I'm assuming your ticket prices are far lower, and your salaries are far lower, and your TV contracts/etc pay far less too, so your attendance is not really relevant in regards to a business comparison with an NHL team (what's it cost to get an NLA team? a KHL team? Current NHL price, based on Las Vegas, is half a billion US just to get in!)
Well, mostly it's because TV contracts, merchandice etc are worth a lot more in a half continent (including the most hockey crazy nation known to mankind) with 400 Mio people than in a country with less than 8 Mio (where 1/3 of the population speaks two and a half other languages)
You can't buy into a league outside the KHL, only existing teams, or lower league and then truckload some money and try to gain promotion(s). The last team that got sold, EHC Kloten (oldest not relegated team, bottom half the last few years) from canadian Avenir Group to a swiss Millionair was rumored 10 Mio, with a rumored annual deficit of around 6-8 Mio.
Seems to me European/Russian hockey Leagues are essentially the same as NASL/MSL soccer.....they're not in any way actually competitive (financially) with the top League in the world, they're more a "local" thing
Don't know much about the KHL, i just watch some highlights, but some teams certainly can compete with NHL franchises (not just financially, altough probably not competing for the cup).
But other than that, that's imho a quite good comparison. I can only use the NLA as example, but you can't watch it without at least a billing adress in Switzerland. That is pretty local indeed.
There is a difference, the european hockey leagues actually produce talent. This is no slight at the MSL, but just compare it to Sweden or Finland.
In a room alone with Ovechkin (or whatever top pro you'd like to pick) you or I would be the second best hockey player in the room, but in that case being "second" is essentially meaningless...that's an exaggeration to make the point of how I see European/Russian Leagues (because of the the huge financial differences with the NHL)
Whoever you consider the best russian outside the NHL. And no the gap won't be huge at all. If you exclude the KHL: The highest skilled player that didn't make the NHL because of physicality
The budgets are usually just guesstimates, but they are about the same as in the AHL. NHL/AHL tweeners get paid better in europe than on a 2way deal.
Financially I'm not sure there's very much to capitalize on
For the NHL? Of course there is: There is about the same population as in NA you could gain as a market, and they have basically a monopoly on the entire star power of the hockey world. That's a product hat should practically sell itself. People will still mainly follow the local leagues (as it is in football btw), but everybody loves to see more or less best on best competition.
It doesnt work tough, for one because of timezones, but the NHL is also making it increasingly hard to actually follow the league outside NA (just look at the new website
). I watch a few games trough gamecenter since a few years, but out of afternoon games (which are perfect as they start at 8pm here) you can't really watch them live so you rely on highlights. They could easily get more exposure if they want by improving these services, have some friendlies in preseason again, create a "supercup" (like SC, KHL, CHL winner), whatever.
But they don't. They rather fight some kind of turf war with the IOC, drastically speaking taking all that star power of this potential market hostage, to gain.. what? More exposure in NA? How do you do that wihtout one of the only possible channels outside those you already have?
