Honda Signs Sponsorship Deal with NHL

If you follow the business side of the NHL at all, then you definitely want to catch this article from The Sports Business Journal about NHL sponsorships (courtesy of Puck-daddy).

The biggest tidbit of news is that the NHL has ended its 13-year partnership with Dodge and has signed a new three-year agreement with Honda worth $4 million per season. What's even more interesting is that this is Honda's first foray into stick-and-ball sports:

“We really like the NHL profile,” said Tom Peyton, senior manager for advertising at American Honda in Torrance, Calif., about 30 miles from Anaheim, where Honda has held naming rights to the home rink of the NHL Ducks since October 2006.

“The [NHL] demos of young, affluent suburbanites match well with our target, and when we did our research, we found that for Honda buyers, watching and attending NHL games indexed higher than for any of the other stick-and-ball sports.”

As most of you are probably aware Honda, has a big presence in central Ohio with its plants in Marysville. I wonder if this new partnership will see an increased local sponsorship with the Jackets? Of course, they would have to replace Hay-Hay-Haydocy!

I tell ya though, I'm going to miss all of those Dodge commercials that air during the Versus games. I mean let's be honest, if you watched a "national" NHL game last year, you were likely to get four commercials: Dodge (especially the one with the life-size plastic boxers), Bud Light, XM, and Verizon Wireless.

Honda makes some pretty creative ads, so let's see where they go with this.

The article lists all the major sponsorship deals with the NHL as well.

The NHL Network to have a nightly "pre-game" show? That was another nugget from this article:

This comes while the league takes over production responsibilities for its NHL Network and seeks to add programming, including a nightly national pregame show.

Great. Just what I need: another reason to watch more hockey!

Check out this read for all the new uni's in the NHL this season. The Jackets get a mention:

The Blue Jackets are wearing a "JHM" memorial patch in honor of team founder John H. McConnell. Further details and a closer look at the patch design are available here.

And those new Thrasher digs? Well, they aren't receiving the warmest of receptions from what I'm reading.

According to the Globe & Mail, the Columbus Blue Jackets are tied for the ninth (with the Lightning) most affordable NHL ticket, averaging $78 per ticket. Vancouver clocks in at the highest with a whopping $301 per ticket! Yikes.

In fact, the top five teams are Canadian. All six Canadian teams are in the top 10. Think they love their hockey?

-LTL