The Stanley Cup Final kicks off Saturday with questions about how many people will watch Florida and Edmonton, relative to their vanquished foes in New York and Dallas. But the NHL has already scored off the ice this year with sponsorship revenue up 10% to a record $1.4 billion, according to a new report from SponsorUnited.
The data measures team sponsorships and does not include league-level deals. The NHL trails the NBA and MLB in its reach, but hockey nearly matches those sports on sponsorship revenue with both of them at $1.5 billion for their most recent seasons—the leagues are closer to $2 billion when factoring in league deals. The NFL remains the clear leader among U.S. sports leagues at $2.35 billion for its 32 teams, per SponsorUnited. MLS was $587 million for its 2023 season.
More from Sportico.com
The NHL has the lowest sponsor churn rate among the leagues, according to SponsorUnited CEO Bob Lynch. He also highlights new NHL assets, such as digitally enhanced dasherboards (DED) and home/away jersey patches, that have helped sponsor revenue more than double since the 2020-21 season.
“The NHL continues to do things to try and innovate and differentiate themselves from their competitors,” Lynch said in a video interview.
NHL owners approved jersey advertising to start with the 2022-23 season, two years after helmet decals were added. The initial response was tepid in a crowded market where NBA and MLB also had jersey patches up for bid, but teams added 26 new helmet and jersey sponsorships this past season, including six brands investing in the NHL for the first time. Available inventory for these valuable assets dropped 50% this season, with only 10 teams left to sign deals for their home jerseys. SponsorUnited pegs the average jersey deal worth $3.9 million a year and $2.1 million for helmets.
The NHL debuted digital dasherboards that display rotating advertising for the 2022-23 season. The boards faced some initial criticism due to glitches in the technology but that has abated. The NHL has cornered this market with 85% of the spending on virtual assets among the five major U.S. sports leagues directed toward the NHL.
More than 1,000 brands employed digital assets in collaboration with the league and individual teams, and 50% of brands investing in virtual assets bought DEDs exclusively. The Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins have been the top teams selling DEDs, while Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Geico and Toyota are the leading brands for buying, according to SponsorUnited, which does work for 31 NHL teams and the league itself.
NHL and NBA teams have an advantage on the sponsorship side with the number of events these buildings host outside of sports. “There are opportunities to do so much more with customers also coming in for concerts and other events,” Lynch said. “Those things get you in the door to have those bigger discussions on sponsorship deals.”
Financial services continues to be the dominant sponsorship category with $240 million in team deals, more than twice as much as alcohol and automotive, which rank second and third. The same dynamic exists in the NBA with finance brands ($247 million) twice as big as technology ones ($122 million) on spending. NHL telecom deals rose 31% to $73 million, while insurance had a 27% gain to $59 million. A handful of categories had declines in NHL sponsor spending, including government, education, non-alcoholic beverages, retail and media.
Best of Sportico.com
