OILERS GIVE NHL BOTTOM LINE A BOOST
Win or lose going into the weekend — the longest weekend of the year in terms of daylight hours — the Edmonton Oilers have already given the NHL a boost by extending their Stanley Cup Final series against the Florida Panthers.
They’ve also demonstrated how bullish the hockey market is in Canada across the board, from secondary ticket prices and NHL record in-arena merchandise sales, to social media mentions and television numbers. Game 5 attracted an average North American viewership of 8.5 million. That audience included 4.1 million Americans watching on ESPN and ABC and 4.4 million Canadians on CBC, Rogers Sportsnet and TVA Sports. Even with the U.S. television ratings showing a 27 per cent year over year increase, they don’t hold a candle to the Canadian numbers, especially on a per capita basis, where Canadians are outwatching Americans during the Stanley Cup Final by a nine-to-one ratio.
With the get-in price for tickets at Game 6 at Rogers Place in Edmonton at $1,896 and the average secondary market ticket value pegged at $9,203.83 according to casino.org, the Stanley Cup Final is clearly reinforcing Canada’s continuing position as the NHL’S economic breadbasket. And that’s true despite the NHL being three years into its best U.S. TV rights package yet, seven-year deals with ESPN/ABC (US$400 million per season) and TNT ($225 million per season). The Canadian TV deal with Rogers Sportsnet ($500 million per year) is still significantly higher than the U.S. deal on a per capita
basis. Here’s to the NHL remembering that when the league finally proceeds with its next round of expansion.
The biggest winners this week, however, are the Boston Celtics and sports fans in that city. The heritage brand Celtics have their all-time leading 18th NBA championship and Boston has its 13th major championship in the past 23 years. That remarkable quarter-century includes six New England Patriots Super Bowls, four Boston Red Sox World Series titles, two Celtics crowns and one Stanley Cup for the Boston Bruins.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
This is the first day of summer, but it also may very well be the week that officially sinks
the Toronto Blue Jays and their dreams of a wild card playoff berth during the summer that was supposed to show off the team’s impressive two-year, $400-million stadium renovation. Ticket sales and overall attendance are likely to cool off after the archrival Red Sox swept Toronto at the Rogers Centre earlier this week. That was the exact opposite of what the Jays needed, dropping them into the cellar in the American League East. It’s been that frustrating for the team with a $228-million payroll, ninth largest in MLB.
Meanwhile, what were the NHL’S Washington Capitals thinking this week when they agreed to a trade to acquire underperforming and overpaid centre Pierre-luc Dubois from
the Los Angeles Kings? Dubois brings the last seven years of his eight-year contract to the Capitals. His Us$8.5-million salary cap hit through 2031 makes this a real head-scratcher. The Kings have only new goaltender Darcy Kuemper to show for the three players and draft pick they gave to Winnipeg to acquire the enigmatic Dubois last year, but that’s a pill worth swallowing to get out from under his contract.
Tom Mayenknecht is the host of The Sport Market on Sportsnet 650 on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Vancouver-based sport business commentator and principal in Emblematica Brand Builders provides a behind-the-scenes look at the sport business stories that matter most to fans. Follow Mayenknecht at: twitter.com/thesportmarket.