The NHL BOG convenes for meetings today in Las Vegas, where the agenda will include an update on collective bargaining and an "overview of business the operations," including the fact that the league has seen revenues rise since '06 from $2.1B to $3.3B, according to Scott Burnside of ESPN.com. NHL Enterprises has seen revenue increase in that period, and European revenues "have started to take off in the wake of the NHL's initiatives at selling the game across the Atlantic." Owners also will hear about potential streams of revenue that league officials believe could generate $300M "in the next few years" once a new CBA "is hammered out" (ESPN.com, 6/18).
ICY ROAD AHEAD? In N.Y., Klein & Hackel wrote of the issues the NHL faces this offseason, "If a lockout takes place one possibility has the owners scuttling the first two to three months of the regular season, then settling for two or three percentage points of the players’ share -- or $60 million to $90 million a year, compounded over the life" of the new CBA. Even the "most pessimistic do not see the owners holding out long enough to cause the cancellation of the NHL’s biggest regular-season event, the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/17). In Denver, Adrian Dater wrote team owners will "want NHL players to take a reduction of their take of overall revenues, from 57 percent to probably 50 -- like NBA players did." One of the "problems is owners don't have enough incentive to care about the first three months of the season." Ratings and attendance "usually are down in the early months." It will be "too easy for owners to say 'who cares?' and lock players out if they don't immediately consent to their demands." When it gets closer to the Jan. 1 Winter Classic, the league and owners "will start caring and get something done" (DENVERPOST.com, 6/16).
YEAR IN REVIEW: In Vancouver, Ed Willes wrote in reviewing the NHL's '11-12 campaign, it is "difficult to assess the damage done to the game but it was real and it was significant." The game continued to "trend back toward the dead-puck era." Goals were down, as was "entertainment value." The first round of the playoffs "provided some memorable hockey, as it generally does." But the postseason also "devolved from that point and by the time the final rolled around, few fans outside Los Angeles and New Jersey were engaged in the game's marquee event." Willes: "This offseason, there should be some real soul-searching within the NHL. There should be a brutally honest effort to analyze the product and determine where it's going" (Vancouver PROVINCE, 6/17).
