By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
During this age of COVID-19, the Vegas Golden Knights play in a newly-reconfigured West Division — or more officially speaking the “Honda West Division” under a new naming rights arrangements that the NHL released today.
Here are the naming rights holders for each of the four new divisions for 2020-21, which has the NHL playing a 56-game schedule with teams only playing other clubs in their respective divisions.
- Scotia NHL® North Division (Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg)
- Honda NHL® West Division (Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado, Los Angeles, Minnesota, San Jose, St. Louis, Vegas)
- Discover NHL® Central Division (Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Nashville, Tampa Bay)
- MassMutual NHL® East Division (Boston, Buffalo, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington)
The NHL is scrambling for more revenue sources because no fans will be attending games in most of the markets because of the novel coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of 350,000 Americans.
It’s also common for players to sign up for their own individual sponsor deals with local car dealerships. The Golden Knights play in a division with a Honda naming right deals. Former Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt had a deal with Hyundai, while forward Max Pacioretty pitched Toyotas and forward William Karlsson hawked Volvos for a Findlay dealership.
During the NHL playoffs in two Canadian city bubbles last season, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said teams derive about half of their revenues from game-related revenues. The NHL does not have big national TV broadcast rights contracts that you see in the National Football League.
The NHL is also looking to sell space on players’ helmets for sponsorship ads, like you see on the front of NBA jerseys.
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