The NHL has sold the division names

[IU Hawks fan]

Would love to know how much this brought in, or if it's mostly makegoods.

Click to read more...

 

[jkrdevil]

Looking at the sponsors...they are make goods.

 

[Mightygoose]

As the the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase would say back in the day, Everybody has a price. In this case anything,

 

[Jedub]

Ah, hell nah!

 

[Big McLargehuge]

And I won't be using any of those corporations for a good while.

f*** this shit.

 

[berklon]

And I won't be using any of those corporations for a good while.

f*** this shit.

Really? This is where you take a stand on boycotting companies?

Any why are you blaming these companies? The NHL are the ones who made the decision to sell the sponsorship, the companies are just customers.
Shouldn't you be boycotting the NHL instead?

 

[IU Hawks fan]

I will continue to take money from Discover, in the form of 5% cash back in rotating categories every quarter, while not giving them a dime as I never pay interest.

SUCKERS!

 

[LadyStanley]

Just this season

 

[Kane One]

I will continue to take money from Discover, in the form of 5% cash back in rotating categories every quarter, while not giving them a dime as I never pay interest.

SUCKERS!

They are still profiting from your service by charging the merchants a swipe fee and a percentage of the sale.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Really? This is where you take a stand on boycotting companies?

Any why are you blaming these companies? The NHL are the ones who made the decision to sell the sponsorship, the companies are just customers.
Shouldn't you be boycotting the NHL instead?

I'm sick of being advertised to and hoping my anger makes the NHL think long and hard about viewing an ever-increasing number of ads as a long-term option. I'm not calling for a boycott from anyone else, I'm just showing my distaste for this crap.

I have so little power to stop this kind of thing, so I'm doing the only thing I can. Withholding. I haven't watched baseball in 3 years because of my favorite team having a crook for an owner. I can't stand watching football games because of the endless parade of ads (and I haven't watched a game that doesn't involve the Steelers in years). I'm nothing more than a miniscule speed bump along the way, but I'm not going to lay down and accept the endless ad creep.

 

[hacksaw7]

How are these "desperate" financial times for these teams? desperate really?

We're not quite there yet but the more the NHL tries to make this look like a European hockey league clownshow the more I won't watch. It's just an outright comical eyesore.

 

[royals119]

I'd rather support the companies that are supporting the sports I want to watch. I'm a STH for the ECHL Reading Royals, and I go out of my way to support the team sponsors. I don't follow the NHL as closely, but I still try to support hockey sponsors as much as I can. For example, I'm paying off and cancelling credit cards currently, but I'll probably keep my Discover card over my Visa card because they sponsor the NHL - and I can get my team logo, or the Stanley Cup, on my card.

 

[hacksaw7]

Do people think these are really just for 20/21?

Have they ever removed ads from the boards or ice?

 

[MeHateHe]

It's always fun to read people who are surprised when capitalists act like capitalists.

 

[OddyOh]

Wait, do these companies really expect the commentators and highlight shows to refer to the divisions by these names? No one is going to do that! “...tense matchup in the MassMutual division tonight...” lolwut.

 

[MeHateHe]

Wait, do these companies really expect the commentators and highlight shows to refer to the divisions by these names? No one is going to do that! “...tense matchup in the MassMutual division tonight...” lolwut.

I would bet you all the money in my pocket that producers will be reminding broadcasters to use the sponsors' names in reference frequently, if not all the time.

 

[Burke the Legend]

NHL needs to reverse this trend soon. Their presentation is being ruined by oversaturation of ads and now politics too, and it's reaching a tipping point for all the major leagues. It should be very worrisome to owners and executives that ratings of sports are down significantly even with people locked up inside and consuming more media to pass time.

Sports viewership is under significant long term pressure from expanding video games market and proliferation of high quality streaming services. The past year has seen a reorientation of habits, some temporary of course, but also accelerated some other trends like this. Sports viewership was a net loser despite the leagues' efforts to get their show back on.

Ads now all over playing surface, every inch of boards and bench, ads in front row seating of arenas, ads projected onto glass on TV, onto TV clock display, ads replacing announcers during play breaks (non-TV time out), etc. Every one diminishes the aesthetic of the presentation a bit more. People will say it doesn't matter and we are inured to them, but is it a coincidence that the media that is killing cable TV and sports is ad free? No ad oversaturation on Netflix or when you are playing video games.

