2021-2022 NHL Jersey Changes

[Morgan33]

15 minutes ago, ManillaToad said:

See ya NHL, it was nice following you

My sentiments exactly.  27 years of following this league for only for them to needlessly destroy the thing I like about it most.   Yeah I know it's a business but I still have the choice to not support it and that's what I'm doing.

Although this news feels like a punch to the gut, I only have myself to blame for buying in.  People like us who obsess over sports aesthetics and tradition represent just a small minority of fans and the idea that owners would ever care about us is laughable.  This shouldn't even be surprising after what the league allowed Reebok to do to most teams identities in 2007...  Here's a little refresher if you don't remember.



If the Canucks make the playoffs in the final season without jersey ads, I will watch.  After that, I am finished with this league for good.  Goodbye.

[AFirestormToPurify]

5 minutes ago, philly97flyer said:

Maybe reading comprehension is difficult, so I’ll explain again. I’m not “flaming” anyone for not liking an ad creep.

Well you did call me a moron

[GFB]

Yeah, this sucks, plain and simple.

 

[TBGKon]

Since hockey jerseys tend to use the upper left and right chest spots for C/A patches and team related patches (anniversary/memorial/Cup Finals/All Star/etc), my gut thinks we may see the patches located where the NHL Centennial patches were at on the sleeves.

 

[AFirestormToPurify]

16 minutes ago, TBGKon said:

Since hockey jerseys tend to use the upper left and right chest spots for C/A patches and team related patches (anniversary/memorial/Cup Finals/All Star/etc), my gut thinks we may see the patches located where the NHL Centennial patches were at on the sleeves.

Not visible enough. It's gonna be on the chest, front (and almost) center

[spartacat_12]

55 minutes ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

There were all over social media posting stuff like "who cares, we can't see helmets most of the time" and my favorite "they'll remove the ads once people are allowed back in the rinks". 

 

Now those same people are already saying stuff like "It's just a small patch, the rest of the jersey will still look fine", "There won't be ads on the retail jerseys", and "People barely noticed the helmet ads, so no one is going to care". 

 

Then in 5-10 years when another uniform ad patch is announced they'll be saying "We got used to the first ads on the jersey, so this isn't a big deal".

 

18 minutes ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

IIRC, helmet ads didn't bring much more than $1M in revenue per team. This is a joke. $1M to a billionaire is peanuts. It's not worth making the product look awful for what amounts to pocket change for these owners. I'm willing to bet a LOT of these owners didn't even lose money because of the lockdown. You think the Habs owner Geoff Molson didn't sell any beer during the lockdown? Just an example but you get the point. Amazon made a killing. So did ebay.  The pandemic didn't hurt the upper-upper class

 

The helmet ads didn't even bring in any new revenue, they just allowed the league to retain ~$100 million in sponsorship dollars that the teams would have needed to return due to the missing games/lack of fans. Meanwhile, the Seattle expansion fee & the new ESPN deal will bring over $1 billion to the owners this season.

 

This decision is doing absolutely nothing for fans. Ticket prices won't go down because of jersey ads. Team apparel/merchandise won't be getting cheaper. Beer & popcorn prices at the arenas won't go down.

 

The only tangible benefit for the fans people on twitter seem to come up with is that the salary cap will go up, which doesn't mean much. Most of the teams in the league don't even spend to the cap, and player salaries will just inflate as the cap rises. It's not like the Lightning or Leafs will suddenly be able to sign another star player because of a slight rise in the cap.

[RichardWitham]

the sky is not falling folks. the end of the world is not here. welcome to  modern sports. the NHL will not be european soccer. if ya think that, you should go touch grass

[dont care]

3 minutes ago, RichardWitham said:

the sky is not falling folks. the end of the world is not here. welcome to  modern sports. the NHL will not be european soccer. if ya think that, you should go touch grass

No it will just become European hockey which is much worse.

[Ridleylash]

12 minutes ago, dont care said:

No it will just become European hockey which is much worse.

Again, the reason Euro leagues look the way they do is to cover travel expenses, not because of greedy owners; the NHL has a much higher revenue pull than even the KHL does, so I doubt covering travel's going to be much of an issue.

