THN: "100 People of Power and Influence"
Die neueste Ausgabe der Fachzeitschrift "The Hockey News" wirft
einen Blick auf die 100 wichtigsten und einflussreichsten Personen im
nordamerikanischen Eishockey-Business:
100 People of Power and Influence
By Alan Adams
Your correspondent is on a rooftop terrace in Doha, counting the number
of construction cranes silhouetted against the skyline of Qatar’s
capital city.
Twenty years ago, Doha was a non-descript fishing port on the Persian
Gulf, but the discovery of oil and natural gas has poured billions of
dollars into this sand-pit of a country the size of Maryland.
The Emir of Qatar wants his country to be the financial powerbroker of
the oil-rich Gulf and he knows money and power are one in the same in
this part of the world. And Doha drips money. In this place, if someone
wrecks his SUV, he abandons it on the side of the road and buys a
bigger one .
And this, in a roundabout way, brings us to the annual People of Power list compiled by The Hockey News.
The Emir overthrew his father to seize power in the 1990s while dad was
out of the country, but NHL commissioner Gary Bettman doesn’t have to
worry about going on a road trip and being removed in a coup d’etat.
The fact the NHL generated $2.178 billion in revenues in the
post-lockout 2005-06 season simply consolidated Bettman’s perch atop
the PoP list.
Players and owners alike benefited from a close working relationship
between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association and that speaks to how
Ted Saskin, the PA’s executive director, moved up four spots to No. 2.
Saskin is not the only mover and shaker to leap a few spots. Power, after all, comes in many forms in the world of hockey.
Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are the face(s) of the NHL and
that explains why Crosby moved six spots to No. 7 and Ovechkin vaulted
to No. 15 from No. 57.
We’d be remiss not to recognize the amazing jobs done by GMs Darcy
Regier with Buffalo and Brian Burke with Anaheim, along with the
ground-breaking move by Carolina coach Peter Laviolette in banning
fighting (it’s prohibited on his team) on the road to the Stanley Cup
title. They’ve all moved up the pecking poll.
Ivan Fecan is hardly a name known by most hockey enthusiasts, but he is
back on the list after a short absence. Fecan heads Bell Globe Media
and its properties include TSN, the NHL Network, and CTV, which is
expected to give CBC a fight for the NHL’s broadcast rights in Canada.
And Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie was poised to debut on the
power list this year as a new and influential owner, but he scuttled
his deal to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins because too many string were
attached.
As new names and faces take their place on the PoP list, others are either dropped completely or moved down, some significantly.
Consider Mario Lemieux. He slipped from No. 5 in 2003-04 to No. 15 last
year to off the list altogether. The Penguins’ non-sale to Balsillie
only stalls his imminent departure from the game.
Slava Fetisov has disappeared completely. A year ago Russia’s sports
minister was promising to wrestle power from Russian club teams and
start an NHL-style league in Russia. He lost the power struggle.
There’s no formula in assembling the list. The PoP list is and will
always be a work in progress. Information is power and work starts soon
gathering information for next year’s annual list.
And there’s a stock answer for those who aren’t on the list, but think they should be (and people do call): “You’re No. 101.”
To read the rest of this story and other great features from the world of
hockey, you can buy this issue
http://www.zinio.com/singles?issn=0018-3016U&ns=zno
or subscribe at
https://secure.indas.on.ca/care/hnc/digital.php?key=W06LDN73