NHL commissioner Gary Bettman rips TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette over question about taxes
June 11, 2025
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman rips TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette over question about taxes
36 comments
Biz deserves to be ripped for many other reasons, but Bettman is just straight up wrong here. Of course there’s an innate advantage for teams in places with no state income tax.
Batman wouldn’t have replied if any of it was untrue ……. 🧐
The no tax states have can pay there players 5-10% more with the same cap hit. How is that not an advantage?
i love this stupid argument. are the off ice endorsements a player gets in montreal, toronto, or msg not advantages?
i mean john tavares (who apparently didnt pay taxes anyway???) hawks his fucking mystical orbs or whatever
Bieksa said on Chiclets yesterday that the players get paid in USD so it sounds like that kinda voids the argument at least from Canadian markets.
Idk, Bettman has a point about if it was that much of an advantage, Florida and other teams wouldn’t have sucked ass for so long. Using Florida as an example they got better because of drafting and having a good GM making trades that panned out which led to further success and players wanting to stay or even come.
This discussion isn’t brought up in other sports or I haven’t seen it yet, not sure why it does in hockey
Easy. Maybe some of these other states and Canada can figure out how to balance a budget and stop knocking people over the head for taxes That’s a start
He didn’t rip him it was just banter. Spare us the dramatic headlines.
Bettman has a point about Bizz’s Toronto bias but Bizz does have a point. Montreal has a better high tax case than the Leafs. I think some of the allure favoring certain US teams too is related to their lifestyle location mostly due to amount of travel and weather. I remember hears Arron Ward on TSN 690 radio in Mtl take about one of the perks of playing in Carolina was being able to go to practice in winter wearing a T-shirt.
Damn it’s such a shame that high tax areas like New York, California, New Jersey, and Canada have never a cup or have had high profile players want to go there.
this is like their concussion denialism to me, just nonsense. same as the playoff format and refusal to go to a 7-10 playin. just Old Guy Bullshit.
one thing i will say: if the choice is calgary or miami only for 10% less money a year, there’s no choice at all factoring weather. so some of this isn’t just about taxes.
the other problem is how far do you take this? are we accounting for DMV fees? property tax? mean rent in manhattan vs. columbus? you’d have to do a whole COLA vs. tax analysis every year just to get the cap right. sounds awful and expensive.
No cap and this will never come up
This argument is exhausting. It’s really not doing much to shape the way teams are built. Like yea I’m sure there is some advantage, but it’s not some slam dunk thing yall keep making it out to be. If you really analyze team by team, there are significantly more impactful reason teams are what they are.
The whole income tax argument is BS. Basically a bunch of whiny Canadian fans whos teams are poorly managed.
I don’t really care about the tax issue until they fix the playoff cap issue
I’ll definitely add the tax rate to the list of reasons why the Leafs can’t get past the second round.
So should teams in markets that have higher costs of living also get an adjustment as well? It costs a lot more to live in South Florida than it does in Winnipeg.
Actually Bettman was the one that looked like an ass as far as I am concerned. “No one cared before” ?!?
There was lots of talk about this years ago after Quebec and Winnipeg left and Edmonton and Calgary were struggling. If Bettman actually thinks people only started caring about this recently, then it is because he wasn’t listening.
If Marchand goes to the Leaf instead of the Panther, the win it all and we aren’t having this convo.
i’m american and it’s so blatantly obvious the no state income tax teams have been drawing in the talent. it’s undeniable!!! look at the success of tampa, florida, dallas, vegas, nashville, seattle have had bringing in big free agents.. which translates to success on the ice. you’re a cave man if you can’t see the correlation.
Not having a salary cap in the playoffs is a bigger deal. Panthers and Lightning have both taken advantage of this loophole.
Bettman’s response on subsidizing teams in New York and Los Angeles shows that he’s missing the point. I don’t think anyone is seriously calling for a subsidy for those teams, what I hear is more about adjusting the cap to account for the impact of state income taxes. That way teams in areas with higher income taxes would have room to offer a it more on contracts so that players end up in the same net financial position regardless of the state a team is located in. But those NY and LA teams would still have to put up the cash.
I love hockey, but the NHL ownership — while being good a making money — is just not fan-friendly.
I just don’t agree that it’s a major problem.
There’s no evidence that players are largely trying to nickel and dime their way to the best deal possible. Some are sure, but it’s not a pervasive issue
Players take what they feel fits them, their families, their personal lives, their physical comfort.
It’s a bad argument to me to justify that when a large part of what made teams like Tampa, like Vegas, like Florida so good is not signing guys in free agency but in trades.
Florida is the best example of this.
Tkachuk, Reinhart, Bennett have all been massive parts of this team for years. All trade acquisitions.