I know the NHL is hurting bad here since they are missing gate revenue, but the past 10 years the trend has been to place ads EVERYWHERE. The NHL will need to radically re-think their presentation and clean it up because right now it is an over-commercialized mess. Reality is though we are probably witnessing the end of the famous sports bubble that we've speculated a lot about the past few years of TV mega deals. NHL will have to reform to this evolving 21st century media landscape while likely seeing stagnating or even declining revenue, and solutions going full Euro uniforms with ads or extending TV timeouts are not winners. A cleaner, more pleasing presentation will be part of it.

 

[royals119]

Do people think these are really just for 20/21?

Have they ever removed ads from the boards or ice?

They said these are the names for this season only. Likely because the contracts only run through June. Next year the divisions will be "Pizza Pizza" "Chico's Bail Bonds" "Pringles" and "Only Fans". Or maybe "Southwest Airlines" "Northern Trust" "North Face" and "Northwestern Mutual", just to make it really confusing.

 

[Burke the Legend]

It's always fun to read people who are surprised when capitalists act like capitalists.

They aren't smart capitalists though, they are dumb, grubby ones. NHL brand and club brands have value, by slapping corporate logos all over it they are diminishing the value of these brand in exchange for quick $.

McDonalds' is a capitalist company, do you see them putting a Coca-Cola logo on their Golden Arches even though it would be worth many many millions?

 

[CanadianCoyote]

They aren't smart capitalists though, they are dumb, grubby ones. NHL brand and club brands have value, by slapping corporate logos all over it they are diminishing the value of these brand in exchange for quick $.

McDonalds' is a capitalist company, do you see them putting a Coca-Cola logo on their Golden Arches even though it would be worth many many millions?

That's a bit of a false equivalence; McDonald's already has Coke logos in every building, there's not as much need for slapping it on the logo because...people will be seeing the logo whenever they go pour a Coke from the fountain for their drinks. The brand's advertised pretty well with regards to McD's as it is.

NHL teams don't have that luxury, since most buildings won't have fans in attendance for a while into the season. If you can't just rely on your obvious in-building sponsorships to get things done, naturally you turn to methods of keeping those sponsors happy by advertising them in other ways.

Also, if they were all dumb greedy capitalists, this league would've gone Euro-level adspam LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG before a global pandemic bent them all over and f***ed them.

 

[HugoSimon]

I'm sick of being advertised to and hoping my anger makes the NHL think long and hard about viewing an ever-increasing number of ads as a long-term option. I'm not calling for a boycott from anyone else, I'm just showing my distaste for this crap.

I have so little power to stop this kind of thing, so I'm doing the only thing I can. Withholding. I haven't watched baseball in 3 years because of my favorite team having a crook for an owner. I can't stand watching football games because of the endless parade of ads (and I haven't watched a game that doesn't involve the Steelers in years). I'm nothing more than a miniscule speed bump along the way, but I'm not going to lay down and accept the endless ad creep.

It doesn't need to be an all or nothing boycott versus blind obedience.

This is a, is the NHL an organization I want to support? I don't need to stop watching hockey to hurt their bottom line. I can spend more money on the ohl, stop buying NHL Jerseys, and pull back from circulating the sport with my peers.

I instead of buying overpriced streaming services can save my money and just watch HNIC.

The NHL can have an antagonistic relationship with its fan or it cannot. It wants my money it needs my buy in.

That's ignoring people like myself will no longer guilt people for their illegal streams.

 

[MeHateHe]

They aren't smart capitalists though, they are dumb, grubby ones. NHL brand and club brands have value, by slapping corporate logos all over it they are diminishing the value of these brand in exchange for quick $.

McDonalds' is a capitalist company, do you see them putting a Coca-Cola logo on their Golden Arches even though it would be worth many many millions?

Go into McDonalds and ask for a Pepsi sometime.

And (having not been inside a McDonalds for years, I am not sure) do McDonalds' cups not have the Coca Cola branding on them? Or did I see that in a fever dream?

 

[BraveCanadian]

Trashy.

 

[Burke the Legend]

Also, if they were all dumb greedy capitalists, this league would've gone Euro-level adspam LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG before a global pandemic bent them all over and f***ed them.

We are well on the way. Adspam all over the playing surface, now onto uniforms.

 

[GordonGraham]

This year divisions and helmets, next year jerseys and the Stanley cup