NHL Commissioner on COVID-19 return strategy timeline: 'we need to let it play out'

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced detailed plans for professional hockey to return for a 24-team playoff tournament. He joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to discuss.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance. A lot of sports lovers are going stir crazy because we're locked in, and major league sports are locked out, for the time being. But the National Hockey League has a plan that should bring a smile to the faces of a lot of people who don't get body checked. Gary Bettman joins us now, along with Dan Roberts, to talk about the NHL's plan to essentially get the game back up and, you know, running. But I've got to ask you, sir, it's phase four, essentially, as you guys have outlined this, where we get to start seeing games being played again. That's still further down the road. Any idea when we'd actually get to see that?

GARY BETTMAN: Well, I think that we'll be-- by the way, good morning and it's good to be with you. We are on a track to accomplish certain things that focus, first and foremost, on the health and well-being of our players, our other team personnel in the communities in which we play, and we need to do this one step at a time. So we have a plan. We have a beginning point, we have an end point, but we've got to let it play out.

So first, phase two, which should take place starting first week of June, we'll be opening our training centers and letting players begin to work out and even skate, which they haven't done before. And then from that point, once we get everybody back-- and there are some issues crossing borders and having to quarantine that we have to deal with-- once we get everybody back and they're feeling ready, then we can go into formal training camp. And we'll have a good idea how long that needs to be based on the condition of the players and what they're telling us they need. And then after we go through training camp, we'll go to phase four.

We'll be playing at some point over the summer, possibly into the fall, and we're all good with that. Our fans are telling us overwhelmingly they'd like to see us conclude the '19-'20 season, and our players feel the same way. So that's why we've spent the last almost three months looking at all the alternatives, considering all of our options, making sure that from a health and safety standpoint, we were doing the right things. And that's how we came to the announcement we made this week.

DAN ROBERTS: Gary, Dan Roberts here. Thanks for joining us.

GARY BETTMAN: Thank you.

DAN ROBERTS: Let me just ask you about the potential pitfalls here. You know, as some people have talked about or raised the players being outside the US, maybe they were quarantining in the country where they're from, so might travel be an issue for when they need to get back and especially if the place they're returning to his Canada, if they have to quarantine for 14 days? And then related to that, just a larger question, what, if anything, do you think could happen in the next month or so that would put a halt to this very detailed, kind of step-by-step plan?

GARY BETTMAN: Well, the notion of getting everybody back is why I can't give you fixed dates on phases three and four. Phase two is intended to give the players who want to a safe place to work out and skate and give players from wherever they're coming and opportunity to get back to their home markets. The last time we did a headcount, and it's not in the last couple of days ago, 44%, roughly, of our players were in the markets in which they play, and 17% of our players were outside of North America. So we've got some moving around to do.

We're respecting the quarantine requirements, whether they're federal or state, and we'll deal with that. The issue where it could be implicated down the road is based on the current requirements going into Canada of a two week quarantine. I can't envision if that's the case going through training camp phase three into playing in phase four and moving players from training camp and having them then quarantined to play in a Canadian hub city. But that's down the road. That's not a decision we have to make for probably another three weeks, give or take.

And the reason we're considering a number of potential hubs to narrow it down to two is we don't want to be in a position where we're making a decision now and saying it's going to be one or two cities because we've got to see what the world looks like in real time, and this gives us the best optionality to make sure we're going to a place that makes sense. And by a place that makes sense, I'm talking, first and foremost, about how much COVID-19 there is and the availability of testing because there'll be extensive testing, making sure that we're not in a place where our need for test testing will interfere in any way with medical needs.

DAN ROBERTS: And then Gary, obviously this plan is very detailed-- you know, I wrote about this yesterday-- but the most detailed return plan we've seen so far. But of course, the NBA is trying to do the same and talking about bringing all of its players to Orlando. Major League Baseball is trying to come back and is dealing with the revenue split dispute. All the leagues are trying to return, either to resume or start their season. I'd be curious to what extent you had talked to the other commissioners during this time or whether every league is kind of on their own and to what extent the leagues are watching each other and watching the different return plans?

GARY BETTMAN: Well, in terms of the actual structure of what we're doing and the issues we're dealing with, at some baseline, we're dealing with common issues. And casually, we stay in touch. But there are some issues that other sports have that we don't. We're not dealing with economic issues. Our players have been extraordinarily-- and our players association-- cooperative and collaborative. And so that's why we got to the point that we did.

You know, at the end of the day, though, from a medical standpoint, there's a lot of coordination. Our medical people are all talking to each other. So at baseline, while playing, you know, baseball is different than playing hockey, the fact is, there's a certain baseline that our medical people are coordinating. And then on top of that, we're going to all have to layer in that which is appropriate for our sport.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Commissioner, it's Brian Cheung here. I wanted to ask, just in terms of deciding exactly how this 24-team playoff was going to come into fruition, what was that conversation like? Obviously there are winners and there are losers in deciding on that type of format. And in terms of the fanbase, how do you get people engaged into this process if they've been away from hockey for so long, won't be able to be there physically in the stands? How do you, A, monetize that but then also keep the fans engagement?

GARY BETTMAN: Well, monetization is not what's driving us. This is not something that's going to bring in a lot of revenues relative to what our projections were for the '19-'20- season, which at play-- by playing the rest of the games ostensibly for television is not as material as our other sources of revenues. We're doing this because we're hearing from our fans that they want to see us back and that they want to see a conclusion to the '19-'20 season, even if that's on television. And our players are telling us they'd like to conclude it.

The framework that we've come up with, I wouldn't call it winners and losers. We're dealing with, obviously, an extraordinary situation, unfortunately. And you all know how unbelievable our competitive balance is. We have lots of teams in the hunt through the very end of the regular season to make the-- a playoffs spot. And there were a number of teams on the bubble who, having played various amounts of games relative to other teams, when we took the pause on March 12. And we felt that the only fair way to deal with this was to give the teams that if we had played out the regular season might very well have made the playoffs.

And so no matter what team you're interested in, you root for, you cover, the fact is, you can find something in this plan that maybe you would prefer to see different. But in the final analysis, it holds together and is fair and has integrity for winning the ultimate prize in sports, which is the Stanley Cup.

JULIE HYMAN: Commissioner, it's Julie here. As you have considered all of these options here and as you say, monetization is not the priority, have you had any discussions about whether you would ask the players to take pay cuts this time with a different kind of season, with not bringing in the same revenue?

GARY BETTMAN: Well, you haven't seen any commentary about us and economics like you have for some of the other sports because we have a system. It's in place, and it works. And so economics, either in terms of generating revenues or, you know, how much the players get paid, that's stuff that we haven't had to deal with.

ADAM SHAPIRO: All right, Gary Bettman is the commissioner from the NHL. We appreciate your being here "On The Move," and I know a lot of hockey fans are hoping that this does come to fruition.