In the run-up to Warner Bros. Discovery’s first-ever Stanley Cup Final and on the heels of a 2% audience boost throughout the playoffs, the NHL has put together a banger of sponsorship season. All told, the league’s 32 clubs raked in $1.28 billion in sponsor revenue in 2022-23, which marks a 21% increase versus the year-ago period.
According to a new report from SponsorUnited, the NHL nailed down 2,300 deals with brands from Aug. 23, 2022, through May 16, 2023, a burst of economic activity that coincided with the addition of seven league-wide sponsors. These include a new multiyear partnership with Jersey Mike’s here in the U.S., and a global deal with the Irving, Texas-based manufacturer of construction equipment, Caterpillar.
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Per SponsorUnited data, the NHL’s 21% growth outpaced the seasonal rates-of-change for the NFL (+14%) and NBA (+4%), although hockey’s overall monetary windfall lagged a bit behind the two other leagues. The NFL last season whipped up $2.1 billion in sponsorship revenue at the team level (and $2.7 billion when league-wide deals were factored into the equation), while the 30 NBA franchises took in $1.4 billion).
NHL franchises made hay with brands across the financial services, alcohol and retail sectors. Banks and credit cards led the way with $219.4 million in investments, up 31% from the year-ago period, while alcohol poured $104.2 million into the promotional machine. That was up 8% versus the category’s 2021-22 spend, a boomlet powered by the addition of 14 deals with tequila brands. (The NBA saw a similar surge in agave-related spend, which if nothing else suggests that tequila is just about the hottest thing going in the sports space.)
Media was the fastest-growing category, with sponsorship revenues adding up to $50.3 million, good for a year-over-year a gain of 108%. Betting/daily fantasy was also a gainer, with dollars expanding 66% versus 2021-22, to $50.7 million.
Also helping jog the sponsorship needle was the introduction of paid-for jersey patches, an opportunity which 13 clubs seized upon during the season. For the most part, however, the overall gains at the franchise level were accelerated by a revamp of the NHL’s core sponsorship model, which placed a greater emphasis on multifaceted partnerships showcasing social causes and the introduction of digitally enhanced dasherboards. The league also expanded its field of view, embracing new categories such as earth-moving machines and other heavy-duty industrial gear (see: Caterpillar) and NFTs.
The boost in on-site marketing activity comes as the NHL is in the midst of a ratings surge. In the second season of its seven-year, $2.1 billion deal with the league, Disney aired 50 games on ABC and ESPN, or 22 more than during the previous campaign. Excluding limited windows where the NHL competed with NFL broadcasts, the Disney games averaged 629,000 viewers, up 6%. On the broadcast front, the ABC flagship averaged around 1 million viewers for this season’s games, up 19% versus 2021-2022.
That regular-season momentum carried over into the playoffs in a big way, as the first round of the tourney was the most-watched of all time. And while the Sun Belt Stanley Cup has its detractors, the pairing-off of the Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights demonstrates how strong the business of hockey has been in non-traditional markets. The last two teams standing average 125.5 sponsorships between them, which works out to a 21% advantage over the rest of the league’s clubs.
The toast of the Strip, Vegas is particularly flush, boasting 152 sponsorship deals to the Panthers’ 99. Among the Knights’ top partners are Allegiant Air and Credit One Bank, while Florida’s biggest backers include BMW and Stoli vodka.
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