And then just this year, Seth Jones and Brad Marchand, easily the two best trades at the deadline.
If you’re going to argue tax rates, then there’s at least another substantial amount of players willing to sign in places like Toronto or Montreal to play closer to home.
Come on. He explained his view on the topic, nothing else.
Sorry, I guess I just ripped you…
The state tax issue is so dumb tbh. Nobody cared prior to Tampa winning. People act like only teams with no state tax will win because of it and it’s just not true at all.
Also known as a conversation. He didn’t rip anyone.
TL;DR: During a live interview, a larger-than-life TV personality and former athlete in pro sport challenges a larger-than-life business executive in pro sport on the subject of exorbitant amounts of money and its ability to drive better results. Business executive condemns question, rebuttals with calling attention to personal bias, and sharply defends status quo. Business executive will message studio executives condemning TV personality’s provocation. TV personality will get a warning and most likely continue provocations. Biz, you’re a knucklehead, but you make it a little fun, so hat’s off to you.
“rips” lol. He threw a tantrum and said the problem doesn’t exist because he’s successfully ignored it.
It’s because he can’t really deal with it but he’s being obtuse pretending taxes aren’t an issue.
I hate this tax talk. The other three major sports don’t give a shit about them and this argument makes the whole NHL feel small
Both are correct in their argument.
Isn’t the salary taxed based on where the games are played? As such the tax savings would be on 1/2 the players salary as the other 1/2 of salary is earned on the road. If a player does not want to contribute their fair share to the community they play in I say F that guy, we don’t need him!
Bettman is a idiot whose only goal is to grow the game in the States . To say a no tax state does not have a impact is moronic.
All I read so far is weather is the advantage, bullshit, it is warm in Anaheim in San Jose was warm in Arizona no one goes there but combine competive team and no tax gives those teams more to pay your 3rd and 4th liners. It also gives you a advantage in keeping your own FA.
Also for Canadian teams the dollar comes in to play, all revenue is in Canadian dollars but pay players in American
Pretty sure other leagues have salary caps right? How do they handle it? The NFL has a salary cap but the dolphins are terrible
When younger and I used to play hockey and ski winter was ok and actually fun. Now that I’m older and don’t do either anymore cuz my body just won’t let me do them, I dread the winter. Shoveling and snowblowing snow is also a big task now too. Every year I can’t wait for March and the change of seasons.
36 comments
Biz deserves to be ripped for many other reasons, but Bettman is just straight up wrong here. Of course there’s an innate advantage for teams in places with no state income tax.
Batman wouldn’t have replied if any of it was untrue ……. 🧐
The no tax states have can pay there players 5-10% more with the same cap hit. How is that not an advantage?
i love this stupid argument. are the off ice endorsements a player gets in montreal, toronto, or msg not advantages?
i mean john tavares (who apparently didnt pay taxes anyway???) hawks his fucking mystical orbs or whatever
Bieksa said on Chiclets yesterday that the players get paid in USD so it sounds like that kinda voids the argument at least from Canadian markets.
Idk, Bettman has a point about if it was that much of an advantage, Florida and other teams wouldn’t have sucked ass for so long. Using Florida as an example they got better because of drafting and having a good GM making trades that panned out which led to further success and players wanting to stay or even come.
This discussion isn’t brought up in other sports or I haven’t seen it yet, not sure why it does in hockey
Easy. Maybe some of these other states and Canada can figure out how to balance a budget and stop knocking people over the head for taxes That’s a start
He didn’t rip him it was just banter. Spare us the dramatic headlines.
Bettman has a point about Bizz’s Toronto bias but Bizz does have a point. Montreal has a better high tax case than the Leafs. I think some of the allure favoring certain US teams too is related to their lifestyle location mostly due to amount of travel and weather. I remember hears Arron Ward on TSN 690 radio in Mtl take about one of the perks of playing in Carolina was being able to go to practice in winter wearing a T-shirt.
Damn it’s such a shame that high tax areas like New York, California, New Jersey, and Canada have never a cup or have had high profile players want to go there.
this is like their concussion denialism to me, just nonsense. same as the playoff format and refusal to go to a 7-10 playin. just Old Guy Bullshit.
one thing i will say: if the choice is calgary or miami only for 10% less money a year, there’s no choice at all factoring weather. so some of this isn’t just about taxes.
the other problem is how far do you take this? are we accounting for DMV fees? property tax? mean rent in manhattan vs. columbus? you’d have to do a whole COLA vs. tax analysis every year just to get the cap right. sounds awful and expensive.
