Who keeps betting on Bettman?

Gary Bettman, the National Hockey League's commissioner of 16 years, has allegedly added another controversial move to the long list of controversial/bad moves that make up his resume. When Nashville Predators' owner Craig Leipold recently put his team up for sale to a Canadian billionaire, the deal appeared ready to go through. Then all of the sudden, Leipold began looking at another buying within the U.S. And there are allegations coming from numerous sources that it was Gary Bettman who pushed Leipold's hand in an attempt to keep the team from moving out of the country. And because of Bettman's marketing plan, a plan that's he's been adamant about incorporating since he became commissioner, the league has gone from an respectable popularity in the early 1990's to complete obscurity on the edge of irrelevancy. Ratings are so low, they make the NBA finals look like American Idol. And yet, Bettman's hold on the crown is as strong as ever.
Let's make clear for a second that the league was NOT always a niche sport. Even I am almost too young to remember it, but I do. The early 1990's saw Wayne Gretzky in L.A., Mark Messier in New York, Steve Yzerman in Detroit, and a number of other future Hall of Famers were in their prime. Then Bettman took control and immediately began to change the league into what he thought it should be: which is a league with popularity and wealth on par with the three other major sports. That sounds good and all, but the NHL, by its nature, will not reach that level of interest. But there is nothing wrong with the popularity it had right before Bettman took over. Bettman expanded the league into cities such as San Jose, Tampa Bay, Anaheim, Miami, Nashville, Atlanta, Minnesota, and Columbus. And these teams, with the exception of Minnesota and to a certain extent Anaheim, have never experienced success on and off the ice.
As a result of hockey being forced into cultures to don't want or understand it, the began to suffer financially. This led to not one, but two, work stoppages; the most significant one being just two years ago when the entire season was lost. It was the only time in the history of sports that an entire season and its championship were lost to a labor dispute. The first work stoppage did nothing to solve the problems that cause it. Bettman got bullied around by the players association, and shortly after play resumed, player salaries skyrocketed. This was the main reason Bettman locked out the NHLPA following the 2004 season. He wanted a hard salary cap to ensure economic stability, and his refusal to bend on this issue led to the cancellation of the season.
And I'm sure he didn't blame himself for letting the economic state of the league get to the point of no return. First, by letting the players push him around during the first work stoppage. And second, by force feeding hockey to southern cultures that weren't buying. According to Bettman these places in America wanted hockey despite their continuing lack of ticket sales. But they loved hockey; they just didn't know it yet. Bettman believed that a big reason these small market teams were getting the support they needed was because they couldn't attract the game's best players due to unlimited salaries. Teams like Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia were able to pay the most for the best players, leaving the smaller teams to sort through the scrap pile each free agency period. And theoretically, Bettman was right on this. But in practice, despite a hard salary cap, that has risen each season since its introduction (nearly to the point where teams on average are paying what they did before the lockout), the league's economic inequality is basically the same as before. During the most recent free agent period, teams like Detroit, New York, and Philadlephia once again obtained the most desired players as teams like Nashville, Buffalo, and Florida were left on the outside looking in. Even in Pittsburgh, where a loyal fan base gets to watch one of the youngest most exciting teams in the league, Bettman's economic stability was non-existent, and the team almost got up and moved to Kansas City.
Which brings us back to Nashville. The Predators were one of the league's best last year. And yet, they could not draw more than 14,000 paid attendance. After ten years in the hockey challenged city, Leipold was cutting his losses (which stand at $70 million in the red) and selling the team. Following knowledge of the financial troubles and impending move, the team had a fire sale, effectively getting rid of all talent they didn't already have locked into contracts. This situation is a perfect example of Bettman's economic stability and competitive balance. And if it is true that Bettman forced Leipold out of a sale that would move the team to Hamilton, Ontario (a Canadian city starved for hockey) all so that Bettman could see his dream of hockey becoming a rich American sport come true, then we shouldn't be surprised at all. This has been Bettman's calling card. After a decade and a half of his economic and marketing strategy consistently failing, the league's health is at its lowest point yet. It's time the NHL Board of Commissioners cuts its losses with Gary Bettman, calls it a night, and starts over fresh tomorrow.