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NHL Commish Bettman Says NHL Will Lose $1 Billion Plus In Revenues Because Of Pandemic, Shortened Season

Captured on 09,14, 2017 by Brian Walker / Brian Walker Photography

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says the league will lose $1 billion this new season that starts Wednesday because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Bettman said it was still important to stage the truncated 56-game season instead of the typical 82-game season.

“There is an element of risk,” Bettman said of staging the new season in the age of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Bettman’s statement that $1 billion in revenue would be lost seems to be the headline across the country:

The NHL will stage two outdoor games next month: Vegas Golden Knights vs. Colorado Avalanche at Lake Tahoe Feb. 20 and the following day will have Boston vs. Philadelphia at the golf course setting off Lake Tahoe.

The NHL will use a 213-page guide of 12 protocols to try and keep players healthy and not infected by the coronavirus.

It’s hardly a surprise that the NHL will lose millions of dollars because Bettman said in September that the team’s 31 teams would absorb a major revenue hit.

That’s because half of the NHL’s revenues come from game-related revenues. The NHL does not have giant TV revenue deals like the National Football League, for example. And without ticket sales, teams will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each game.

“We’re coming back to play this season because we think it’s important for the game,” Bettman said.

The NHL will stage its traditional 16-team Stanley Cup playoffs after the 56-game season in hopes of having a regular 2021-22 season.

The Knights host Anaheim Thursday evening at T-Mobile Arena with no fans.


 

Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
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