The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the outline of professional sports, and more specifically, ice hockey. The NHL return will certainly look different because of the disease.
Let’s start with some background. The NHL is the smallest of the “Big Four” professional leagues in the US and Canada by profitability, and it’s not even close. The NFL, MLB, and NBA are the top three leagues in the entire world, collecting a total of $13B, $10B, and $7.4B in profit respectively.
The NHL falls behind these three leagues, along with the Indian Premier League (Cricket) and the (English) Premier League both raking in high amounts of profit. The NHL then comes along with an yearly profit in the range of $4.4B.
Whilst that is not a small amount of money by any margin, many sports journalists around the world have been thinking about the profitability of many specific franchises that are either subsidised by their respective leagues (and losing money) or are barely above sea level.
In the NHL’s case, there are seven teams that make a yearly operating loss. These teams include the Florida Panthers and the Arizona Coyotes, to nobody’s surprise. Our beloved Islanders lose $3.5 million by operating every year. The rest of the teams include the Winnipeg Jets, Anaheim Ducks, Nashville Predators and the Columbus Blue Jackets. Many of these teams have been playoff and even cup contenders.
Columbus swept the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Tampa Bay Lightning, who make a yearly operating profit of $7.2 million, the lowest team to make over $5 million. The Predators were in the Stanley Cup Finals a mere two years ago losing in game six to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Jets have been a team that have done some damage in the playoffs, notably their Western Conference Finals loss to the Cinderella-story Vegas Golden Knights.
However, this article is not about relocation. We’re talking about the financial situations of NHL clubs. This all proves that winning does not necessarily equal profitability. The top-two profitable clubs, the Rangers and Montréal, have not been proper contenders since 2014, yet still both rake in over $100 million in operating profits alone.
This shows that during this pandemic, the teams that are most profitable will likely not be very happy to shell out even more money to keep teams that are financial failures afloat. The NHL and its clubs need to come up with ways to replace the income from ticket sales, concessions and merchandise that are uniquely purchased at the grand ol’ hockey game.

Jersey sponsorships

Jersey sponsorships are a simple way to add in some supplementary income. NBA teams are currently making anywhere from $5 million to $20 million to have a tiny patch on their uniforms. Whilst many hockey uniforms are more sacred than most NBA jerseys, not all teams have to have one. It wasn’t, and still isn’t, a requirement. However, most teams jumped at the offer. How could this work in the NHL?
An average $9.2 million deal would bring 3/7 of the teams losing money yearly to profitability. This would also be a great boost to the teams that are making under $5 million a year (of which there are four). This mustn’t be a long-term solution, and using the patches as a three-year pilot programme would allow for teams to supplement their income while they can’t have fans in the building.
Teams like Montréal, Toronto and the Rangers shouldn’t dare think about putting patches on, as those are absolute staples of hockey jerseys. However, allowing teams the option to put a patch similar to the ones seen in the NBA would significantly aide teams who are already in financial trouble.
This should be seen as a temporary aide, and certain regulations should be put in place to ensure the patch does not ruin the integrity of the jersey design. For example, the Toronto Raptors use a red patch with a white logo on their red jerseys, a black patch with a white logo on their black jerseys, and a white patch with a black logo on their whites.
This ensures the aesthetic is not compromised, and does not upset many fans. Similarly, the Los Angeles Lakers use an adapted wordmark from the company “wish” in their famous deep purple, popping yellow, and white colour scheme. The company’s colour scheme is a baby blue, but the colours are adapted to fit in with the team’s garb.

Tarps over seats

Selling tarped-off seating to advertisers could be a lucrative way to bring in additional revenue. While there are no official estimates for how much a club could receive for plastering a corporate logo over their seats, the NHL and its teams will likely lose a lot of money from the lack of in-game sponsorships that are only seen by fans in attendance. The seats will not be used anyway, and if there needs to be some seating for press and team staffers, they can be located in an area that the camera would not show during the game. If they can’t make money from people in those seats, why not have corporate logos on them? This would be another obviously-temporary measure, as once we return to normalcy, fans will be beyond excited to cheer on their teams in-house.
If you have watched any Bundesliga soccer matches this past week, it was a strange return to sport, and the empty seats did not help the eerie feeling. German side M’gladbach has put cardboard figures of supporters to rally on the lads, while South Korean K-League side FC Seoul has had a recent mishap with the media for having rather explicit mannequins to stand in for people. While all of these are interesting ways to combat the empty seat feeling, both of these options provide extra cost to the teams. Putting tarps over the empty seats is a great way to make use of the unused space to help recoup some of the losses that will inevitably come for many NHL teams.

More advertisements on the boards and ice

The above image is misleading. In no way, shape, or form should the NHL even consider ruining the integrity and sanctity of the ice in similar fashion to this monstrosity. However, (temporarily) expanding on-ice advertisements could deem beneficial for recouping teams’ losses. With the exception of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and in the beginning of the season, the areas nearest to the neutral zone line are empty. This could be a decent area with great exposure to the public in order to earn more advertising revenue.
After the public health emergency is over and teams are back to normal, these types of adverts should go bye-bye and never be seen again. However, we are still in midst of a pandemic that has infected over four million people and killed approximately 250,000 people worldwide.
Whilst we can’t wait to be able to hug our grandparents or grandchildren and cheer on our teams at the arena, that time has not come yet. Everybody is struggling right now except for the corporations, and they are the only ones at this time who can afford to pay lump sums of money for more public exposure.
We need dynamic solutions that can help to keep our beloved teams afloat, and although temporary, seeing a few more logos during games for the time being will help with that. The NHL return must be done well. If these solutions can help, they should be considered.