Gary Bettman Admits To His Most Recent Mistake

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James Connelly
September 13, 2023 (11:14 PM)

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Gary Bettman and the NHL made a massive mistake this past season and he is already owning up to it.

The Digital Ad Disaster

Last season, Gary Bettman and the NHL implemented digital ad boards to their games which was met with negative reviews from fans all over. Players were vanishing into the boards, moving ads distracted from the game, and overall, the fan viewing experience was diminished.

Clearly, this was a mistake and the NHL may be working on fixing this mistake.

Bettman And The NHL Owns Up To Their Mistake

ESPN reporter Greg Wyshynski spoke with the NHL's Chief Business Officer, Keith Wachtel. Wachtel and the NHL have admitted to their mistake.

The NHL has heard your criticisms about their Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards after Year 1. They're considering some changes ... but rejecting other fan gripes.

In Wyshynski's article, he reveals two major things the NHL changed to the boards to prevent glitches.

tweaking the brightness of the ads and applying some motion-blurring to them so they would better blend in during play.

It was also confirmed that the NHL used AI to produce these ads and as it is machine learning, the more it does, the better it will be.

It was also confirmed that despite the terrible viewing experience in its first year, the digital ads brought the NHL a massive amount of revenue. A 21% increase in sponsorship revenue to be exact.

Hopefully, these digital ads can be much improved but nothing will defeat going to a game and watching the games, not the ads. It is encouraging to know that the ads will be better next year and hopefully soon enough, not even noticeable.

As read on ESPN - NHL considers changes to digital ad boards after fan criticisms