NHL has evolved on a massive scale over the last three decades. And one of the people to be credited for that growth over these years is the NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Henceforth, for his contribution to the sport, the ‘Sports Business Journal’ decided to honor him with the Lifetime Achievement Award of 2023. No other major North American sports league has had such a long tenure served by a person as a commissioner other than NHL. As a result, the sport has grown tremendously, not just all over the country, but has a massive fan following around the globe. 

On one hand, the SBJ has honored him with a high honor. On the other hand, NHL fans have a completely contrasting point of view about Gary Bettman and his legacy as a commissioner. Let’s have a look at both perspectives going forward in this article. 

Why did the SBJ honor the NHL commissioner with the Lifetime Achievement Award?

NHL was a popular sport in the US and Canada from the time of the World War. However, it grew gradually in the second half of the twentieth century as well. But in the last three decades, the sport has become popular in other countries, too. Furthermore, it has much more followers than at any time in the past. Other than that, the revenue that the league has created also boomed up to more than $5 billion a year, which was $400 million when he took the position.

While SBJ tweeting the information to the people from their official Twitter account, they wrote, “Congrats to our Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, @NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. After 30 years, Bettman is the longest-tenured commissioner in any of the four major men’s professional team sports leagues in North America.”

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The Journal provided him with this massive honor for his vision and the work he put in for the league since 1993. Moreover, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to him on May 24th at the Sports Business Awards at the Marriott Marquis in New York. However, interestingly, the NHL fans seemed to be disappointed with this decision. And they revealed their disagreement about it. Let’s have a look at a few comments made by the fans on the matter. 

Fans disagreed with the honor the NHL commissioner is receiving

Despite the input of work and output of the sport’s growth, the fans looked unhappy about the announcement. They had their reasons, which they let out through the comments on the Twitter post. Some of the comments are as follows:

What is your opinion on the Lifetime Achievement Award announced to Gary Bettman? Let us know in the comments section.

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