For the first time ever, there will be advertisements on the helmets of NHL players during the 2021 season. Teams are utilizing the ads in an attempt to gain back some revenue that has been lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Associated Press.
On Tuesday, the Washington Capitals, New Jersey Devils, and Nashville Predators became the first teams to reveal their helmet ads. The three separate deals were all made through the teams' connections with the companies that own the naming rights to their respective home arenas.
- The Capitals, who play at Capital One Arena, will have the Capital One logo on their helmets
- The Devils, who call the Prudential Center home, will wear the Prudential logo
- The Predators, who host teams at Bridgestone Arena, plan to wear the brand's "B" on their helmets
The ads on players' helmets will be allowed this season on a trial basis, because, as Predators chief revenue officer Chris Junghans told the AP, "teams are in a big hole" due to the shortened 56-game 2019-2020 season.
"They're looking for valuable, real valuable, tangible assets that will help us, guys like me, make partners whole. And it needed to be valuable, it needed to be dynamic," Junghans said.
As the AP reported, commissioner Gary Bettman said in 2017 after the NBA began allowing teams to put ads on jerseys that it would take an "unusual circumstance" for the NHL to allow that. Clearly, the financial ramifications the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the NHL counts as an "unusual circumstance."
