North West Junior Hockey League (NWJHL) sells naming rights

[MeHateHe]

The North West Junior Hockey League is pretty far down the ladder even in terms of Jungle B leagues, but this is an interesting development.

Strike Group secures multi-year sponsorship of North West Junior Hockey League – Energeticcity.ca

The North West Junior Hockey League (NWJHL) has announced a multi-year sponsorship deal with the Strike Group of Companies, a maintenance and construction company serving northeastern B.C. and northwestern Alberta.

energeticcity.ca

The league is now the Strike Group North West Junior Hockey League. No terms divulged.

The company is a maintenance/construction outfit, and the league operates in an area dominated economically with oilfiled activity - although it is also prime agricultural land.

How much money would it take to rename a league? How much is it worth to a company to have its name associated with a league whose teams play in communities of less than 10,000 people and draw in only a few hundred (if that) fans a game.

Hockey is weird.

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[Fish on The Sand]

The North West Junior Hockey League is pretty far down the ladder even in terms of Jungle B leagues, but this is an interesting development.

Strike Group secures multi-year sponsorship of North West Junior Hockey League – Energeticcity.ca

The North West Junior Hockey League (NWJHL) has announced a multi-year sponsorship deal with the Strike Group of Companies, a maintenance and construction company serving northeastern B.C. and northwestern Alberta.

energeticcity.ca

The league is now the Strike Group North West Junior Hockey League. No terms divulged.

The company is a maintenance/construction outfit, and the league operates in an area dominated economically with oilfiled activity - although it is also prime agricultural land.

How much money would it take to rename a league? How much is it worth to a company to have its name associated with a league whose teams play in communities of less than 10,000 people and draw in only a few hundred (if that) fans a game.

Hockey is weird.

The English Premier League sold it's soul naming rights to Barclay's.

From 2007-16 they were officially called Barclay's Premier League.

 

[MeHateHe]

The English Premier League sold it's soul naming rights to Barclay's.

From 2007-16 they were officially called Barclay's Premier League.

That I could understand. Barclay's is an important brand and the Premier League is a good partnership to have.

This one is ... uh... less so.

 

[Bizz]

Remember when NASCAR was associated with Big Tobacco?

Let's not go back to those times.

 

[rojac]

The English Premier League sold it's soul naming rights to Barclay's.

From 2007-16 they were officially called Barclay's Premier League.

The G in NBA G League is for Gatorade. It was briefly the NBA Gatorade League

 

[Voight]

Remember when NASCAR was associated with Big Tobacco?

Let's not go back to those times.

The league itself was never renamed to anything though. Yea you had the Winston Cup Series but honestly that sounded more like it was named after someone than a tobacco company.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

There was a report a few months back that the Big XII in the NCAA was considering seeking a corporate naming rights deal for the conference. Seemingly nothing came from it, either from an offer not being high enough to warrant the ridicule or the report being spurious, but the reaction was a load of folks eye-rolling over how desperate for funds that a supposedly major conference would have to be to consider this.

This seems so far down the ladder of sports interest even recognizing how popular junior hockey is in Canada that they're probably not going to be much pushback over it. But as said, it was probably for a relative pittance.

I've joked that some huge league should sponsor a much smaller league just to see how much is too much for them to refuse to say no over. Bring on the new NHL, the NFL Hockey League.

 

[MeHateHe]

This seems so far down the ladder of sports interest even recognizing how popular junior hockey is in Canada that they're probably not going to be much pushback over it. But as said, it was probably for a relative pittance.

I ain’t no marketing genius but I wonder how you measure the ROI on this. It’s one thing if you’re TD (or as we in Canada still think of it, Toronto Dominion - let’s buy the naming rights in Boston!) and you’re seeking a greater market share in a lucrative and very competitive banking sector. But are people going to making a business decision about oilfield construction based on the name of a very minor Jungle B league which may not even inspire a ton of enthusiasm in Lacrete or Sexsmith or Fairview or Fort St. John?

I did a quick look to see if any of the main players in the company had any ties to hockey in the region. (I grew up near there so I know people) No obvious connections but I wonder if someone’s kid or grandkid is playing on a team and so they’re using a little bit of company money to help the league stay afloat. That really wouldn’t be surprising.

(Thanks for the thread renaming, BTW)