The NHL does a horrible job marketing itself

[The Gr8 Dane]

The players are all rich kid jock types that lived in locker rooms their whole lives that nobody can relate to.

Could they market it better? Sure , but 90% of the players in the league are the same cookie cutter guys with the same face and same hair.
And the people who are somewhat different and unique in looks or personality like Ovi Laine and Subban all get hated on by you guys

 

[Crow]

"we"? who is "we"? Fans don't get anything out of the league growing. Couldn't give a crap about their profits. What's it to me?

Yeah not sure I want more fans. I mean it’s nice to have more people enjoy what I like in some ways but also makes more competition for me to afford an already almost out of reach day at a game.

Of course I don’t want hockey to be unsuccessful but I’m not certain I want it to grow even more.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Well they have all of us hooked.

Why does any fan care if the NHL is marketing the league adequately.
I mean, are you looking for a job?
lol
The game is great , the league is great ......matters not to me one bit if a billion people are watching or only thousand. Matters not to me how many jerseys and caps are selling.

Only place I ever hear this is on line. When talking hockey at the rink, office water cooler, local bar, dinner table......this never ever comes up.

Also this , who cares , are you a fan? Yes? Do you like hockey? Yes? Move along then lol , its never gonna surpass NBA or NFL so why cry about this stuff

 

[izlez]

NHL Bad at marketing? Agree

Specifically choosing these commercials to highlight that? Hard disagree

 

[kerrabria]

Owners should only focus on that in next CBA. Grandfather all the nmcs and ntcs already in place. But get rid of them for next CBA. That's should be a priority. Laughed out the room in any other league. NBA has two and NFL would laugh the player outta the room.

The NBA doesn't have NTCs because the players make extraordinary amounts of money, their contracts aren't as long, and, frankly, the average NBA player cares way more about money than any other factor, which isn't nearly as true for NHL players (who all come from upper class backgrounds in the first place). If the NHL wants to roll back trade protection, they need to pay players way more. Although it's not like the NBAPA gets a significantly larger share of basketball-related revenue than the NHLPA gets.

And the NFL isn't comparable because their PA is so pathetically weak.

 

[tarheelhockey]

The REAL PROBLEM with these ads is their placement. I have never seen a single one of these ads during any broadcast except an NHL broadcast. So... who in the heck are they advertising to? Their own fans? WHY?

Because the only place the NHL can afford to buy ads is NHL broadcasts.

 

[TD Charlie]

They suck at marketing stars, sure, always been awful at it. Then again, the majority of the stars have zero personality.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

The NHL doesn't make great commercials. Well, most commercials these days are complete dogshit so they aren't alone in that regard.

And Dana White shouldn't throw stones. I was a UFC fan once about 15 years ago. They had some names back then that had some main-stream recognition.

Now I couldn't name a single champion in their entire promotion. I think Jon Jones has a belt, but I'd have to look that up to be sure. To many weight classes, to many champions, top fighters seem rise, fall, and disappear quickly.

The UFC has done its best to stamp out the marketing of individual fighters and market the promotion and Dana White instead. Any time a fighter gets too big the UFC can no longer try to control them and underpay them (see McGregor), so they'd rather just market the UFC brand and the piece of shit Dana instead.

As for Jones, he has a "belt" but Aspinall is the real heavyweight champion right now.

 

[VeteranPresence]

What, you're telling me the league that suspends one of its biggest stars arbitrarily for three games does a poor job marketing itself? I'm shocked.

 

[kerrabria]

The players are all rich kid jock types that lived in locker rooms their whole lives that nobody can relate to.

Could they market it better? Sure , but 90% of the players in the league are the same cookie cutter guys with the same face and same hair.
And the people who are somewhat different and unique in looks or personality like Ovi Laine and Subban all get hated on by you guys

This is an underrated point. It's also one of the reasons I like the NCAA taking over as the primary route to the NHL. Taking kids out of their parents' home to do part-time high school and live with a billet family is f***ing weird. If you spend your formative years basically working a full-time job with a bunch of other teenage boys, you're not gonna turn out normal. No wonder so much despicable shit has gone on with Hockey Canada. Keep these teenagers in their hometowns, properly socialize them at mixed-gender high schools, then let them spend a year or two at college. The players will turn out more relatable and marketable.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

To be fair, the difference between the NHL having the best marketers in the world and the NHL not spending a dime on marketing is maybe a few thousand extra eyeballs watching.

 

[TageGod]

Tipping ad was great.

 

[McShogun99]

People love superstars and larger then life personalities. The NHL tries is best to squash any of that nonsense. Instead they throw out commercials with shy, awkward every day looking dudes that most non sports fans couldn't tell if that was their neighbor Bob or a professional athlete.

 

[1989]

What, you're telling me the league that suspends one of its biggest stars arbitrarily for three games does a poor job marketing itself? I'm shocked.

