Although the NHL has not said "whether its players will travel to South Korea for the 2018 Olympics, the league and its teams are all looking toward Asia" -- to China -- for their next big business opportunity, according to Ian Thomas of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. China’s potential as a hockey market "jumped when Chinese President Xi Jinping followed up the country’s selection in 2015 as the 2022 Olympic host by encouraging both investment and participation in winter sports." A team from Beijing joined the Russian KHL last year. Sources said that the league and the NHLPA "will decide in the next few weeks whether to follow the NBA’s lead and hold preseason games in China, this year or perhaps next year." The league "has discussed playing at least one preseason game this year in either Beijing or Shanghai, and several teams have expressed interest, with the front-runners being the Los Angeles Kings and the Vancouver Canucks."
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly: “It’s an enormous marketplace, and from that perspective alone it has enormous potential. In terms of visibility, we’ve had less than the NBA has had there, but that is why having teams going there and playing games would be very important. One of the main keys and reasons why the NBA has been successful there is that they’ve made their game available.”
EARLY ADOPTER: As the NHL reaches out to China, one Beijing-based company has already aligned itself with the league. ORG Packaging, which designs, develops, manufactures and sells metal packaging projects, became the first Chinese company to sponsor a league event during last year’s World Cup of Hockey, and it has deals with the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings and Washington Capitals.
In addition, the league "signed a five-year partnership with Chinese media company Tencent last month that will not only see games being distributed via the company’s digital and mobile platforms, but also help to develop additional digital offerings for the NHL in China, such as interactive games and NHL-specific applications."
The NHL "has a deal with Chinese broadcaster CCTV to broadcast games that dates back three years, and last year CCTV announcers called Stanley Cup Final games live from U.S. arenas."
IMG is acting as the NHL’s day-to-day operations consultant as it pertains to China, with SECA serving as its consultant for grassroots activities and marketing. Sponsorship efforts are being handled by the NHL’s in-house staff (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, issue 2/6).
