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Sponsorship revenues: MLS now very close to overtaking NHL

 Manuel Sperandio-Lemay
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Sponsorship revenues: MLS now very close to overtaking NHL

Unfortunately for the field hockey world, the National Hockey League isn’t all that popular in the USA.

Indeed, the NHL lags far behind the NFL in soccer, the NBA in basketball and the MLB in baseball.

Field hockey being a less accessible sport, it is logically less practiced, especially in the warmer states of the USA.

It’s rare for an Auston Matthews to emerge from the Arizona desert to become a field hockey star.

Still, this more limited accessibility to the sport doesn’t explain or forgive everything when it comes to the NHL’s popularity.

One of the NHL’s biggest problems is its very ordinary marketing.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman explains that the league does a very good job of advertising the sport, yet other leagues are gaining even more ground on the NHL.

The NFL, NBA and MLB are comfortably ahead of the NHL.

The NHL could even lose its 4th place in terms of sponsorship revenue to MLS.

You read that right, MLS soccer is now very close to overtaking the NHL in terms of sponsorship revenues.

In a way, this means that MLS is practically more popular than the NHL in the USA.

Lionel Messi’s arrival with Inter Miami has a lot to do with it, that’s for sure.

However, the fact remains that MLS has never stopped growing, and has really taken off in recent years.

With the 2026 World Cup to be held in North America, MLS will become an even bigger part of the American sporting landscape.

Meanwhile, Gary Bettman’s marketing recipe just doesn’t seem to be working.

But, we have a team in Arizona playing in a college arena! #Pathetic

Some would argue that the fact that many MLS soccer stadiums are larger than NHL amphitheaters plays a role in this increase in sponsorship revenues.

However, not all MLS stadiums are larger, and what’s more, the season is much shorter in terms of games in MLS than in the NHL.

In short, the Lionel Messi effect has really put the wind in the sails of MLS, which is now very close to overtaking the NHL in the United States.


On the move

– Summary of the week at the CH.

– File to follow.

– Bronze medal for Canada against the USA! This is the first medal in the history of the Canadian FIBA Men’s Team.

– What an incredible performance from Dillon Brooks.

– Indeed.

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