This evening, during a media event held before the start of its 2021 Stanley Cup Final, National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed what we all knew was going to happen, helmet ads are sticking around.
Yes, the league’s temporary, “one year only” helmet ad program, sold to fans as a way to make good on corporate sponsorship deals lost during the pandemic, isn’t so temporary afterall it seems. Ads are back on player helmets in 2021-22 and, well, let’s be honest, probably for the rest of time.
Want some good news? No jersey ads….
Not yet, anways…
So let’s at least enjoy the clean jerseys while we can.
The NHL announced the introduction of the helmet ad option in December 2020, an additional means of revenue for teams who lost out due to crowd-free games played during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in North America. Despite a tease that a few teams might actually hold out and choose to go without, eventually all thirty-one teams would go on to announce helmet ad deals within four weeks of the program’s launch.
You can see every club’s helmet ad parter from the 2020-21 NHL season here. There’s no indication whether the same deals struck during the current season will remain for next season.
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