question. Old on the take Tunney.
Hmmm the Securities and Exchange?
We can hate on Emmett and Goodell, but it’s hard to argue with the results they’ve driven financially.
I'm not sure that driving every decision by how much money can be generated is the panacea that so many today seem to believe.
That depends on who you ask and since Commissioners work for the team owners then I'm sure they would disagree with you.
As fans we have a much different viewpoint
But that's exactly my point. If we continue to have this "it is their job to make money for x" mindset be commonly accepted as "just how things are", then nothing will ever get better. Companies will continue to cheapen everything to the maximum extent possible, because they are beholden by law to make all efforts to make money for their shareholders. I see this as a fundamental problem facing our society right now, and it goes hand in hand with the upward movement of wealth in this country.
But everyone (not all, but most anyway) are so distracted by whatever new bullshit is circulating social media, or the daily news cycle, that hardly anyone really pays any attention. And we continue our slow decline.
Anyway, I'm getting way off topic, and annoyed, so that's all for now I guess.
Raking in the cash that the media offered isn't exactly driving results.
What decision did these guys make that increased revenue or viewership or gamesmanship other than saying, "Yes, we will take your money."
I would counter by asking what decision did these guys make that has lead to an overall decrease in revenue or viewership? As fans, we sure do like to bitch about a lot of stuff but obviously none of it has been so bad that a substantial amount of us have "tuned out". When the viewership leaves, so will the advertisement money. Neither has happened.
For what Goodell is paid to do, he absolutely excels at it. He works for the owners and the brand.
That South Park episode where he is portrayed as a mouth breather that does the bidding of the owners and basically gets paid to take the fall for their shitty opinions/behavior is excellent analysis.
Gordon. I mean seriously what’s the deal with the inept Gotham police force that they need a billionaire vigilante to keep the streets clean?
But let's face it, the billionaire vigilante has been doing it for 50 years, which is just amazing!!!
More like 82 years, but who's counting?
Gordon.
Come on. Can't you do your own damn job? Gotta rely on some private citizen? You even made a damn light. You should be embarrassed to draw a salary.
Edit: a minute late
High five!
Bettman and Ziegler of the hockey world seem like candidates. The NBA has exploded since the late 70s when Ziegler became commish (of the NHL). Hockey seems like it has simply run in place for 45 years.
Came to post this. They took a niche game in cold weather climates and tried to make it an NFL or NBA league. I like hockey but that’s never going to happen. LA doesnt need two teams. Florida doesn’t need two teams. Phoenix sure as hell doesn’t need a team. Atlanta proved they didn’t. Putting teams back in Hartford and Quebec would be at least a start.
The population shift has been from North to South. Atlanta has around 40% of its population not from Georgia. Granted that's an oversimplification of the metrics, it's still something to consider. This article isn't that old, so the stats should be still very relevant. Looking at the states with the most transplants, Florida is 2nd most with almost 65% of the population having not been born there and Airzona is 3rd with almost 61%.
https://www.ncdemography.org/2020/01/24/how-many-people-were-born-in-the-state-they-currently-live-in/
Warm weather isn't the indicator of the success of a cold weather sport. Nor is the transplant percentage. If that was the case, we'd see a national curling league. I think that the NHL stands on it's own for its fast paced and violent nature. I can't stand baseball. You could slim down the game to about 45 minutes if we didn't have all of the mound standing and other delays. The amount of action is extremely limited. So a sport like Hockey fills a niche for people like me. I live in Atlanta. I don't think it's out of place for a team to be in Atlanta or Florida or Arizona. I guarantee you the money they spend on market analysis indicates what people are willing to do.
I've had an Atlanta Flames jersey for years, recently gave it to a transplant to Atlanta. Now he's retro & cool (more or less) in Buckhead.
I don't think it's as much where they've expanded so much as the pace of that expansion.
35-40 years ago, the NHL had a contract with ESPN. This is before the NBA, MLB and the NFL were on the network. I'm sure there are those with better knowledge of this than myself, but they left ESPN to go to some other network that was in far fewer homes. Now the sport is on NBCSports along with Ivy League Football.
It wasn't pre-ordained that the NBA would be the sport with explosive growth in the 1980s and 1990s. Hockey had Gretzky, Lemieux and a pair of dynasties just like the NBA. One sport had a great commissioner with vision (David Stern). The other had John Ziegler and then Gary Bettman.
They will be on Turner/ESPN next year. Now they will have the same number of TV sets that the other leagues have…It’s just a matter of will more ppl tune in.
The first lockout in the '90s killed all the momentum the NHL generated. There was a cover story in SI back in '94 (I think) detailing the rise of the NHL compared to the NBA. All that was destroyed with the first, then second, then third lockout.
