Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The NHL’s entertainment product has slowly but surely expanded from its North American roots to a global stage.
Part of that work is hosting the NHL Global Series, which includes pre-season and regular-season games in countries outside of Canada and the United States. On the heels of games last year in Australia and Sweden and with more this year in Germany, Czechia and Finland, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly suggested on Wednesday the league has more in store.
“To the extent we’ve kind of seemed to have settled into a Finland, (Sweden), Czechia rotation, I wouldn’t get too comfortable with that, because I think it will change up probably in the short term,” Daly said at the NHL’s European media tour in Prague, Czechia.
This year, the Buffalo Sabres will play a pre-season game against Red Bull Munchen in Munich, Germany, on Sept. 27. The Sabres then will take on the New Jersey Devils in two regular-season games on Oct. 4 and 5 in Prague, Czechia, while the Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers will square off in Tampere, Finland, on Nov. 1 and 2.
The league has staged games in places such as Japan, Australia, China, England and Germany. Although hockey-centric countries such as Sweden, Finland and Czechia are in the prime rotation of European NHL games, the league intends to return to lesser-used markets and promote the product as widely as possible.
“I think we want to go back to London – I think the players and (NHL) Players’ Association want to go back to London and have a game there,” Daly said. “I think Germany and Switzerland are both prime candidates for regular-season games in the future, so probably in the not-too-distant future.”
I’ve been advocating for regular season games in London and Berlin for 15 years. Finally, someone seems be listening regarding a coherent global strategy of growing the NHL game. https://t.co/TSNAUN7EA1
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) August 21, 2024
The NHL will have played 20 regular-season games in either Sweden, Finland or Czechia since 2017 once this fall’s games take place. But Daly’s comments indicated the league wants to return to other markets.
Australia, for instance, had two pre-season games played in Melbourne last season.
“I think it was a positive experience,” Daly said of the Australia experiment. “You start with the players and the teams and whether they had a positive experience, and obviously it’s a long way to go to play two pre-season games. But I think the feedback from both clubs was good, which makes it easier to convince the next two clubs that Australia would be a worthwhile initiative.”
This writer has long advocated for increasing the amount of action non-North-American markets can host. Pro sports, in general, are doing their utmost to globalize their product, and the NHL needs to do all it can to reach as many different markets as possible.
Daly was careful not to overstate the league’s interest in staging more games overseas, but put yourself in the shoes of non-North-American fans: you have to be quite dedicated to actively follow the NHL from far-away time zones. Engaging with those fans through games in their homelands will only increase the footprint of hockey in general and the NHL in particular.
It’s often said that hockey is for everyone, and if that’s really true, the NHL should be doing everything in its power to connect with fans around the world. Daly’s comments aren’t a shock, but it is encouraging to see that the impact of the league is continuing to grow and evolve.
“I think everything that we expected to flow from it from a business standpoint successfully flowed from it,” Daly said of the Australian games. “As long as it continues to be a positive experience for the clubs, it continues to make sense for us to try to use it as a way to expand our business.”
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News Summary:
- NHL's Bill Daly Discusses More Prime Targets for International Regular-Season Games
- Check all news and articles from the latest NHL updates.