NHL SEES STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
Massive audiences waiting in China
As every hockey fan knows, the shared history of the sport’s three most powerful bodies has been shaped by bitter work stoppages, acrimonious negotiations and a general feeling of hostility that pervades virtually everything they undertake. And we can all agree this is NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s fault.
But while that history isn’t conducive to mutual co-operation or good-faith bargaining, the NHL, the NHLPA and the IIHF agree on one thing: The emerging Chinese omni-market has the potential to revolutionize the sport by creating dizzying new revenue streams while bringing hockey to a country of 1.4 billion.
China, at this stage, is basically to the game what Sutter’s Mill was to the California gold rush of 1849. It promises riches. It promises new beginnings. It promises the game a glorious future.
But can the league, the players’ union and the game’s international governing body set aside their differences long enough to share in the bounty? They’d better.
“This isn’t something the players or the league can do on their own,” says Donald Fehr, the NHLPA’s executive director. “The difficulties of the relationship between labour and management not withstanding, there’s a shared desire to enhance the business, grow the sport and show this new part of the world what hockey is.
“We have to keep that in mind as we work through this.”
This week, the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings meet in a pair of pre-season games in Shanghai and Beijing that signal the start of a new relationship between hockey and China. True, the NHLPA believes the NHL was slow to react to the opportunities presented by the world’s most populous country, but everyone’s aboard the China train now.
The next question is: Where do they go from here?
“If I was the king of the hockey world, I’d have done things differently and more quickly,” Fehr says. “What I hope is NHL management sees China is the next horizon in the international market.”
They’d have to be awfully shortsighted to miss it.
“It was more people coming to us, wanting to push the hockey agenda forward,” said David Proper, the NHL vice-president who serves as point man for the China games. “We didn’t know what to do at first, but the more companies that came over the transom, we said we have to look at this.
“This is about giving people the chance to see the game at its highest level.”
We can argue whether pre-season games between the Canucks and Kings represent hockey at its highest level. What can’t be argued is the size and scope of the market the league is stepping into.
While tickets for the two-game set are moving slowly, the league, the NHLPA and the IIHF are prepared to play the long game in China, mostly because they can see potential rewards. The Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent signed a five-year, US$700-million deal with the NBA for streaming rights two years ago. The NHL’s multi-year deal with Tencent, signed last summer, is worth a fraction of that but, as Fehr says, “It’s a start.”
And there’s so much more to consider. Fifteen million Canadians watched some portion of the 2014 gold-medal game between Canada and Sweden in Sochi. China’s audience was 120 million.
Game 1 of last season’s Stanley Cup final between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators drew four million in Canada and five million in the United States. China, you ask? Twenty-two million.
The sheer scale of the Chinese market and the availability of capital have created a gold-rush mentality. Chinese investors have already poured billions into European soccer. Now they’re looking for similar opportunities with NHL teams.
“They’re very much in the market and trying to complete a transaction,” Alexander Jarvis, an executive with Blackbridge Cross Borders, told the Globe and Mail. Blackbridge has been involved in deals connecting Chinese money with soccer clubs and has been fielding interest in the NHL.
The Boston Bruins, meanwhile, have struck up a sponsorship deal with ORG, the packaging giant that is the title sponsor of the China games and they’re hardly alone. The Washington Capitals and owner Ted Leonsis are interested in China. The New York Islanders and owner Charles Wang were one of the first NHL teams to champion Chinese hockey. Former Canucks general manager Mike Gillis and Laurence Gilman, his former assistant GM, have been kicking tires in China.
“There are some things going on there which have piqued our interest,” Gilman said without elaborating.
“I’ve been there six times over the last two years and I can tell you it’s an incredibly dynamic market right now,” the NHL’s Proper said. “There’s a lot of capital to be spent and there’s interest in western properties. We’d be happy if we can emulate what they’ve done in basketball.”
To that end, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing represents a crucial moment for China, the NHL, the IIHF and others. The NHL has pulled out of the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea, which infuriated the IIHF.
But IIHF president Rene Fasel, who’s been visiting China since the mid-’90s, sees the Chinese government’s commitment to the Olympics and hockey and understands the opportunity the Games represents for his sport.
It doesn’t completely ease the sting of Korea, but it helps.
“The NHL is a business league,” Fasel said from his office in Zurich. “It has nothing do with sport. I know Gary doesn’t like it when I say that, but it’s the truth. The reasons he gives us are business reasons.
“So just say I’m not going (to Korea) because it’s not good for our business and be done with it.”
As for China, Fasel strikes a much different tone.
“When China starts a program and have the backing of the government, they are very effective,” Fasel said. “But they need help. They need Hockey Canada (which is also working with the Chinese). They need us. They need the coordination.
“We have to build up a sustainable system in China. It doesn’t work to have a team in 2022, then disappear.”
Still, Fasel believes hockey can mimic basketball’s success in China. He points to Yao Ming, the NBA’s first overall pick in 2002, as the catalyst that sparked basketball’s remarkable growth, and said he hopes hockey can deliver a similar star.
“It wasn’t so easy regarding the NBA,” Fasel said. “There was one hero, Yao Ming, who made basketball what it is now.
“We need a hero. We need Chinese hockey players the world sees.”