The Business of Hockey
At the Crossroads of Culture, Family, Science and CTE
March 9th, 2018 One of the most complex issues facing sports, including hockey, is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE, a brain disease associated with violent head trauma. It has been six years since John Branch’s seminal reporting on the death of hockey fighter Derek Boogard, at...
Calgary’s 2026 Olympic Bid Has Huge NHL Implications
March 7th, 2018 The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea have come and gone. With the 2018 event complete, the focus of the winter sports world has turned towards preparations for the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the bidding process for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Four cities...
March Marks NHL's Sustainability Initiative
March 2nd, 2018 Organizations and associations around the world have shifted their focus to environmentally-friendly initiatives that incorporate their values with those of green business practices. While the majority of sports associations have been hesitant, the National Hockey League...
A Brief History of Rinkside Advertising
February 21st, 2018 A look at what could be in store for the NHL and the other professional leagues in North America as board advertising and in-ice logos become more prevalent in every arena. With it being expected that the NHL will feature ads on jerseys during the World Cup of...
The NHL and Gary Bettman: 25 Years of Progress and Controversy
February 1st, 2018 Gary Bettman gets booed when he speaks. A lot. He is the public face behind the decision not to allow NHL players to participate in the 2018 Olympics. When an owner wants public funds used to finance a new arena, Bettman makes the case in the media. He has led the NHL to...
Coyotes & ASU Must Revisit Tempe Arena Plan
December 22nd, 2017 Earlier this week, the Arizona Coyotes announced that they'd be staying at Gila River Arena for at least one more season beyond the current 2017-18 campaign. While this is good news for both the franchise and its fans, who have been dragged through the mud for the better...
Dear NHL, Time to Move on from Arizona
November 17th, 2017 Dear NHL, It's time to move the struggling Arizona Coyotes franchise. It's been 21 years since Commissioner Gary Bettman proudly relocated a franchise to the state of Arizona, and 21 years later the original vision has yet to come to fruition. The Coyotes were supposed...
Calgary and the Flames Play a High-Stakes Game of Chicken
September 29th, 2017 The month of September is often a time of optimism in the National Hockey League's 31 markets, as training camps open and the possibilities of a brand-new season are still on the horizon. In Calgary the mood has instead been a bit uneasy as the tense negotiations for a new...
Entry-Level Contracts Help Teams Stay Competitive
September 26th, 2017 Ever since the NHL’s salary cap was invoked, the league and its 31 teams have been working on strategies to become more salary cap efficient via hunting for marginal value. As the manner in which teams are using their resources continues to evolve in today’s parity era,...
Erie Otters Coping with Dynamism of OHL
September 14th, 2017 The Ontario Hockey League is far from stagnant, something the reigning league champions, the Erie Otters, are acutely aware of. There are management obstacles that arise in the Canadian Hockey League that simply do not exist at the top level of professional hockey due to a...
Branding the Golden Knights
September 10th, 2017 The first task of any marketer is to find the starving crowd. This applies to every business, from the local sandwich shop to the billion-dollar sports franchise, because no matter how brilliant a business idea might seem at first glance, if there isn't a starving crowd...
Young Money: The Best Paid ELC Players of 2016-17
August 1st, 2017 Players on an NHL Entry Level Contract (ELC) are capped at a $925,000 salary, but can earn millions more in bonuses if they perform, launching them into veteran-like pay brackets. With the 2016-17 season over, the Stanley Cup back in Pittsburgh, and the NHL awards handed...
The Hockey Fans Guide to the Offseason Desert: Erie Otters Edition
July 30th, 2017 Every hockey team, no matter the league, is always in some state of perpetual flux from season to season. For fans, the offseason seems like the inevitable desert that one must trudge through during the summer months until October finally rolls around and we can jubilantly...
