hockey's business and legal updates

Hockey’s Business and Legal Bi-Monthly Highlights October 1 Through 15 Featuring Salary Cap News

Alec Roberson

It’s that time of the month when we take a look at what’s been happening in hockey’s business and legal world. Twice a month we cover the big and not so big stories in this arena. We also include a featured story of the period. Let’s take a look at what has been happening this period.

Hockey’s Business and Legal News

Hockey Canada’s New Changing Policy for Minor Players

Hockey Canada instituted a new policy this year for all minor players. This policy change applies to anyone playing in a league up to the under 18 division. The change requires players to wear their base layer of clothing under their hockey gear to and from the rink. That is, they cannot change their base layer at the rink unless they go in a private washroom stall. The goal of this policy is to attempt to respect and protect players’ privacy and promote inclusion. It’s an interesting change for coaches and staff to enforce following a sweeping wave of policy updates across Hockey Canada.

David Blitzer Named to NHL Board of Governors Executive Committee

Following the passing of former Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, the NHL Board of Governors’ Executive Committee named David Blitzer, the managing partner of the New Jersey Devils, as Wirtz’s replacement on the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is a ten-member committee comprised of members of the NHL Board of Directors. Their responsibilities include vetting new ownership applications, collective bargaining, league expansion, and more. Led by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, the Executive Committee includes: chairman Jeremy Jacobs (Boston); Mark Chipman (Winnipeg); Murray Edwards (Calgary); Craig Leipold (Minnesota); Ted Leonsis (Washington); Geoff Molson (Montreal); Henry Samueli (Anaheim); Larry Tanenbaum (Toronto); and Jeff Vinik (Tampa Bay).

Calgary Flames New Arena Moves an Inch Closer

The City of Calgary, the Alberta government, Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) and the Calgary Stampede have finally finalized an agreement to build a new arena to house the Calgary Flames (owned by CSEC) and additional community enhancement developments. After much back and forth, and periods of uncertainty, the deal is reportedly a $1.22 billion one. Also, this includes a new event center, a community rink, parking, an enclosed plaza, improvements to the public realm around the event center, and general improvements to area transportation and infrastructure.

The city will lease the arena for 35 years for $17 million per year with a one percent annual increase. In addition, the city of Calgary will provide $537 million to this deal, the province of Alberta $330 million, and CSEC’s share is $356 million. Construction can begin now. But finally, after some time, people in Calgary can look forward to this new development as well as the economic boom it may provide to the city.

Nashville Predators Future Majority Owner Introduced to Board of Governors

Former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam is set to become the new majority owner of the Nashville Predators in the coming years. Haslam has agreed to gradually acquire minority interests from current Nashville Predators Chairman and majority owner Herb Fritch over the next few years until he has a majority interest. Fritch is reportedly selling most but not all of his interest in the Predators. Following the Ottawa Senators sale, this will be another change in majority ownership in an NHL franchise that will require league approval. But things seem to be on the right track as Gary Bettman introduced Haslam to the NHL Board of Governors earlier this month.

Bally Sports Dumps Arizona Coyotes

Bally Sports Arizona, the Arizona arm of Bally Sports broadcasting, have dropped broadcasting the Arizona Coyotes. Subsequently, the Coyotes moved on to Scripps Sports. Bally Sports Arizona now does not broadcast any sports teams in Arizona. Bally Sports is the broadcasting group of Diamond Sports Group which has had financial troubles recently. Diamond received approval from the court in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding to drop any non-lucrative television deals. This led to them dropping the Coyotes. Bally Sports is responsible for broadcasting 11 NHL teams in the United States. As we have mentioned previously, television deals are a big piece to the NHL’s revenue. It not only affects the league’s operations but the NHL salary cap as well. If all of Bally Sports pulls out, keep an eye on how the league responds.

NHL Bans Pride Tape

Following much noise last season about NHL teams wearing speciality jerseys in warmups, the NHL Board of Governors elected to ban players using rainbow tape representing LGBTQ pride while on the ice starting this season. This follows an earlier announcement that the NHL would not allow theme night jerseys as well. This includes Hockey Fights Cancer and Military Nights as well as Pride Nights. Players are free to participate in off-ice themed events.

This move has received a lot of negative feedback. The NHL is attempting to deal with some of the commotion caused last year when various players refused to wear Pride Night jerseys. Will it settle down or will this prove problematic for the league? Only time will tell but it is an interesting decision to say the least. Additionally, various players and other hockey personnel have voiced their willingness to break this rule. We will see if that happens and what punishment the NHL may impose.

Wenatchee Wild Fire Head Coach Kevin Constantine After Suspended Indefinitely By WHL

In last period’s hockey’s business and legal highlights we discussed that the WHL suspended the Wenatchee Wild head coach Kevin Constantine. The Wild are a newly created team following a relocation of the former Winnipeg Ice. Constantine had allegedly used racial slurs while coaching. The WHL suspended him pending an investigation. Following the results of that investigation, the WHL moved to indefinitely suspend him. The Wild quickly followed to fire him.

ECHL Approves Transfer of Majority Interest in Allen Americans

The ECHL’s Board of Governors voted to approve the sale of the controlling interest in the Allen Americans. Like the NHL, there is an approval process requiring the ECHL’s vote for a transfer of any interest of a team. The transaction involved Allen Hockey Team, LLC transferring such interest to ALA Hockey, LLC, an entity controlled by Myles and LaSonjia Jack. The Allen Americans have been in existence for 15 years, first in the now defunct CHL and then in the ECHL and have achieved fairly significant success. Meanwhile, Myles Jack is a former NFL player making his first step into professional hockey with his mom, LaSonjia. Notably, they represent the first African American majority owners in professional hockey history.

Boston Bruins New Streaming Partnership

The Boston Bruins announced that they have partnered with the leading sports-first tv streaming company in FuboTV. The deal will run for the 2023-24 season and provide opportunities for the Bruins fans to stream live games on TV. There will also be advertising and promotional events as part of this deal that fans can expect to see. While cable television and national broadcasting are big money generators for the NHL, the increase in streaming services keeps providing more and more opportunity.

Hockey’s Business and Legal Updates Featured Story: NHL Salary Cap Likely to See a Bigger Increase Next Year

This period’s hockey’s business and legal updates featured story revolves around big news in the NHL salary cap. In a recent meeting with the NHL’s Board of Governors, Commissioner Gary Bettman stated that very preliminary projections for the 2024-25 NHL salary cap upper limit could see an increase to $87-88 million. The current salary cap upper limit is $83.5 million. The salary cap has seen a few years of fairly limited upper limit movement.

These projections are due to increases in overall hockey related revenue and the anticipated elimination of the debt the players owe the owners following the COVID plagued season a few years ago. There is about $50 million of that debt remaining that should be paid this year. The NHL salary cap calculation can get complicated so check out our latest article on that subject here for a more in-depth explanation. It truly is a mix of hockey’s legal and business-related topics. But one important piece to it was that the increase to the upper limit of the salary cap was limited until said debt was paid off.

The Board of Governors will meet again in early December and clearer revenue projections for next season should be available then. This will hopefully lead to further clarity on the salary cap projection as well.

Post image attribution: Jenn G, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Alec Roberson

Alec Roberson grew up in coastal North Carolina, taking a somewhat unconventional path to hockey. With hockey being almost nonexistent in that area, Alec found his passion for the game following the success of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2001 and 2006 and later played club hockey in college. After going through law school and practicing for some time, he now continues his love for the game through writing. Find him on twitter @roberson_alec

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