ZIEGLER, PRO & CON : NHL President Gets Credit for Financial Success, Along With the Blame for League’s Poor Image

As a childhood tap-dancing prodigy in his native Detroit, it has been suggested, John Ziegler already had honed the skill necessary to be president of the National Hockey League.

For, while profitability is up in the NHL, credibility is down.

And Ziegler, it has been said, is responsible for both.

It’s interesting to note that in recent articles in Business Week and Sports Illustrated, Ziegler is applauded in the former as a savior and derided in the latter as a slug.

Ziegler has been described as a puppet president, a “numbers guy” whose gaze seldom wanders from the bottom line. And, in his dealings with the media, he says little to alter that perception.

In fact, Ziegler seems almost oblivious, and certainly apathetic, to what many perceive as the NHL’s major ills: Incessant brawling on the ice, lack of a television contract with a major network, delegation of too much authority to his aides, his friendship with union boss Alan Eagleson and his own low profile and lack of dynamics.

Ziegler, 54, is fond of saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and, judging by the league’s attendance figures, it ain’t broke.

“We have a poor image with the people who are not hockey fans, but people keep coming to the games and watching on television,” Ziegler said. “You would like to be thought of nicely, but I’m not that worried about what a non-hockey fan thinks of the National Hockey League.

“Now, if we suddenly decided that as a business plan we wanted to target that person--how do we get him interested in hockey?--then his image of the league becomes important to us. But that’s not part of our business plan at the present time.

“Our plan is to try to deliver a good product to the hockey audience and to try to expand it in the areas where we play. But we’re really not trying to reach out and devote resources to the areas where people don’t identify with us.”

Ziegler, who is basically a chief executive officer without the ultimate powers that usually go with such a title, considers his role to be that of a mediator. His job, he said, is to build consensus among the 21 franchise owners and to “find common paths to keep the business progressing.”

In that regard, his 11-year tenure has been a rousing success.

At the time he took office in 1977, Ziegler said, “we were into disaster and heading for worse.”

Competition from the World Hockey Assn. had “diluted the product,” Ziegler said. In a four-year period that ended in 1978, the NHL had losses of almost $100 million, he said.

Under Ziegler, a lawyer and former chairman of the league’s Board of Governors, the NHL has turned a corner--and a profit--by cutting costs.

Over the last four seasons, in fact, the league has operated at a profit for the first time since before it first expanded in 1967. It is even possible now, Ziegler said, for a team to finish in last place and still turn a profit.

Gate receipts from regular-season games have nearly tripled in the last decade as attendance continues to rise. In the 1986-87 season, the NHL filled about 85% of its seats, an increase of more than 10% since 1977.

In 1979, Ziegler directed a successful merger with the WHA at a time when salaries seemed on the verge of escalating out of sight and the NHL appeared to be heading for financial ruin because of competition from the rival league.

Ten years ago, hockey players ranked second in salary among athletes in the four major team sports. Today, they rank last.

Incredibly, though, there has been no serious threat of a strike as Ziegler and Eagleson have worked closely.

William Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks and chairman of the NHL’s Board of Governors, credits Ziegler with doing a “Homeric job” and at a banquet last summer in Detroit, Ziegler was inducted into the “builders” wing of the NHL Hall of Fame.

His detractors, though, say that Ziegler, a former vice-president of the Detroit Red Wings, does not pay enough attention to the image of the NHL, which Ziegler himself said is viewed by some as “less than a full major league.”

Foremost among their complaints is the league’s lack of legislation against the violence that has been a black mark on the league.

Ziegler argues that hockey is an inherently violent game.

“Violence will always be with us in hockey,” he said. “It is a game of frustration. Just think about it: A player starts something. He starts to skate with the puck and somebody gets in his way. Somebody pushes him. Somebody jabs at him. Somebody rams him into the boards and he’s saying to the official, ‘Why didn’t you call that?’

“Anytime you get a situation of high anxiety and frustration in any walk of life, you get violence.”

Ziegler also argues that his first concern is with the ticket-buying public, which continues to grow. That growth, he said, leads him to believe that the NHL delivers what its audience wants.

