One cannot go an hour these days without hearing or reading or seeing some news regarding the tug-of-war going on between the NHLPA and the team owners. The owners seemed to have either made a deal in bad faith a few months ago or they were so cocksure that the pandemic was going away that they made a poor decision and now they’re attempting to pull rank and renege on their agreement with the players.
So, my question to the owners of all the NHL teams is, when the going gets tough, do you take your ball and go home or do you roll up your sleeves, get stuck in, and find yourselves a way out of the mess you got yourself into?
More specifically, if you have a platform as large as the NHL does, does it make more sense from the owners’ perspective to get what little you can from the players, whilst pissing them off royally, or would it be more prudent to find more revenue streams, that, could down the line benefit both parties?
First Suggestion
The one thing you’re going to hear more and more about is sponsors on jerseys and I can’t understand, for the life of me, why there’s so much pushback from the fans on this? Are you there to see a fashion show or are you going to the games to watch the hockey being played? Were you this opposed when they started putting ads on the boards? Do you refuse to go to a hockey arena because it sports the name of a business or corporation on it?
Hello?! Adidas has its logo on all of the uniforms. That’s an ad.
It’s probably the most f*cked up hill to die on, in my opinion, because there are already ads on hockey jerseys. It’s not a slippery slope if you have the right regulations in place to prevent the teams from making their uniforms from looking like what most fear. That being some of the sweaters you’d see in the European leagues.
There is a method to doing this gracefully and with class. I would have to think that if you wanted to purchase your favorite team’s kit, you could do so knowing that you’d have the choice to get one with an ad or without.
On the other hand, European soccer jerseys have their sponsors right on the chest and you’ve no choice, if you want one, it comes with the ad and they sell BILLIONS worth of product every year sans global protests.
Personally, I could care less if a team had the logo of one corporate sponsor on its jersey or ten of them but there are folks like the person out of Saskatchewan who texted into Oilers Now recently who said they would stop watching the NHL if they put ads on the uniforms… Yikes.
The fact of the matter is, ads on unis are coming. There’s nothing you can do about that. They were always coming, it just took a pandemic and NHL owners losing hundreds of millions of dollars to make it a reality.
Second Suggestion
Expanded playoffs.
I thought last year’s post-season was a bit gimmicky with the addition of the play-ins, but after thinking about it, I actually don’t mind the extra few games and with that the upsets and dramas.
Gary Bettman is vehemently against this idea and I haven’t got the foggiest as to why. More games mean more revenue from every angle conceivable and at this point in time, the NHL cannot afford to be picky about where its income originates from.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
The other option that the league could offer is more competitions.
What I mean is this, for example, the regular season could have its own champion and the playoffs another. But there could also be separate tournaments like a season-long 3v3 prospects competition or an annual summer league that is sponsored. What about really getting in deep with eSports? Maybe featuring two or three players from each team and participating in ProAm events?
I know my ideas are fairly simple, but the point is, more games, more involvement, more eyes on the game equals more opportunity for sponsors to get involved and that of course means… more money.
Third Suggestion
Gambling.
I know. It’s not the most wholesome way of bringing home the bacon, but it is a reality of life that will never go away.
Also, do you think the NHL got into bed with Las Vegas because they like putting ice hockey teams in the desert? No. There was an opportunity there that is set to reward the NHL handsomely and Gary Bettman took advantage.
Think about it. The NHL has too many teams as it is. The only reason to expand is financially motivated.
Now, if those in power can find a way to make it so easy to gamble on hockey games while they’re going on from the palms of a fan’s hand, they’ll be swimming in cash. They could easily develop a way to give you the odds on-screen mid-game so that you could make your bets in real-time and win in real-time.
I think the plan to expand the NHL’s gambling community has always been there and my feeling is that there was a long-term plan to bring it to light, but now there’s a bit of urgency.
The league might want to tap this trillion-dollar keg a bit earlier given the dire straights the owners find themselves in and start passing out the red plastic cups.
Other things the owners might consider,
- Keep the divisions as they’re planning to organize them in 2020-21.
Nobody will ever get bored of seeing rivalry games two or three times per week.
- Be honest about the game and advertise what people want to see most, hits and fights.
There’s a reason the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em franchise has made millions over the years…
- Get more celebrities involved and whore the league out to Hollywood.
Wherever the NHL can slip a team’s logo into a blockbuster movie, it should. When I was a kid, every now and then there would be a celebrity hockey game where the Oilers alumni would play against a bunch of movie stars. It was a blast for me back then, why wouldn’t it be any less of a good time now?
- Allow players to individualize their equipment to some degree. Be it their helmets, skates, stick, or gloves.
If the NHL can allow the personalities within the game to flourish in the way that NBA, MLB, NFL, and European Football superstars do, I’m very sure that the popularity of the league would increase.
Here’s the thing, there’s a great opportunity for the sport to take the next step in its evolution, but if hockey and the old cronies running it do not allow themselves to adapt to the times, the game will wither away and die.
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