The National Hockey League (NHL) will be adding advertisements to their jerseys for the 2022-23 season. The league becomes the latest major U.S. sports league to sell marketing space on player uniforms during games.
According to Sportico, the NHL board of governors unanimously voted to approve the ad policy, detailed in a memo emailed this week to all 32 teams. Clubs are now free to start negotiating with potential partners, according to the memo, which was reviewed by Sportico.
The memo states that the ads must fit a rectangle 3 inches by 3.5 inches, making them slightly bigger than the patches that the NBA added to its jerseys for the 2017-18 season.
Can confirm the @Sportico report that NHL will have ads on jerseys starting in the 2022-23 season. The league surveyed its teams, found the majority in favor and had a formal Board of Governors vote to approve.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) August 17, 2021
Mark J. Burns of Sports Business Journal reported in April that teams had started determining how much revenue could be generated by the ad patches before presenting the data to the league.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stated in July, with the current financial state of the league, it was not an idea to be immediately dismissed.
“It’s something that makes good sense for us to be considering and looking at but certainly not for next season,” Bettman said. “Beyond that, I’m not prepared to predict but it’s something we’re looking at.”
last season that NHL allowed its teams to sell ad space on their helmets, a move that opened new inventory for clubs to advertising add partners (or accommodate existing ones) amid the revenue crunch of the pandemic. Commissioner Gary Bettman said teams retained more than $100 million through that program, which has since been extended.
According to Sportico, the NBA’s recent patch program was estimated to boost revenues by $150 million annually. The individual team deals generally ranged from low seven figures to upwards of $20 million.
By Jon Sorensen