When the NHL decided two years ago not to ban fighting, Ziegler told the Toronto Globe and Mail: “There are those who like to debate on a moral basis that fighting is terrible, and that’s certainly a legitimate debate.

“(But) I have to be conscious that what we’re doing is hurting our business. I don’t think fights sell hockey tickets. I mean, there may be some idiots out there who will pay our prices to see a couple of guys grab at each other. But we could not sell 85% of our seats based on fights.

“There is no question, though, that in a packed arena a man-to-man confrontation (and) the threat of violence is always exciting. That may be a terrible comment on mankind, but regardless of the sport, the anticipation of a confrontation gets people off their seats.”

Ziegler is so unconcerned about educating the general public about hockey that he convinced franchise owners that pursuing a television contract with one of the three major networks was not in their best interests and that cable better suited their needs.

The NHL is in the final year of a three-year, $24 million contract with ESPN, a cable network seen in 46.2 million of the nation’s 89 million television households, and also has contracts with Canadian TV.

“Cable allows us better regional delivery,” he said.

Cable also limits the NHL to a more select audience, which Ziegler said was his intent.

“We had to forget about being missionaries spreading the great word of hockey,” he told Business Week. “We had to take our resources and our energy and try to do better where we already were.”

The NHL has done that under the leadership of a man who seems to subscribe to the theory that the end justifies the means.

Ziegler, divorced and the father of four grown children, has been described as an amiable man, “given more to cajolery than confrontation,” as one writer put it, and he seems not to be bothered by the criticisms of his administration.

“How we got there, how I hold a screwdriver, how I pick up the phone or how I deal with a problem, that’s my business,” he said. “I’m the chief executive officer, and my job is to get things done. How I do it is my business.”

Ziegler ascended to his present position after an 11-year affiliation with the Red Wings.

Born in Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., hometown of Jimmy Carson of the Kings, and reared in nearby St. Clair Shores, Ziegler practiced law in Detroit following his graduation from the University of Michigan, where he had been cut from the hockey team by a coach who said he “skated like an American.”

Among his clients were Chrysler, hockey legend Gordie Howe and the Red Wings. Starting in 1966, he served as an alternate governor for former Red Wing owner Bruce Norris at meetings of the NHL’s Board of Governors, eventually becoming chairman.

Jack Kent Cooke, former owner of the Kings, said that, though there were several candidates, Ziegler was unanimously chosen as the successor to former NHL President Clarence Campbell.

“He’s a very intelligent man,” Cooke said of Ziegler, who reportedly is paid about $400,000 a year. “Lots of gray matter and he’s not easily panicked. He was the perfect fellow to become president.”

Ziegler, who maintains an apartment in New York City but still spends about a third of his time at his principal residence in Ortonville, Mich., seems to be supported by the current owners, too.

“John is very, very thorough in the way in which he goes about solving a problem,” said Howard Baldwin, owner of the Hartford Whalers. “I think he’s solved certain problems and done certain things for this league that have been enormously helpful.”

Baldwin and others, though, say that Ziegler is sometimes too thorough and is slow to act. “Until problems become critical we don’t deal with them,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin also is among those who are concerned with the league’s image, which was dealt another blow last week when the start of a playoff game between the New Jersey Devils and the Boston Bruins was delayed more than an hour.

The officials assigned to the game refused to work when New Jersey management obtained an injunction allowing Devil Coach Jim Schoenfeld, who had been suspended, to be behind the bench. Amateur officials eventually worked the game.

While all this went on, Ziegler could not be found. He still has refused to reveal his whereabouts, saying only that he was away on vacation for a few days.

Ziegler was blasted in the media. Reporter E.M. Swift wrote in Sports Illustrated that Ziegler should resign, calling the NHL a “leaderless joke” and saying that the league’s top executive officer should “leave the game and devote himself to something he’s pretty darn good at--his suntan.”

Ziegler, though, has no intention of stepping down.

All is well, as far as he is concerned.

“I’m running a big corporation and my concerns are with the business end of that corporation,” he said. “The test of any product is: What does your customer think of it? Does your customer buy it? Does he keep on buying it? Do you make a profit?

“We answer yes to all of those questions.”

Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre contributed to this story.