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Spare me the nostalgia for a theme song that probably not one of ESPN’s big players, who spent years on the air without mentioning the NHL, could identify even if LeBron James and Tom Brady hummed it.
Don’t preach to me how much the NHL will benefit from having its game show exposure on either of Disney’s platforms, streaming or otherwise. Here’s what I’ve always wanted to know: What could an adult outside of Bristol, Connecticut call a television network “the mothership” or “the world leader?”
There is one thing and one thing of importance attached to the NHL’s media rights deal with Disney, ESPN, and their affiliated brands that include the Hulu streaming service, and that is the money.
It’s Slap Shots Rod Tidwell Moment: Show Me The Money And Tell Me How Fast His Filling Into League Revenue Can Wipe Out Looming NHL Players’ Association Escrow Debt to strangle the league beyond the expiration of the current collective agreement. .
It’s all that matters.
The salary cap, according to the agreement reached last summer, cannot increase by more than $ 1 million per season until the escrow debt is paid off. Beyond that, if a certain amount of escrow debt remains on the ledger in 2024-25, the parties should find a formula under which the PA would reimburse the league in full after the 2025-2026 expiration of the CBA. Isn’t that fun? Kids who are currently 13 and playing bantam hockey would end up paying for it.
The deal with ESPN is estimated at around $ 420 million per year. A secondary package to be negotiated or completed with a second media rights partner is expected to cost around $ 200 million each. This is obviously a substantial increase from the $ 200 million in total the NHL receives under its current deal with NBC networks, but it probably isn’t the Grand Slam home run – OK, turn of the natural hat – the league could have considered before the pandemic struck. .
The escrow debt at the end of this season is probably around $ 900 million. If gamers just return half of the TV money, what is it, about $ 310 million a year? It would therefore take three years of media rights money to offset the current debt.
Except that the debt will almost certainly increase because of the annual overrun of the payroll escrow. It’s still unclear what next season’s protocols might entail and whether full halls will be allowed across the league. But even as the league’s revenues rebound to the $ 5 billion mark slated for 2019-20, escrow holdbacks were 14%.
After next season’s escrow is capped at 16-18%, it will be capped at 10% in 2022-2023 and 6% for the following three years of the deal. So unless the NHL generates other revenue-generating initiatives, there will be spills every season, and where and when it ends, no one really knows.
Maybe the NHL will flourish with exposure on ESPN, maybe the network will run other properties on its Streaming Plus site and hockey will reap additional benefits. But this deal was all about the money. The NHL will only be indebted to ESPN if this deal is able to cover the PA’s debt.
Not so much this season, when everything went wrong at Buffalo, but even when Taylor Hall had his Hart Trophy season in New Jersey 14 years ago (what is it? barely three years old?), there was everyone during the league talking about how the winger was an “me” guy in a “us” sport.
So, would the Islanders, the Ultimate We team led by the Ultimate We Guys Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz, dare to attempt to bring Hall into the mix as a lease on the trade deadline if Anders’ injury? Lee is as serious as he sounds?
Here’s the rule about Lamoriello: there are no rules.
When you think you know what he’s going to do, you don’t.
Truth be told, ESPN includes a bunch of pros who are sure to treat hockey with love, although it’s inevitable that the network will do its best to bring the sport down, as it regularly does with most of its other properties.
If there’s a petition that needs signatures to make Gary Thorne on next season’s play-by-play roster, you can just add mine electronically right now.
Instant, about halfway home. Elite Eight: 1. Islanders; 2. Tampa Bay; 3. Toronto; 4. Caroline; 5. Vegas; 6. Washington; 7. Florida; 8. Pittsburgh.
Mid-season, biggest disappointments: 1. Dallas; 2. Colorado; 3. Columbus; 4. Nashville.
Mid-season, biggest surprises: 1. Chicago; 2. Winnipeg; 3. Los Angeles; 4. Florida.
Who wants to bet that the seven-game suspension on Tom Wilson for his cheap shot that committed Brandon Carlo came from a Sixth Avenue as enraged as the rest of us by the Department of Player Safety’s penchant for to comb the fine print to allow repeat headhunters to go scot-free?
You realize, don’t you, that in Friday’s games, seven of the NHL’s 13 top scorers were born in the United States, three of them from Canada?
Who had 36-year-old Dustin Brown tied for seventh in the league in goals with 13 until Friday?
Better question: who, even a few seasons ago, still had Brown over the Kings at 36?
In the league, maybe?
Is there more separation between the first and second combinations of 2015, Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, or between Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine of 2016?
Finally, this Quick Quiz: Is Laine the New Age Marian Gaborik?
Answers will be noted by Visiting Professor John Tortorella, who will most likely not be appointed after the semester.
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