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Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com!

Hello NHL Business Blog Readers!

In my never ending quest to ensure that you have the best possible experience on my site, I decided to install a nice little tool called Snap Shots. It enhances links with visual previews of the destination sites, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns or anything else you would like to share with me, fire up an email and contact me at: nhlblogger@gmail.com!

Saturday, April 5, 2008

NHL Gets A Much Needed Tire Change: Bridgestone Firestone Becomes 'Official Tire' of the NHL




This is one of the most extensive commitments any sponsor has made to the NHL. It looks like they'll be involved in almost every aspect of the NHL and NHLPA's operations. Despite the fact that this is a global deal, the NHL was not able to fetch much more than the $50 million Scotiabank shelled out to be the "Official Bank in Canada." This deal, which runs for two years will reportedly fetch the NHL approximately eight figures. With the deal, along with the Scotiabank and Ticketmaster deals, the NHL has approximately doubled their sponsorship revenue in a measly six months! Either Gary has done one hell of a job, or there weren't that many sponsorship dollars to begin with! Either way this is excellent news for the NHL.

I find it fascinating that despite all the ruckus about low TV Ratings, a Versus deal that has not met the expectations of many people following the game, and less coverage by traditional media (mostly newspapers) many companies in Corporate America and Canada seem eager to do business with the NHL. Is the NHL's marketing reach that significant? The Scotiabank deal was understandable, as the NHL has an extremely strong position in Canada. The Ticketmaster deal also makes sense, because the NHL has long had excellent attendance figures on both sides of the border and an affluent, tech-savvy fan base who are already exploiting the secondary ticket market(legally re-selling tickets). However, in the offseason a couple of years ago, Pepsi put their faith the NHL and signed a significant sponsorship deal. So it seems that there are many highly visible companies that seem to believe the NHL has good marketing reach now or are betting that the NHL's reach in the future will be worth their investment.

Lastly, I have learned that the NHL had been looking for sponsors in the banking and automotive categories since the end of the lockout. Apparently a deal with a pharmaceutical or overnight delivery company may be next on their checklist.

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