The NHL and NHLPA have signed deals with Air Canada, Canadian Tire, Honda, Molson Coors, PepsiCo, Scotiabank, Tim Hortons and Visa as official partners for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey tournament. Those companies join existing partners adidas and Rogers Communications. NHL Exec VP/Global Partnerships Keith Wachtel said additional partners will be announced in the coming weeks. In addition, the NHL and NHLPA are set to announce that they will host the World Cup of Hockey Fan Village, a free festival in Toronto that will allow fans to interact with the hockey, food, music and culture from all the participating nations. Scotiabank will be the title sponsor of that area, which will also serve as the primary activation point for all the WCOH partners. The tournament will be played Sept. 17-Oct. 1 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Per the terms of the deal, the partners will receive in-venue signage, NHL media and national broadcast integration and the ability to use IP rights to the tournament, collective and individual use of the team marks, and the use of group players. Partners will take part in on-site activations at fan events, as well as operate ticket opportunities and themed promotions and campaigns. Wachtel said the league and the NHLPA have been pleased with the level of interest thus far from marketers, and said that they expect to fill the typical major categories. While the first companies to align with the tournament both skew toward those with significant Canadian and North American presence and mostly have existing relationships with the NHL -- Air Canada is the lone exception -- Wachtel said that neither are concerns.
MORE DEALS EXPECTED IN EUROPE: Wachtel noted the league's relationship with Lagardère, which is leading the tournament’s European sponsorship sales, has had early success and he expects more deals to be signed soon in those regions, and that future deals will also be done in categories that the NHL has not been associated with in the past. While Wachtel declined to provide specific terms of the deals, he said with the deals thus far, the tournament is on track to exceed its revenue expectations from a sponsorship perspective, something he attributes to the expanded asset base the NHL and NHLPA have been offering, which includes the digital dasherboard advertising that will be used during TV broadcasts, essentially creating four sets of inventory. All of the deals are solely for the '16 edition of the event, which is expected to be played every four years going forward. There is also still the potential for jersey sponsorships, Wachtel said, noting there "is still interest in it."
