NHL can’t be indifferent to China’s revenue potential
Time to break ice in world’s most populous market
This is the easy part. China represents a market that would forever change the business of the NHL. It is a country of just under 1.4 billion with the second- largest economy in the world. It’s also demonstrating some appetite for the game, all of which is not lost on the league or its players.
“This is a market we’ve been t alking about getting to for a long time,” said Alex Burrows, the Canucks’ NHLPA rep. “Even if you’re talking about one per cent of the market ( 14 million), that’s a lot of money for the owners, a lot of revenues.”
“I was certainly struck by the level of interest in hockey the people I met with all seemed to have,” NHL vicepresident Bill Daly wrote in an email to Postmedia. Daly recently returned from a three-day tour of China.
“I think on some level it was a curiosity, but virtually everyone seemed to say that while hockey is not as visible currently as some other North American sports have become in China, there was no doubting its appeal — particularly among the Chinese youth.”
So on that much everyone agrees. But as they contemplate the Celestial Empire and the riches it represents, there are complications for the NHL and, because this is a venture with the NHLPA, you can guess what they are. The league wants the L. A. Kings and Vancouver Canucks to hold part of next season’s t raining camps in China while playing a couple of exhibition games in Beijing and possibly Shanghai.
The players are on board with t his i nitiative, but they’re also asking this: if we can go to China for two exhibition games, why can’t we go to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, which offers a greater opportunity to expose the sport in Asia?
It’s a fair question. As for the answer, stay tuned because this could get interesting.
“Our main goal is to grow the game worldwide,” said Burrows. “We feel the Asian market is appealing to us. We have the Olympics in Pyeongchang and Beijing ( in 2022) so the timing would be right to go over there and test the water. For some reason the league is reluctant to go to the Olympics in 2018. We’ll see what happens.”
The Olympic i ssue, of course, took an interesting turn over the weekend when several of the game’s biggest stars sounded off about the NHL’s reluctance to commit to Pyeongchang. Jonathan Toews, John Tavares, even young Connor McDavid, all made pointed comments about the importance of Olympic participation to the game and the players’ desire to step on to the biggest stage in sports. Toews, Taveras and McDavid, moreover, aren’t exactly synonymous with controversy, which suggested they might be initiating a campaign on behalf of the PA.
Politics in hockey? Yes, it happens.
Now, it might overstate the point to suggest the PA will use the exhibition seri es as a bargaining chip for Pyeongchang but it is a pressure point, given the PA has to sign off on China. To be sure there are other issues — travel, accommodation, scheduling — and those have been discussed internally by the Canucks and the Kings.
But gi ven e ver ything t hat’s at stake with t he Olympics, the PA will try to exploit any edge it can with the league, even if Daly doesn’t see it that way.
“From my perspective, one is unrelated to t he other,” wrote Daly. “Our participation ( or not) in South Korea will not impact our efforts ( or our ability) to grow the game and make it more relevant in China.” Over to you, Alex. “No,” said Burr o ws. “They’re related.”
As mentioned, t he PA understands the i mportance of the Chinese market. They also understand the timing is right to plant its flag in that market. This season, the expansion Kunlun Red Star began play in the KHL to modest success, fi nishing seventh in the Eastern Conference and advancing to the playoffs. Red Star, whose lineup features former Leaf Alexei Ponikarovsky, played most of its games at the 14,000- seat LeSports Centre in Beijing, the basketball venue for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
It likely will be the site of one of the exhibition games between the Canucks and Kings.
“Hopefully, we can get them on board because it’s an untapped market with a tremendous amount of people,” said the Canucks’ Jannik Hansen. “The opportunity for growth is limited in North America. This is something else.”
Or, as a source close to the PA said: “We need to find new sources of revenue. We feel we’re being left behind some other sports.”
And China offers the opportunity to make up a lot of that ground.