Top 55 Gary Bettman Quotes

At least two or three of the leagues in Europe over the last few months have said to us, ‘We hope you go to the Olympics,’ and I looked at them, and I said, ‘Why?’ and they go, ‘Because if you don’t send NHL players, we have to send our players, and that’s way too disruptive to our season.’

None of our series are ever static in terms of the dates. We always have a range of flexibility to respond to whatever may or may not happen.

What we have tried to instill across the league through ownership and management is that we stand for inclusiveness and to judge somebody on the merits.

Eliminating fighting would mean eliminating the jobs of the ‘fighters,’ meaning these guys would not have NHL careers.

We’re certainly not in position to expand into the East. We’ve been very candid and up front that if, in fact, we go through an expansion process, the world will know about it.

I think it’s fair to say that all of the teams that have been in the playoffs have played very physically.

The Steelers run a great organization.

Sports, as a media property, is increasingly valuable because it’s something you have to have live. As a result, we’re a better touch point for sponsors and advertisers because our commercials typically don’t get zapped out.

The issue of how the game is played is something that’s constantly being reviewed internally with the Players’ Association, with the general managers, and it’s something that we continue to monitor on a daily basis.

If you want to know how I feel, I’ll summarize it in one word – terrible.

We don’t want our players getting hurt.

If the IOC would move the Olympic hockey tournament to the summer, that would be great. We’d be thrilled to have our players participate because then it doesn’t affect our season.

I don’t weigh into politics.

Our economics are not baseball’s economics. Our game is not baseball’s game. Our owners are not baseball’s owners, with one or two exceptions. Our union is not baseball’s union. What we do has to be crafted and suited to address hockey, to address the NHL, to address our 30 teams and our 700-plus players.

We encourage the growth of women’s hockey.

Because of the way my words get scrutinized, I have to use a level of precision so people don’t accuse me of misleading them.

We went from journalism, in newspapers that gets heavily edited, to blogs, where you can express your opinions, to tweeting, where you can say anything, and it gets repeated and becomes fact when it isn’t. It’s something the entire world is going to have to come to grips with.

It takes two sides to make a deal, two sides to negotiate and two sides to make it go bad.

You can have the biggest markets in the world, but if the game isn’t exciting, compelling, and competitive, it’s not going to generate a lot of interest.

The Canadian franchises and Canada as a market for NHL hockey has always been a priority for us.

The relationship between concussions and the asserted clinical symptoms of C.T.E. remains unknown.

Obviously, we’re focused on the Winter Classic.

On the issue of behavioral health and the like, the program we have in place has always been available to former players as well.

I was always a fan of the game, and I wouldn’t have taken this job if I wasn’t a fan of the game.

All have used the economic opportunity of a new arena project to transform their cities into the future.

I think it’s very difficult to generalize as to why, in a particular league or a particular industry, somebody has or has not come out. We certainly don’t want a player to come out for our sake. It should be what’s right for him and something that he has to be comfortable with.

From as early as I can remember, I was focused on becoming a lawyer.

In ’94, we made the deal during collective bargaining that wasn’t the right deal, just to save the season. Allowing the ‘in the crease’ rule, the foot-in-the-crease rule, we should have not done.

I think there’s always a line between what is parody in good fun in chanting and what is intended to belittle certain segments of society.

I believe, certainly in the NHL, a player who can help a team win because he can contribute on the ice is going to be coveted whatever his beliefs may be or whoever he may be. That goes to national origin, religious beliefs, or sexuality.

I never rule anything in or out; life can surprise you.

I don’t really think about having a retrospective on my high-school years. It’s not something that, from a positive or a negative standpoint, is a driving force in my life.

I think it’s our job to create a culture and an environment where a gay player knows he is safe and welcome. If and when that happens, believe me – that person will have the full support of the commissioner’s office.

Our franchises have never been healthier. Our league, in terms of its economic footing, has never been healthier.

There’s no question that the Kings have been, are, and can be great hosts for any major events.

I don’t worry about the integrity of the game. Our players are professionals.

We don’t tell the officials to change the standard for the playoffs, but as we all know, time and space tends to evaporate very quickly in a playoff game; there tends to be a lot more physicality and a lot more adjustments in the course of a series.

The Olympics are very proprietary about letting others promote and market what’s going on, so we shut down for 17 days, and they don’t let us do a whole lot in return for giving our players to them. We don’t get compensated, and we’ve never looked for compensation.

We are not giving up on the Coyotes in the Greater Phoenix Area… The team has got a number of options and is going to pursue them, so nobody should think that team is moving other than out of Glendale.

We’re concerned how gambling and betting affects the NHL game and changes the perception of and challenges the integrity of the NHL game.

We did the World Cup to relaunch our international efforts, and that served as a foundation.

I don’t think taunting chants at players on the other side of the ice is intended to be sexist in the slightest. It’s like when you call a goaltender a sieve, they chant that. Is that now inappropriate also?

If you’re thin-skinned, you don’t belong doing what I do for a living.

Whatever you do needs to be sustainable over time, and taking the money in the short term and taking it in a bubble – like buying an Internet stock in 2000 – may not be sustainable.

Having to respond to things that are made up or untrue tends to be a waste of time.

I think there needs some attention to be paid to what sport is going to represent to young people: should it be viewed in the competitive, team-oriented sense that it is now, or does it become a vehicle for betting, which may, in effect, change the atmosphere in the stadiums and the arenas?

The good news for us is the NHL has never been stronger, never been more popular, and that, I guess, has led to a lot of interest being expressed from a number of places, an interest in getting an expansion team, and Las Vegas happens to be one of those places.

When you’re in other time zones in other places, you don’t get quite as much attention; you don’t get quite as much visibility for the game, and you give up a lot to do it.

I believe that the Greater Phoenix Area is a terrific sports market; it’s a terrific hockey market.

While we know gambling is part of the industry in Las Vegas, we’re not going to make it all that easy for you to pick up a ticket, a gambling ticket, on your way into the arena.

To be the organization that we want to be, we have to have a place to play.

We’ll have clinics and educational events and conferences to get more and more young players developing as hockey players.

There is less fighting in the game than we had years ago. I mean, we penalize it.

My rooting interest these days is first and foremost competitive hockey, and secondly in officials not making a mistake.

Doing jersey advertising for the World Cup is not in the same universe as putting advertising on NHL sweaters.