 

Looking at the NBA, which has the same basic economic structure as the NHL, is a much better comparison; and jersey ads there are still extremely limited in quantity, even though the NBA is probably the league of the Big 4 with the least care for aesthetics. That leads me to think that they're not so profitable at the NBA/NHL level that it's worth adding a bunch, but also not so unprofitable as to not merit their inclusion from an economical perspective.

 

We've had jersey ads in the AHL and on practice jerseys for ages without much complaining, and we know the NHL has used the AHL to float ideas around before promoting them to the NHL in the past. I almost have to wonder if this wasn't considered for a while and circumstances only now fell into place to justify it.

[AFirestormToPurify]

8 minutes ago, spartacat_12 said:

 

The helmet ads didn't even bring in any new revenue, they just allowed the league to retain ~$100 million in sponsorship dollars that the teams would have needed to return due to the missing games/lack of fans. Meanwhile, the Seattle expansion fee & the new ESPN deal will bring over $1 billion to the owners this season.

Thanks for the clarification. It's even worse than I thought, then

[dont care]

12 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

Again, the reason Euro leagues look the way they do is to cover travel expenses, not because of greedy owners; the NHL has a much higher revenue pull than even the KHL does, so I doubt covering travel's going to be much of an issue.

 

Looking at the NBA, which has the same basic economic structure as the NHL, is a much better comparison; and jersey ads there are still extremely limited in quantity, even though the NBA is probably the league of the Big 4 with the least care for aesthetics. That leads me to think that they're not so profitable at the NBA/NHL level that it's worth adding a bunch, but also not so unprofitable as to not merit their inclusion from an economical perspective.

 

We've had jersey ads in the AHL and on practice jerseys for ages without much complaining, and we know the NHL has used the AHL to float ideas around before promoting them to the NHL in the past. I almost have to wonder if this wasn't considered for a while and circumstances only now fell into place to justify it.

That’s bs. It’s cheaper to travel in Europe than it is in America. Where do you get this from?

[Kevin W.]

21 minutes ago, RichardWitham said:

the sky is not falling folks. the end of the world is not here. welcome to  modern sports. the NHL will not be european soccer. if ya think that, you should go touch grass

And most European soccer isn’t even that ad-heavy. 

[Chromatic]

43 minutes ago, RichardWitham said:

the NHL will not be european soccer. if ya think that, you should go touch grass

You're right, anyone who thinks the NHL would ever put ads on the jerseys/helmets/ice/boards/make the ads too prominent on the jerseys is just chicken little.

[mcj882000]

I genuinely dislike how much advertising creeps into literally everything anymore. Frankly I envy y'all who say this isn't a big deal, because I've found uniform ads in the NBA and NHL so distracting that I have to turn the games off after a while; they just steal my focus that much. It sucks and I hate it.

[Survival79]

 

[AFirestormToPurify]

4 minutes ago, mcj882000 said:

I genuinely dislike how much advertising creeps into literally everything anymore. Frankly I envy y'all who say this isn't a big deal, because I've found uniform ads in the NBA and NHL so distracting that I have to turn the games off after a while; they just steal my focus that much. It sucks and I hate it.

The CGI ads on the glass behind the net and inside the blue lines are the worst. So distracting and annoying and ugly

[AFirestormToPurify]

Very fitting

[DC in Da House w/o a Doubt]

Thanking my lucky stars that the Caps won their Cup without GEICO on their uniform.

 

This news sucks, but it seemed inevitable.  Only a matter of time for the other leagues as well.  Pretty depressing.   I legitimately have watched the NBA less because of their ads, probably will do the same with the NHL.  Hell, I come on this site less solely because the ads became outrageous.  

[daniel75]

Seriously awful news, I sure as hell will never buy one.

[Kevin W.]

13 minutes ago, daniel75 said:

Seriously awful news, I sure as hell will never buy one.

As a collector, I'm torn. I hate this but I will most likely get the patches to make sure any jerseys I get are accurate, especially considering that the replicas aren't worth buying anymore and it's not worth having an authentic jersey if it's not done correctly.