The NHL is set to lose $230 million in sponsorships for the league and its 30 teams after the season was officially called off last week, according to an estimate by the IEG Sponsorship Report.
Only time will tell if major sponsors like Coca-Cola, Best Buy and Nextel will resign if the league ever gets back to playing hockey. But for now, the NHL is off sponsors’ consideration list, said Jim Andrews, IEG VP and editorial director of the IEG Sponsorship Report.
“Assuming the league resumes play at some point, whether (the NHL) will again appear on those lists depends on whether the fans come back to the game,” Andrews said. “If they don’t, then the league will have to win the fans back before it can even think of winning sponsors back.”
Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at University of Oregon, agreed.
“I think there are some sponsors who are ready to walk away, and others who believe once fixed, the NHL will be a good platform to market their brands,” Swangard said. “Since sponsorship is all about linking brands to fans, at this point no sponsor is giddy that they are potentially linked to this mess.”
The hope for brands is that if the fans are happy once play resumes, those sponsors who stuck with the league will have the most to gain, Swangard said.
Doug Drotman, who runs Commack, NY-based sports marketing firm Drotman Communications, said the NHL will need to resell the sport to potential sponsors once it returns to the ice. The good news for the NHL, Drotman said, is the timing of its new TV deal with NBC, which he said puts the league in an ideal position to reinvent its sponsorship packages.
NBC was to air seven regular season and six playoff games on Saturday afternoons, plus Games 3 through 7 of the Stanley Cup finals in prime time. The two-year deal comes with an option for two more. ESPN handles other coverage.
Drotman added that there’s no reason the league can’t bounce back like it did after the 1994-95 lockout that lasted 103 days and forced the cancellation of 468 games.
“History proves that if the NHL can regenerate fan interest and post strong ratings, sponsors will come back,” Drotman said.
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