I see what you're trying to say, and in a lot of ways you're not wrong. Some areas are inherently more open to hockey. But IMO it comes with an asterisk. People will flock to a winner, regardless of the climate around them or if cold weather even exists there. Tampa is the antithesis of a cold weather climate, but they are routinely within the top-10 for attendance in the NHL and sell out a ton of games because they have won a lot. And coming from a guy who is from Tampa, I can tell you its not fair-weather fandom. People down there care. Granted, they benefitted a ton from the Rays being average and uneventful and the Bucs sucking for 15 years, but the fandom is real.
If the Florida Panthers start winning more (and they may start to, if this past season is any indication), then people will show up. Will they ever supplant the Dolphins or the Heat? Probably not. Florida is a football state first and foremost. But people will show up to watch winners. They will invest their time and energy into winners.
TL;DR version: You don't have to be an Original Six squad or have snow throughout the year to be a worthy hockey town. You just have to win.
I think it’s telling that the more successful expansion/relocations came in areas where either there was no NBA team (Nashville, Vegas, Tampa, Carolina) or one where the NBA team was struggling at the time (Dallas). It’s strange that it took this long to get to Seattle.
Yes I was going to say the same, and let's not forget multiple lockouts including an entire season cancelled. Incompetence at it's best.
I think John Zeigler was an actual convicted felon.
Are you complimenting him, Vlad?
Oh, I was thinking of Eagleson. I always get those two confused.
Fun fact though about Ziegler, he went to U-M.
How can it not be Gary Bettman?
Gary who....oh him.
I worked with Bettman when he was at the NBA and later at the NHL (as a lawyer representing the leagues). Totally insecure and suffers from small man syndrome. Very hard to deal with and knew nothing about hockey back then (late '80s and early '90s). Not sure if that has changed.
Dude was the NBA's salary cap guy. To this day can't even spell hockey...
Rob Manfred seems to hate the game of baseball, which is less than ideal. We're one year away from him banning "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in order to save time, rather than, you know, enforcing pitch clocks or forcing batters to stay in the box
7 inning double headers, runners starting on 2nd in extra innings. These are just stupid rules. Personally I do not care if a game is 3 hours or 4 hours. I enjoy the leisure pace of baseball. I enjoy listening to a game on the radio when I'm outside on a nice day drinking a beer. Stop making stupid rules. No pitch clock, ever. Yes enforce the batter stay in the box if they didn't swing rule, but other than that let the game play out.
I agree with everything you said except the pitch clock. Why should that not also be regulated at a reasonable # of seconds? A play clock has been instituted in every other major sport, and even the PGA now has been making efforts to keep things moving.
Hard to get any worse that Mark Emmert.
The Pac-12 was a total shitshow under Larry Scott.
Dan Beebe nearly presided over the collapse of the Big 12.
Kevin Warren hasn't exactly impressed as B1G commissioner.
I don't follow baseball that closely, but Bud Selig didn't seem particularly well-liked.
There was an episode where Tony resigned so he could better support Rachel’s career. In an ironic twist, Rachel had quit her job that day to better support Tony’s career. Whomp whomp!
Anyway, Tony tries to get his job back, but the city replaced him in a rush with some flashy new guy. Of course, it turns out that the flashy new guy was corrupt (and would quickly be brought down with the help of Tony, who of course then got his job back). So, that guy was probably the worst commish.
(NOTE: DYK that Michael Chiklis was only 28 when The Commish premiered? That guy was born old.)
Cousin Larry, don't be ridiculous!
+1!
So is loving the smell of your own farts a bad thing?
All great choices, but my vote goes to Manfred. Can”t seem to do anything to ameliorate the hostility between the owners and players, constantly imposing stupid rule changes that make virtually no difference in shortening the games (which is what they are supposed to do), has done nothing to affect the competitive imbalance in the game between the NY’s and LA’s and the small market teams, but spends a lot of time trying to virtue signal. And has yet to resolve the DH/no DH issue, although that may be on deck. In short, provides no leadership on important issues where leadership is in short supply,
I disagree with the small market thing. Tampa(doing well this year too) was in the WS last year. Milwaukee, Oakland, Seattle, San Diego, Cleveland & Cincinnati are very competitive this season. Meanwhile squads like the Cubs, Yankees, Rangers and Angels are underperforming. It’s now all about which teams have great front offices and who doesn’t. Not necessarily about who is spending the most.
The commissioners are the mouths of the people they represent. They are paid punching bags. When you realize that, you’ll realize they’re pretty good at their jobs. We hate them, but they’re good at representing the people they’re paid to represent, and take the shit that comes with it.
Mountain Landis. Obvious is obvious
Wayne Duke.
I was just scrolling through this thread to see if Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis had yet been mentioned.
Landis was the first baseball commissioner and stayed on the job until his death in the mid 40s. It wasn't until the death of Landis that Baseball finally moved toward integration, something Landis had blocked for over a quarter century as he constantly and eagerly sided with owners who felt the same.
Selig for establishing inter league play,Manfred for those all star unis,Goodell for selective enforcement of rules