To The Board of Governors of the National Hockey League:

This petition requests the immediate removal of Gary Bettman from his duties as Commisioner of the NHL.

It is the opinion of the undersigned that Mr. Bettman, through incompetence, complete disregard for share holders and the majority profit base and possible mental stress is no longer capable of performing the duties of Commisioner and further more is detriemental to the success of the leauge.

The evidence of this lies in his performance over the last 10 years. In his time as Commisioner Mr. Bettman has allowed 2 major lock outs of players and staff (one of which caused the first cancellation of a sports season in north america due to a labour dispute), the ill-advised ending of a t.v deal with a major sports network (ESPN) and switching over to an obscure network that does not deal mainly in sports (Outdoor life network in canada, Versus in the u.s) and the relocation of mostly sucessfull teams to markets where teams are now regularly losing large amounts of money, and creating a drain on the leauge as a whole.

Perhapes the most substaintal evidence against Mr. Bettman is the recent debacle regarding the phionex coyotes. The team is simply a loss generator for the league, they are regularly hemmorhaging money to the tune of 50 + million dollars a year. The team is located in a market that has absoultly no taste for hockey and simply cant provide a large enough corperate base to support a hockey team.

A respectable buisness man, Jim Balsilie has made a reasonable and fair offer to purchase the team, put an end to its losses and move the team to a market that will, without a shadow of a doubt, generate success.

Mr. Bettman has repeatedly snubbed Mr. Balsilie in favor of illogical owners, such as Boots del Bangino, a convicted embezzler and fraudster, and is currently favouring the sale of the coyotes to go to a private investor who intends to move the team to Kansas City, yet another market in the so called "sun belt" where hockey simply does not belong.

It is no doubt that the leauge has been tremedously successful following the 2004 lockout. However, this success has been brought on the backs of Canadian fans, for whom Mr. Bettman has showed a very public and very disturbing disdain for. Sallaries are now esclating to pre 2004 levels, and if Mr. Bettman is allowed to continue in his role as Commisioner, the leauge will not be able to continue this comeback.

It is our hope that you, ladies and gentlemen of the board, will see that in order for the leauge to remain profitable and successful, Gary Bettman will have to go.

Thank you for your consideration.