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Report: NHL aiming for additional $1 billion in national revenue

bettmangetty

The NHL plans to add $1 billion in national revenue over the next three seasons, according to an internal league memo dated Sept. 5 that was obtained by SportsBusiness Journal.

From the SBJ report:

The memo cites four touchstones as key to developing increased revenue for the NHL: ■ Expansion of the league’s core businesses: media, licensing and sponsorship. ■ The NHL’s big-event strategy, which in 2014 includes the Winter Classic and Heritage Classic and four additional outdoor games in major markets branded as the Coors Light Stadium Series: two games at Yankee Stadium and one each at Dodger Stadium and Soldier Field. ■ An increased presence in Europe, with more regular-season NHL games overseas, the return of the World Cup of Hockey — which, in 1996 and 2004, featured eight top national teams in a tournament in August — and plans for a Champions Cup competition between top European and NHL clubs. ■ Securing new Canadian media rights deals, which would begin in 2014-15.

The league expects its “gross national revenue” -- as opposed to the revenue generated by individual teams -- to grow to “nearly 20 percent of league-wide hockey-related revenue,” according to the memo. That would be up from 7 percent in 2005-06, reports SBJ.

On a side note, might the return of the World Cup spell the end of the NHL’s participation in the Olympics after the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia? (For more on that, click here.)