Published: May 10, 2009 12:16 am      

SCHMITT: Bettman’s vision has ruined NHL

COMMENTARY

This is not about Jim Balsillie. Never has been.

And it’s not about Jerry Moyes, the guy who essentially ran the Phoenix Coyotes by default.

News that Balsillie’s attempted purchase of the bankrupt Coyotes will be fought tooth and nail by the National Hockey League is all about one man and his failed plan. A vision to take a cold sport into the heat.

A man whose lengthy study of the NBA model has made him bent on turning the sport’s square nets into round ones.

This fight is, and has always been, about Gary Bettman.

If the mega-rich Balsillie loses in his latest battle to take the Coyotes from an area that believes the NHL ranks behind NASCAR, golf and the MLS to one that considers it a national pastime, the league loses.

Not the Coyotes. Not the people of Hamilton.

The entire league.

Because when teams like the Coyotes come to town, nobody cares. Not when they’re in the playoff hunt. Not when they have Team Canada’s reigning captain on their roster. Not even when they have the game’s all-time greatest player behind the bench.

Nobody cares when the Coyotes come to town because nobody in Phoenix cares. It’s hard to start a rivalry against a team without a fan base, especially one that’s had a dusty cloud hanging over it ever since it skipped out of Winnipeg.

Who do you sling insults at?

I spent seven years in the desert. As a bona fide hockey fan, I urged friends and neighbors to come to what was then America West Arena and catch the action first hand. Few did. And of those who did, a fraction returned.

The passion you take from a Sabres-Leafs matchup is noticeably absent when you see a game in the desert. Back then, America West wasn’t designed for hockey. The Coyotes’ new home, the oddly named Jobing.com Arena, is in a beautiful new development, but miles from the downtown area the city is enhancing. And inexplicably, the arena is on the opposite side of town from major suburbs like Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler.

So, who let this happen? Who let this team march itself deep into the desert to die?

Bettman.

It was his push to put teams in the south — like the Florida Panthers, who will be next in the bankruptcy line, mark my words — and he believed a new building was the key to sustainable success in Arizona.

He was, like he’s been consistently during his tenure in the league’s highest office, dead wrong. Aside from his single greatest victory as commisioner, the salary cap, Bettman’s victories have been few and far between.

TV visibility is worse than it was when he took office. Most, if not all southern teams have resorted to gimmicks to get a pulse in the building. Even towns like Boston and Chicago needed recent resurgances to feel like NHL cities again.

The fight with Balsillie could be Bettman’s final battle. Is the co-CEO of Blackberry cantankerous? Course he is. He’s filthy rich and crazy powerful.

Is Jerry Jones? Was George Steinbrenner?

The thought that a flamboyant, self-absorbed cash cow wouldn’t instantly make the league more interesting is preposterous.

Yes, the Sabres would lose a bit of their fan base to a Hamilton franchise. And they’d make up for losses by charging a boatload to those from the other side of the border for the four games they’d play at HSBC Arena.

And more important, the league would be healthier from top to bottom.

Instead of catering to the self-serving few, the NHL needs to fortify the fringe forts — Columbus, Long Island, St. Louis — before it explores new territory.

And in the case of Balsillie, Bettman needs to check his ego at the door. We’ll all detest Balsillie soon enough. But the league will be better off for it.