I’m not saying they need to make as much but what is the NHL doing to increase popularity? Nothing. Every other league has been doing things to help increase revenue, the NHL has not. That’s the whole point.
The NBA and NFL make more because people can relate to those players. They are marketed way better. The NHL has the ability to do things that can help increase exposure but they always choose not to. It’s baffling.
What exactly do you expect them to do? Soccer is popular because it is very cheap to play so everyone all over the world can afford to play.
Baseball is also pretty cheap.
Football is supported in the school system in the US to a very large degree.
Hockey is expensive. Arenas are expensive.
Most sports gain popularity from participation. You can put hockey on 1000 channels in the US and it will never reach the popularity of the other sports because most families cant really afford for their kids to play. Or if they can there are no arenas.
As you say people can relate to the players in the NBA and NFL. That is because a lot more people in the US played basketball or football at some level than played hockey.
I dont care what the Nhl does to market the game. Hockey can never reach the popularity of the other major sports due to the cost and arena limitations.
And if we are talking about growth it is not that long ago that the salary cap was 37 million. In the next 5 years it is expected to reach 100 million. That seems like growth to me since the cap is based on revenue.
Not good for the Leafs to have a generational goal scorer and two-way beast from age 19-31. He must not want to be here playing the entirety of his prime seasons in Toronto.
I dont know who that player is that you are referring to but we are talking about Matthews contract in this thread.