NHL recoups insane amount of money thanks to controversial helmet ads!

Fans were quite vocal when the National Hockey League announced ahead of this almost entirely fan-free shortened season that it would use corporate advertiser’s logos on team helmets for the first time ever for the 2021season. When the announcement was made, it explained how this new concept would help teams either recoup on lost revenue or to “make good” on existing partners who didn’t get full value for their deals in the pandemic shortened 2019-20 season.

On Tuesday, Ray Lalonde revealed on TSN690 that the NHL recouped about $100M during the pandemic solely off helmet ads. 

It is easy to understand why NHL commissioner Gary Bettman recently revealed that the league will “more likely than not” be bringing back in-game helmet ads for the 2021-22 season.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re on a slippery slope, but in these challenging times, particularly economically, we’ve been focused on making sure that we’re doing the best we can in terms of league rules and when opportunities financially can be presented,” Bettman said.

He’d be crazy to ignore this kind of money! Even if fans don’t approve of the look. 

Some teams have been more criticized than other because the removal of the individual team logos replaced with corporate logos. Some logos are entirely different colour scheme than what the team typically wears which is a clash. Fans have pointed out how bad the green TD logo looks on the Boston Bruins or the powder blue PPG logo looks on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Not to mention bright red Scotiabank logo of the helmets of the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

But, hey, get used to it folks!