Two sport business professors launch a new platform, dissecting the global economics, brand deals, and market strategies shaping hockey's financial landscape.
As the first of what we hope are many posts to the new Money and Power site at The Hockey News, we thought we should introduce ourselves.
We are two sport business professors who have spent decades studying, working in, playing and analyzing the sport of hockey. So much so that we even wrote a book called Business the NHL Way.
With this site operating within The Hockey News' universe, we are hoping to provide valuable content on a specific aspect of hockey, which is its business side. And, we believe we can get that job done.
Why? Well, there are a few reasons:
Dollars And Cents
We will focus explicitly on the business side of the sport. We won’t second guess coaches or suggest who the 2nd-round pick for the Toronto Maple Leafs should be (go to THN.com/toronto for that). Nor will we evaluate on-ice talent or scouting decisions. We like to think about specific hockey markets, arenas, special events, brand decisions and sponsorship opportunities. In other words, the dollars and cents of what makes the hockey world go around.
Global Perspective
Yes, the NHL is the pinnacle of hockey and – by a wide margin – the place where individual teams are worth the most, where players are paid elite salaries, where sponsors spend extravagantly (if not significantly), and where team and/or league merchandise sells dynamically.
Yes, that’s a waterfall of achievement, but you likely get our point.
We plan to bring this perspective to our writing. There are also many interesting stories about the business of ice hockey outside of the NHL. The Olympics are obvious (and just around the corner), but successful leagues and confederations exist all over the world. One of us recently spoke at the IIHF Global Hockey Forum in Nice, France, where more than 75 countries attended with the plan of growing the game of hockey within their borders. We think we can help with that assignment.
The Growth Of The Game
There is a lot of material for us to cover. We’ve written books, academic articles, case studies and much more on the sport and have access to a library of content to bring, update and apply.
Our aforementioned book, Business the NHL Way: Lessons from the Fastest Game on Ice, published in 2022 by the University of Toronto Press, and updated with a new edition in 2023, provides a signature piece that tells the business success story of the sport’s largest league, the NHL, achieved under the leadership of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman during the last four decades.
We know criticism of the NHL commissioner's leadership is occasionally expressed by fans. But when viewed within a business lens, the league’s success under his leadership is unquestionable. The chart below, updated from our 2023 book, outlines a revenue growth trajectory that few industries or organizations can match. A couple of hits from player labor disputes and a global pandemic aside, a cumulative annual growth rate of about 7% is exceptional in the time frame below.
For 2025-2026, commissioner Bettman reported in an ESPN interview that league revenues of $6.8-billion are expected for 2025-26. This is captured in the attached graphic.
Graph outlining the NHL's fast growing revenues over the past three decades.At the highest levels, it is pretty hard not to point out a ‘tentpole’ property or event that has helped a successful sport grow or expand, whether it's the NBA All-Star Game, FIFA’s World Cup or, for the NHL, the Stanley Cup.
What’s common for each big sports property is the revenue engine that consistently generates participants and fan bases. Great leagues and events attract Private Equity (PE) investors, celebrity owners, billionaires and the biggest brands. We’ll discuss this element often and detail numerous developments as Money and Power takes shape.
Now, as we start digging in, things will get more intricate and identified as business decisions.
In our book, we identified hundreds of these in the form of innovative offerings (outdoor games, the glowing puck, department of player safety), marketing (media-driven activations, sponsorships), or changes to the on-ice product itself (3-on-3 overtime, reduced fighting). And, we think it has worked — not just for the NHL, but for hockey worldwide.
The game today is very much at its pinnacle.
Some would say we’re now living in the golden age of hockey. A big question is this: can we stay here and who is helping continue the game’s great growth?
We hope to offer some insight on that topic in the coming months and hope you will provide feedback for us indicating whether we are introducing stories and themes that whet your appetite for hockey’s business side.
As we often to say to each other, let’s drop the puck and see where it goes.
Norm O’Reilly is the dean of the University of New England’s College of Business and Partner with the T1 Agency. Rick Burton is the David B. Falk Emeritus Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University and co-host of The NIL Clubhouse on Spotify and Apple. They are co-authors of numerous sports business books and articles including Business the NHL Way, published by the University of Toronto Press.