Major statement: details revealed on the rest of the plan with jersey ads

PUBLICATION

MarcO
November 28, 2022 (5:27 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

The addition of advertising on jerseys has not gone down well with fans. The NHL's decision to allow all teams in the league to sell advertising on their jerseys at high prices has divided fans who were eager to keep the uniforms pure.

Since the league's approval, nearly half of the teams have decided to take the plunge, seeking attractive sponsorship revenue. Those that have not yet done so are probably due to the fact that they have not yet found a sponsor willing to pay a significant amount of money in exchange for product placement.

The Montreal Canadiens didn't have too much trouble finding this sponsor and it was finally RBC Bank that got the partnership with the club. Let's just say that the announcement was received in a particularly cold way by many people, who were furious that the management accepted to sully such a mythical jersey.

In fact, the organization had well thought out its move, orchestrating the revelation of the sponsor at the same time as the nomination of Nick Suzuki as captain of the team. The media impact was much less imposing than it would have been without the Suzuki news.

The question on everyone's mind now is, since the Pandora's box has been opened to additional large sums of money from these jersey sponsorships, what's next?

Obviously, the fear of all fans is that one day we will see jerseys covered with advertisements as is the case in Europe. On that subject, in an interview with Daily Faceoff reporter Matt Larkin, Assistant Commissioner Bill Daly weighed in on the subject.

"I can assure you that it's not at all part of the plans to approve more than one sponsor per jersey for NHL teams. If that ever happens, I can assure you it will be many years from now, long after I retire. So it won't be my decision." - Bill Daly

It must be said that while he did not guarantee that the NHL will never agree to add more ads to its teams' jerseys, he did confirm that we are really far away from seeing more such additions to the uniforms.

After helmets and team jerseys, what would be the most likely next step to add additional advertising revenue? Daly responded that there may be changes coming to the referee vests as well.

"I agree that it would be a logical next step, as it is done at the World Championships. I can't confirm that we have a concrete plan for this at this time, but once all of the teams have found their respective sponsors, I don't see why we wouldn't do it for our officials as well." - Bill Daly

Sure, we'd all like to see no more of these types of jersey ads, but at least we can take comfort in the fact that there shouldn't be any more for several years.

Also, without giving a specific time frame, we now know that it would only be a matter of time before NHL officials also wear a sponsor on their zebra jerseys.

We'll have to get used to it, because these sponsorships are here to stay.

Credit: HabsolumentFan