Didn't know you were such a fan of Myers.

They suck at marketing stars, sure, always been awful at it. Then again, the majority of the stars have zero personality.

And the ones that do have any personality get shit on by fans and media alike until they just drone on about getting pucks in deep. Only reason Luongo got away with it is because goalies are allowed to be weird... and not have to get pucks in deep.

 

[sonic92]

I still say this is a cursed image

 

[Nucker101]

Tipping one is okay in my opinion, at least it's promoting a hockey play/term in a kinda funny way.


Gen Z one is just stupid.

 

[1989]

To be fair, the difference between the NHL having the best marketers in the world and the NHL not spending a dime on marketing is maybe a few thousand extra eyeballs watching.

Who is watching matter just as much as how many.
A few thousand eyeballs in places like Atlanta or Houston matter. A few thousand in Ontario or Edmonton, a little less so.

 

[BruinDust]

The UFC has done its best to stamp out the marketing of individual fighters and market the promotion and Dana White instead. Any time a fighter gets too big the UFC can no longer try to control them and underpay them (see McGregor), so they'd rather just market the UFC brand and the piece of shit Dana instead.

As for Jones, he has a "belt" but Aspinall is the real heavyweight champion right now.

1000%

I can't comment on their growth financially over the past 10-15 years, I do know that interest among friends of mine who used to look forward to UFC PPVs has basically been reduced to nothing. To get together or head out and watch a big fight just isn't a thing anymore. Dana turned it into a bland boring meat market churning out fighters that no one cares about because like you said, they refuse to market individual fighters and just care about the UFC brand and quantity over quality.

 

[kerrabria]

People love superstars and larger then life personalities. The NHL tries is best to squash any of that nonsense. Instead they throw out commercials with shy, awkward every day looking dudes that most non sports fans couldn't tell if that was their neighbor Bob or a professional athlete.

The NBA fell for this meme and ended up at the mercy of extremely unlikable narcissists who are one of the primary reasons for why NBA viewership is down.

The NHL doesn't need an annual Patrik Laine controversy or a million Bisonettes. They just need the players to not be so wooden. I think Matthews, Eichel, Subban, the Hughes brothers, the Tkachuk family, etc. all do a fine a job. Even a guy like Kevin Weekes is a fantastic asset to have on camera.

 

[333359]

Why does this same type of thread keep coming up? For me the best thing about the NHL is that they are inept. I tried to watch the CFB championship and found myself turning it off after a 17 minute run in real life ran 30 seconds off the clock. Half or maybe more than half of that 17 minutes was commercials. The NHL is somehow 30 years behind in all of this and it is great for it. All those that want the NHL to promote itself better, to what end? CFB is ruined now. You want this to happen to the NHL?

 

[Neil Racki]

Hockey isnt a TV friendly sport for potential new fans

Hockey makes it money on existing fans - seats/concessions

NHL needs to cater to us existing fans imo

 

[dr robbie]

The REAL PROBLEM with these ads is their placement. I have never seen a single one of these ads during any broadcast except an NHL broadcast. So... who in the heck are they advertising to? Their own fans? WHY? There should be almost no general NHL ads on NHL broadcasts. There should be NHL ads, but not general league ads. They should be buying their general ad time elsewhere and focusing on advertising NHL PRODUCTS to NHL FANS during games.

This is exactly what I was coming in here to say. Basically the only time I see NHL ads are while I'm watching an NHL game. They need to try to advertise to new fans, not ones that are already watching.

Hockey is exciting. It's fast paced. It's physical. It's a grind. Use that to advertise to your target demographics.

 

[barkovcanfinnish]

The NHL should make a bigger effort to make the game of hockey more accessible especially in the US. Doesn’t need to be ice hockey. Ball hockey, floor hockey, roller hockey, even field hockey. You get more people to play the game, the teams and stars you market may resonate more with a wider audience.

A tall ask, but it’s 2025 and this league is a multi-billion dollar machine.

 

[kerrabria]

I still say this is a cursed image

Anybody remember this story? Or just generally remember what the dynamic was for the NBA/NHL in the 90s? I imagine that--at the time--NFL and MLB dominated American sports culture, and everything else fought for scraps. Except in the South where college football reigned supreme.

 

[McShogun99]

The NBA fell for this meme and ended up at the mercy of extremely unlikable narcissists who are one of the primary reasons for why NBA viewership is down.

The NHL doesn't need an annual Patrik Laine controversy or a million Bisonettes. They just need the players to not be so wooden. I think Matthews, Eichel, Subban, the Hughes brothers, the Tkachuk family, etc. all do a fine a job. Even a guy like Kevin Weekes is a fantastic asset to have on camera.

You don't want to go to that extreme but they have to let the players with personalities shine and start focusing on marketing the star players over the brand.

I'm far from an expert on NBA viewership numbers but I think part of it being down is due to political burnout towards the players views.