Spare me the nostalgia for a theme song that probably none of the richest guys on ESPN, who spent years on the air without mentioning the NHL, could identify even though LeBron James and Tom Brady were humming it.
Don’t preach to me about how much the NHL will benefit from the exposure of having their games televised on one or another Disney platform, streaming or otherwise. Here’s what I always wanted to know: What would lead an adult outside Bristol, Connecticut, to refer to a television network as “the mothership” or “the world leader?”
There is one thing and only one thing of importance connected to the NHL media rights agreement with Disney, ESPN and their affiliated brands that include the streaming service Hulu, and that is the money.
This is the time Rod Tidwell of Slap Shots: Show me the money and tell me how quickly your introduction into the league’s revenue could erase the guarantee debt of the NHL Players’ Association, which threatens to strangle the league beyond the end of the current collective labor agreement.
That is all that matters.
The salary cap, according to the agreement signed last summer, cannot rise more than $ 1 million per season until the escrow debt is paid. In addition, if a certain amount of collateralized debt remains in the ledger in 2024-25, the sides would have to propose a formula under which the PA would pay the league in full after the end of the CBA in 2025-26. Won’t it be fun? Children aged 13 and playing Bantam hockey would end up paying for it.
The ESPN deal is estimated to be approximately $ 420 million a year. A secondary package yet to be negotiated or completed with a second media rights partner is expected to represent approximately $ 200 million per year. This obviously represents a substantial increase from the $ 200 million per total that the NHL is receiving under its current agreement with the NBC networks, but it is probably not the grand slam home run – OK, natural hat trick – that the league could have imagined before the pandemic. .
The custody debt at the end of this season is expected to be around $ 900 million. If players simply return their half of the money received on TV, what is it, about $ 310 million per? Therefore, it would take three years of money in media rights to make up for the current debt.
Except that the debt will almost certainly grow due to the over-guarantee of the annual payroll. There is still no way to say what next season’s protocols may involve and whether full houses will be allowed throughout the league. But even if the league’s revenues recovered to the $ 20 billion mark projected for 2019-20, collateral withholdings would be 14 percent.
After next season’s deposit will be limited to 16 and 18 percent, it will be limited to 10 percent in 2022-23 and 6 percent in the next three years of the deal. So, unless the NHL manages additional revenue-generating initiatives, there will be a spill every season, and where and when it will stop, no one knows for sure.
Maybe the NHL will flourish with exposure on ESPN, maybe the network will direct other properties to its streaming Plus website and hockey get additional benefits from it. But this business was all about 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 in Buffalo, but even when Taylor Hall was having her Hart Trophy season in New Jersey, 14 years ago (what is that? Was it just three years ago?), There were people all over of the league talking about how the winger was a “me” guy in an “us” sport.
So would the Islanders, the Ultimate We Team run by Ultimate We Guys, Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz, dare try to bring Hall into the mix as a rental in the exchange deadline if the loss to Anders Lee is as serious as it may seem ?
Here is the rule about Lamoriello: There are no rules.
When you think you know what he’s going to do, you don’t know.
Truth be told, ESPN includes a cadre of professionals who will certainly treat hockey with affection, although it is inevitable that the network will do its best to dull the sport, as it does regularly with most of its other properties.
If there is a petition out there needing signatures to put Gary Thorne on the next season’s play-by-play list, you can simply add mine electronically at this point.
Instant, almost halfway home. Elite Eight: 1. Ilhéus; 2. Tampa Bay; 3. Toronto; 4. Carolina; 5. Vegas; 6. Washington; 7. Florida; 8. Pittsburgh.
Midseason, biggest disappointments: 1. Dallas; 2. Colorado; 3. Columbus; 4. Nashville.
Midseason, biggest surprises: 1. Chicago; 2. Winnipeg; 3. Los Angeles; 4. Florida.
Who wants to bet that the seven-game suspension charged against Tom Wilson for his cheap shot that caused a concussion in Brandon Carlo came out of courtesy of a Sixth Avenue as exasperated as the rest of us by the Player Security Department’s tendency to comb the lyrics girls to allow repeat talent hunters to go unpunished?
You realize, don’t you, that in Friday’s games, seven of the 13 top NHL scorers were born in the US, with three of them coming from Canada?
Who had Dustin Brown, 36, tied for seventh in the league in terms of goals, with 13 until Friday?
Best question: who, even a few seasons ago, had Brown still at Kings at 36?
In the league, maybe?
Is there more separation between the first and second overalls of 2015, Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, or between Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine of 2016?
Finally, this Quick Quiz: Is Laine the new era for Marian Gaborik?
The responses will be evaluated by visiting professor John Tortorella, who most likely will not be able to be effective after the semester.