Deputy NHL Commissioner Bill Daly and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)
In an exclusive one-on-one interview with RG, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly touched on various topics with James Murphy.
Did he and the league see the NHL bouncing back from COVID so fast? Will it be smooth sailing in the next CBA Negotiations? Why now for The Four Nations Faceoff and the Olympics? How excited is the NHL about the addition of the Utah Hockey Club?
Did you envision such a strong and fast comeback from COVID?
“The honest answer is probably not,” Daly replied. “We were worried about how fast the fans would come back, but as it has been proven over time, live sports are so valuable and important in our society, and what we’ve been able to do thanks to the fans proved that again. It’s hard to project what’s going to happen in the world and how people are going to respond. Still, I think, strangely, the COVID period created an even stronger desire for the live product, and people appreciated it even more. So, it’s been a tremendous success for us.
“We had to make some projections and concessions regarding the agreement with the players' association, the advances our owners were willing to give them, and the time period for that to be paid back. Some were concerned that those returns were too aggressive and that, ultimately, we might reach the end of the current collective bargaining agreement, which runs through 2026, and not have been paid back yet, but obviously, as it turned out, those concerns were ill-founded. The players' association came through, and we’re generating revenue at rates we’ve never seen before. So it’s been a tremendous success story for sure.”
Is anything major expected in the next CBA negotiations (set to begin in 2025) that could pause the game again as it did in 2012-2013 and 2004-05?
“We don’t see anything major that would be any reason for concern,” Daly replied.
“We plan to negotiate frequently on issues we agree on and issues we don’t agree on. I currently don’t have any evidence of any issues that could prevent us from making a new agreement when the time comes to make a new deal, if not earlier. That’s at least my perspective of things.”
Thoughts on the on-ice product:
“There’s no doubt that the game is in better shape than it’s ever been in before,” Daly said. “We start with the game on the ice, and the game on the ice has never been faster, more skilled, more competitive, or as exciting as it is right now. As a result of that, it’s a great entertainment product, and that helps generate better business and more revenue. Everything is connected to each other, but it all starts with the game on the ice, and that’s why we’re having such success.”
On Utah becoming a team and being there for the first game:
“It was great; it was electric inside the building, and there was a lot of noise and enthusiasm,” Daly said. “Every seat was filled, and that building now has a little bit over 11,000 unobstructed view seats and probably a couple thousand extra ones with obstructed view. The building is going to undergo a significant amount of renovations over the next three summers and will ultimately be a full-size building for both basketball and hockey, and that’s a process that we’re happy to be part of. Ultimately, I believe it will become a great hockey market because the enthusiasm is already palpable.”
On owner Ryan Smith’s all-in attitude:
“Yes, he’s inherited a very skilled team, and I think he knows they’re finally ready to take the next step,” Daly said. “They have every high-skilled younger players and a good mix of veterans. You’ve already seen in their first three games that they’re going to be very competitive this year and push for a playoff berth. I think that’s a function of one more year of experience for this young group of players, but I also think it’s a function of the fact that they don’t have to worry about the uncertainty that’s surrounded the team over the last several years. So, I think with that stability, skill on the ice, and an invested owner, it will bode well for them now and in the future.
Why was it the right time to return to best-on-best international play with the Four Nations Faceoff and the Olympics?
“This has and always be very important to the players, and they’re our partners in the game and stakeholders in the game, and that was one of the first things we agreed to when we engaged in the MOU of the CBA extension in 2020,” Daly pointed out.
“We agreed, as part of those discussions, that we’d make international, best-on-best play a priority and that we’d do it on a rotating, every two-year basis between the World Cup and the Olympics.
“So, the Four Nations Tournament is a function of kind of being late in the process - a little bit too late in the process - to conduct a full World Cup. Also, world events got in the way to some extent, obviously with the Russian aggression in Ukraine, making it more difficult to build an international competition, at least in the time frame we had. So we came up with this concept of the Four Nations tournament, and I think it’s going to be fantastic! It’s going to be very entertaining, and I think it’s going to be very competitive. It’s going to be a lot different than any hockey tournament we’ve ever seen in the past because I think the skill level and depth of the four teams involved is greater than it’s ever been. So, I’m really looking forward to it, and I think it’s going to be very successful.”
James Murphy
