mr. bettman and then mr. leonsis. mr. bettman, how does a national hockey league choose venues for the winter classic and where do

mr. bettman and then mr. leonsis. then we will try to bring it all together by 2:00. mr. bettman, how does a national hockey league choose venues for the winter classic and where do you see future games being held? >> the smart-ass answer would be somewhere between we throw darts and it depends who was harassing me the most. [laughter] the latter is closest to the truth. actually, we look for to be opportunistic. we started in buffalo with the notion that maybe it would work. once it did, we started looking for what would be the next place we could go to that can build upon it, and continue the growth of the winter classic and all outdoor games as an institution. as we got more and more comfortable building it as an event, as it got a bigger and bigger following, we decided we could try things that some people thought would be crazy. last year, we did an outdoor game in los angeles and it was great. for us to come to the nation's capital, there is a fan base here that ted has built through his organization and through his use of social media and his commitment to the commu

mr. bettman has been the nhl commissioner for two decades.under his leadership and nhl revenue has expanded from $400 million, to more than $3 billion. he led the expansion into nhl's national and global reach with six teams added during his tenure, bringing the total in the nhl to 30. just navigate the waters of three labor lockouts and include the cancellation of the 24-five season. mr. leonsis is ceo of monumental sports and entertainment which operates a washington capitals the washington wizards in the nba, washington mystics in the wnba, and the verizon center. psl other business interests and he's a leader in the d.c. philanthropic community supporting charities with an emphasis on military families. we are interested to hear details of our guests, details from our guests that they can cheer about the winter classic on january 1 when the chicago blackhawks take on the washington capitals at the washington nationals stadium. of course we're also interested in hearing about other issues facing the nhl and professional sports in general.

mr. chairman. >> excuse me. >> one thing i wanted to note up front is that all of you are here, we're appreciative that all of you are testifying today, but commissioner goodell, commissioner selig, commissioner silver, commissioner bettman were all asked to be here. i do think it's convenient that none of them were able to be here today. it does say something about where does the level of commitment come? because i think they should all be here today. while i'm appreciative that you've been willing to appear in their stead, i think that does say something about how big of a commitment is there going to be on this? and that goes to the leaders as well to take responsibility for what happens here. i want to associate myself with the comments of senator mccaskill because you do need to establish an investigative process for these cases that do not result in criminal conviction. and this is imperative because you have to hold yourselves to a higher standard, and the bottom line is that in many of these cases victims are not going to come forward because of the financial pressure that they face, the social pressure that they face and the terror that they face, but that does not alleviate your responsibility to get the facts,