2007 Commissioner Compensation

Recently the Sports Business Journal reported on commissioner salaries for the fiscal year-ending 2007. In that year, Gary Bettman collected $5.59m, ahead of the PGA Tour's Tim Finchem ($4.8m) and behind the NBA's David Stern ($10m), the NFL's Roger Goodell ($11.2m), and MLB's Bud Selig ($18.35m).

While only four baseball players out-earned Selig that year (Rodriguez, Jeter, Giambi, Clemens), 26 NHL players bested Bettman.

$8,360,000 Jaromir Jagr
$7,800,000 Brad Richards
$7,600,000 Nicklas Lidstrom
$7,600,000 Mats Sundin
$7,600,000 Alexei Yashin
$7,500,000 Zdeno Chara
$7,500,000 Patrick Elias
$7,166,667 Vincent Lecavalier
$7,150,000 Bryan McCabe
$7,000,000 Jarome Iginla
$7,000,000 Ed Jovanovski
$6,750,000 Nikolai Khabibulin
$6,750,000 Scott Niedermayer
$6,670,000 Joe Thornton
$6,500,000 Wade Redden
$6,250,000 Chris Pronger
$6,080,000 Sergei Federov
$6,000,000 Rob Blake
$6,000,000 Martin Havlat
$6,000,000 Marian Hossa
$6,000,000 Roberto Luongo
$6,000,000 Markus Naslund
$6,000,000 Martin St. Louis
$6,000,000 Marty Turco
$5,750,000 Peter Forsberg
$5,750,000 Joe Sakic
$5,590,000 Gary Bettman

When evaluating Bettman's bank in relation to his performance remember a commissioner is hired to serve the league's owners, not the fans. A subtlety likely not lost on lovers of the NHL.