‘Able to stabilize the business and power through,’ NHL generated record

DENVER — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman says the league will generate record revenues of more than $5.2 billion this season. And that total may be conservative.

Holding court on Wednesday with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning, Bettman praised the league and its partners at large for completing the first 82-game regular season in two years. That provided the foundation for a much-needed financial recovery.

“What we’ve done is we’ve (continue to operate), we’ve done the fundamentals of our business,” Bettman said. “We had a major increase in our national media revenues in the United States. Our buildings are back to basically where they were (with attendance), and maybe a little better. Our playoffs this year, the first two rounds generated 88% of the revenues that we did in the first two rounds the last time we had normal playoffs (in 2019). We continued to put on NHL hockey under the most difficult of times. … We were able to stabilize the business and power through.”

Bettman expects the NHL will continue to boom. He revealed a start date of Oct. 11 for next season, and that the entire 2022-23 schedule would be unveiled in early July.

“We anticipate revenues continuing to grow at a healthy rate,” Bettman said. “Two, maybe three years is my projection (for paying off our debts). I can’t really do a very good job of projecting next year or the year after that until we get a fix on this year. But things are very strong and very solid.”

The commissioner even stated he believes increased scoring around the league this season is tied to higher revenues being generated.

“I think it’s correlated to increased interest in the game,” Bettman said. “Everything we do is only important to the extent that the game is healthy on the ice. And the game is healthy on the ice. Our competitive balance is unmatched by any of the other major leagues, and it gives us incredible races in the regular season, and it gives us playoffs that are as unpredictable as anything you can say.”

In addition to the league’s positive returns, Bettman and Daly addressed more recent lowlights. Most pressing was the NHL’s response to a recently settled lawsuit brought by a woman against Hockey Canada in 2018.

Late last month, the NHL pledged to investigate details behind the young woman’s claim she was allegedly sexually assaulted by eight Canadian Hockey League players, including some members of Hockey Canada’s World Junior Team. TSN first reported news of the lawsuit, and that a discontinuance of it was filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in May.

The NHL released a statement calling the alleged behavior “both abhorrent and reprehensive” and Daly confirmed their probe is ongoing.

“We’re underway,” Daly said. “We’ve been in touch with the Players’ Association. They’ve been cooperative to this point in facilitating and arranging interviews with each of the players and we expect to be able to interview each of the players on that team. And we’ve also been in contact with Hockey Canada as well.”

Bettman claimed too that the NHL wasn’t aware of any allegations when they…