Nothing you're saying is a mystery but it needed to be said: Europe is smaller market-wise, money makes the world go round, and jerseys are free real estate. At the same time we Americans aren't wrong, the jerseys are atrocious at times. Both are true, as one needs to exist and the other is a reality of that need.
Don't worry...we're going to have ads all over the ice and jerseys AND countless ads. But you can add a $9.99 monthly charge in addition to your subscription to "limit" ads (not remove them altogether.) I can see that coming REAL soon.
I DVR everything, I cannot watch TV live to save my life. I try to watch with at least an hour delay. Forwarding thru commercials is a blessing from our creator.
It’s so ironic that North American considering that advertisements don’t belong on jerseys while their own teams are literally owned by some mega corporation that could move the team to another city.
Hey thanks man, I appreciate that. I just make videos for fun, unfortunately I think the RUclips algorithm isn't so friendly to newer creators who can't put out a video a day/week. But it is what it is.
its unreal how companies will pay money for something no one wants. its so anoying watching on espn with the 4 repeting commercials i make sure to avoid those brands for pissing me off.
@@donairsauce2496 Oh yes. Used to have MLBtv at one point. Very annoying to watch the "No ads to show for your country" screen every 5 minutes. Could they not run highlights of the week or something at least during that time!?😅
Here in Finland pro hockey would be impossible without ads considering we only have 5,5 million people. after a while the ads on jerseys dont bother, they kinda grow on you. i like the jersey of my hometown team tappara!
@@muti7632 They wouldn't even wait for contracts to end. N. Americans were angry about Kovalchuk leaving NHL when under contract but the other way around? Who cares...
European hockey is definitely not soft. for example in Liiga most teams play defensive and physical style of hockey that forces players to battle for the puck near boards and in corners perhaps even more than North American coast to coast style.
You mentioned the costs. I grew up in a hockey state, Minnesota, but I didn't play organized hockey because it was too expensive for my working-class parents to afford.
And the situation is only getting worse and outside of major hockey nations the cost of equipment really spikes. I played in goal and that quickly became unfeasibly expensive.
Season dues have doubled in the past 5 years, equipment is up 30%, and I have gone from 1 kid playing to 3 in that time. I'm considering taking a second job to help pay for all of this. It's nuts.
@@Outpost-13-Hockey I played football from 7th to 10th grade and I didn't have to pay for my equipment except maybe my cleats, not that I remember but probably mouth guard and jock strap (you know, the most important protection). Those were loaned to us by the school team. I wonder why hockey players can't do the same. I remember playing hockey in my friend's driveway, of course no ice, he had goalie pads. They were really expensive.
@@Jefff72 I live in MN and my kids play hockey. Many if not most youth associations do actually provide free or loaner gear for the youngest levels U4 through U8, they also work hard to keep those registration fees low most ranging in the $75-500 a season range for that Mini mite and mite ages (U8). Travel hockey starts at Squirts/U10 the price typically jumps at that time but is dependent on the association typically $500-1500 for registration and now you will need to buy your equipment, this cost will gradually increase for each level after that until Bantams u14 typically in that $1,000-1,5000 per season range. High school hockey goes back to a school sport and like all other school sports is more or less free for registration purposes and many HS will provide your visible equipment Helmets, gloves and Pants at no cost. Luckily in MN there is a strong used market due to the large number of participants. Also many associations will give registration discounts to goalies and many will provide free equipment for goalies as well through Bantams. If not they might have a other reimbursement options. Also many associations offer financial add and sponsorships for families in need but you have to check into those. All of this is what leads to the success of hockey in MN. Community bases, non-profit, volunteer ran associations with community owned arenas help keeps the cost down which allows greater access to the sport in MN. For a state of about 5.5 million people we have about 55,000-60,000 youth hockey players. about 50,000 USA registered players and another 8,000-10,000 high school players which are not registered with USAHockey. That doesn't count all the Junior teams and players, adult rec and league players.
On Long Island NY in the 90s there was only a handful of leagues to play in and it ended up more plausible to play roller or street hockey. Sadly your ability in one didn't translate too well to another.
As a born and bred American hockey fan I have zero issue with the advertising if it keeps hockey clubs going. Plus Euro fans tend to ve more rabid and have such a great home atmosphere. Cheering for 60 minutes, win or lose. Meanwhile in America they leave early to beat traffic. Heck ive gotten yelled at for talking to my friend during a game because yge guy in front of me was trying to watch the game. Boring fans over here.
100% My cousin was in Germany studying in Frankfurt, she went to her first & only hockey game. She loved it, she said the atmosphere inside the arena felt so much like a football game.
