The National Hockey League has given clubs the green light to place advertiser’s logos on their helmets for the 2020-21 season.
They say this is a temporary measure, only for this upcoming season to help teams either recoup costs lost to playing in empty (or reduced capacity) arenas and/or help appease companies with whom deals already exist who also lost out on ad exposure in games played during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“NHL exec told me teams don’t consider this ‘new-found money'”, TSN’s Rick Westhead Tweeted earlier today, “helmet ads will be given to some sponsors as ‘make goods’ for empty buildings.”
For those teams not offering the ads as ‘make goods’, Westhead quoted the same anonymous NHL executive as earlier, “[Ads on helmets] is not about greed. It’s about saving jobs and people’s homes. Do you know how much money we are going to lose without customers in arenas? We are hemorrhaging money and we need to find any possible option for keeping our people employed.”
The league is reportedly aiming to earn $15 million from the sale of these ads with some teams (such as Montreal and Toronto) asking for a million each.
This would be the first time NHL teams have worn advertiser marks on their in-game regular season uniforms, some teams have included these logos on their practice jerseys for several years now and, of course, manufacturer marks have been on jerseys, helmets, gloves, and pants for decades.
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