No cap and this will never come up
This argument is exhausting. It’s really not doing much to shape the way teams are built. Like yea I’m sure there is some advantage, but it’s not some slam dunk thing yall keep making it out to be. If you really analyze team by team, there are significantly more impactful reason teams are what they are.
The whole income tax argument is BS. Basically a bunch of whiny Canadian fans whos teams are poorly managed.
I don’t really care about the tax issue until they fix the playoff cap issue
I’ll definitely add the tax rate to the list of reasons why the Leafs can’t get past the second round.
So should teams in markets that have higher costs of living also get an adjustment as well? It costs a lot more to live in South Florida than it does in Winnipeg.
Actually Bettman was the one that looked like an ass as far as I am concerned. “No one cared before” ?!?
There was lots of talk about this years ago after Quebec and Winnipeg left and Edmonton and Calgary were struggling. If Bettman actually thinks people only started caring about this recently, then it is because he wasn’t listening.
If Marchand goes to the Leaf instead of the Panther, the win it all and we aren’t having this convo.
i’m american and it’s so blatantly obvious the no state income tax teams have been drawing in the talent. it’s undeniable!!! look at the success of tampa, florida, dallas, vegas, nashville, seattle have had bringing in big free agents.. which translates to success on the ice. you’re a cave man if you can’t see the correlation.
Not having a salary cap in the playoffs is a bigger deal. Panthers and Lightning have both taken advantage of this loophole.
Bettman’s response on subsidizing teams in New York and Los Angeles shows that he’s missing the point. I don’t think anyone is seriously calling for a subsidy for those teams, what I hear is more about adjusting the cap to account for the impact of state income taxes. That way teams in areas with higher income taxes would have room to offer a it more on contracts so that players end up in the same net financial position regardless of the state a team is located in. But those NY and LA teams would still have to put up the cash.
I love hockey, but the NHL ownership — while being good a making money — is just not fan-friendly.
I just don’t agree that it’s a major problem.
There’s no evidence that players are largely trying to nickel and dime their way to the best deal possible. Some are sure, but it’s not a pervasive issue
Players take what they feel fits them, their families, their personal lives, their physical comfort.
It’s a bad argument to me to justify that when a large part of what made teams like Tampa, like Vegas, like Florida so good is not signing guys in free agency but in trades.
Florida is the best example of this.
Tkachuk, Reinhart, Bennett have all been massive parts of this team for years. All trade acquisitions.
And then just this year, Seth Jones and Brad Marchand, easily the two best trades at the deadline.
If you’re going to argue tax rates, then there’s at least another substantial amount of players willing to sign in places like Toronto or Montreal to play closer to home.
Come on. He explained his view on the topic, nothing else.
Sorry, I guess I just ripped you…
The state tax issue is so dumb tbh. Nobody cared prior to Tampa winning. People act like only teams with no state tax will win because of it and it’s just not true at all.
Also known as a conversation. He didn’t rip anyone.
TL;DR: During a live interview, a larger-than-life TV personality and former athlete in pro sport challenges a larger-than-life business executive in pro sport on the subject of exorbitant amounts of money and its ability to drive better results. Business executive condemns question, rebuttals with calling attention to personal bias, and sharply defends status quo. Business executive will message studio executives condemning TV personality’s provocation. TV personality will get a warning and most likely continue provocations. Biz, you’re a knucklehead, but you make it a little fun, so hat’s off to you.
“rips” lol. He threw a tantrum and said the problem doesn’t exist because he’s successfully ignored it.
It’s because he can’t really deal with it but he’s being obtuse pretending taxes aren’t an issue.
I hate this tax talk. The other three major sports don’t give a shit about them and this argument makes the whole NHL feel small
Both are correct in their argument.
Isn’t the salary taxed based on where the games are played? As such the tax savings would be on 1/2 the players salary as the other 1/2 of salary is earned on the road. If a player does not want to contribute their fair share to the community they play in I say F that guy, we don’t need him!
Bettman is a idiot whose only goal is to grow the game in the States . To say a no tax state does not have a impact is moronic.
All I read so far is weather is the advantage, bullshit, it is warm in Anaheim in San Jose was warm in Arizona no one goes there but combine competive team and no tax gives those teams more to pay your 3rd and 4th liners. It also gives you a advantage in keeping your own FA.
Also for Canadian teams the dollar comes in to play, all revenue is in Canadian dollars but pay players in American
Pretty sure other leagues have salary caps right? How do they handle it? The NFL has a salary cap but the dolphins are terrible
When younger and I used to play hockey and ski winter was ok and actually fun. Now that I’m older and don’t do either anymore cuz my body just won’t let me do them, I dread the winter. Shoveling and snowblowing snow is also a big task now too. Every year I can’t wait for March and the change of seasons.
Ribs