@@shawklan27z Americans love their hockey just as much as Europeans & Canadians, that's why the NHL is expanded to US cities that don't have any historical references to hockey like Utah.
I don't think they're ugly. There's probably a term for it but Ill just say one advert is ugly but when it's plastered all over it almost melts into some kind of art. If you get one scratch on your car, it looks effed. But if there's a million scratches it becomes kind of cool and eye catching
Also some of the most beautiful jerseys I have seen, were from Europe. When I first started watching NHL, I actually found the jerseys to be boring and not cool. They have so much options with no ads, and they simply go for a logo in the midlle of the jerseys most of the times. BOOOOOORING.
@@tudormiller887Most of the time the market is too small, and the thing is that expanding an arena simply is also extremely expensive and theyre almost always run by the municipality, who also uses it for other events (basketball, handball, community events, all sorta stuff) which, quite often dont need like 10k capacity either. 5k is basically fine for most European cities/towns except for bigger cities. Indoor sports are less popular then football in most of Europe, and football stadiums are simply way cheaper to maintain really. A 10k football stadium is a relatively normal, single tier around the field stadium. A 10k arena is quite tall, and needs a second ring quite often, and its roof quite high due to that, adding to the cost of the building and also to upkeep
@@tudormiller887When they built arena in Prague for 2004 Worlds (the only one "NHL caliber in country) , it ruined whole system of financing of ALL SPORTS! Even frikin' skiers or divers suffered financial loses coz of it and whole system had to be rebuild. So...answer is nope.
@@tudormiller887 nope,too expensive,,you will need to actually tear out, and rebuild the walls in order to expand capacity, the money that would need to be put into it wouldn't be worth it since both Hockey and Basketball are very much niche sports in Europe.
@@tudormiller887 Well, hockey is a very niche sport in the biggest countries and in the smaller ones where it is popular, football/soccer is usually still the biggest sport. The biggest country where hockey is a popular sport in Europe is Sweden and that's still only 10m inhabitants. You can't really expect this to sustainably fill up big stadiums of a whole league.
I heard interest in the NHL is high this season. The ratings from late season till now deep in the playoffs, have been dominating over the NBA this year. Heard it from the Pat McAfee show, so hopefully its accurate information. Great video by the way, im gonna stick around and watch more of your videos. Subscribed
Cheers man, that's appreciated. I think the NHLs biggest issue in the regular season is the absolute shitshow of a broadcasting agreement - especially the Bally sports debacle. If they centralized their product they may make less immediate money, but they would get more eyes on them, which would generate more revenue. But in the UK you have to go to an obscured digital channel to find it, which is baffling. But ultimately they can only sign with who tenders and it's easier to watch hockey in Thailand than it is in the UK...
I can understand that as the isbnkreand nirr younger player and Tumblr girlies running these fans accounts and fanfics draw eachother 😂 hell I got that way into hockey snd I am staying up late watching Rangers.hahahaha
@@Outpost-13-Hockey NHL used the same media broadcasting set up like NBA and MLB uses Regular Seasons games on Local Stations with selected Games with the National TV Partners and the National TV Partners get all playoff games after the first round. The NFL and MLS are the only major team sports with a centralize Broadcasting in the US.
Speaking as a swede watching the SHL mostly and watched a few NHL games on 3rd party viewing sites. ´First off, I disagree that the jerseys are any more or less "ugly" compared to the NHL, there may be more advertisments on the jerseys themselves, but some of them are very well worked in (while some are just, ugly.) 2nd, I would much rather watch hockey with the ads being on the jerseys rather than having massive ad breaks, in the SHL, when not attending the games but watching them on the TV, we get a total of ~1:30 - 2 min worth of ads during breaks, and 1:30 - 2 mins worth of ads just prior to the game starting back up, nothing else. in the NHL games i've seen, i have not timed the ads but I swear those ads have been ages long + more ad breaks during the 2x power breaks during the game, squeezing in ads as much as possible. This alone makes me soo much less intressted in watching NHL ((I do reserve the right to change my mind if this last part may be incorrect, as stated only watched a few NHL Games and may have found some poor re-streams))A
Oh, I don't think the jerseys are ugly. Leksand's and Vaxjo's are some of my faves. I also love that Italian one Asiago. It's just the prevailing belief in North America that our jerseys are ugly and I was trying to point out why they look like they do. I actually mention advert breaks at the end of the video. I can tell you how long NHL ad breaks are. When the NHL cuts to commercial - if I'm watching on demand I have to push the 15 second advance button 7 times. So that's 1min 45 seconds... three times a period. I'd take ads on jerseys over that any day. Imagine how much of your life that is if you watch a lot of hockey...
@@Outpost-13-Hockey Fair enough! Was intending to finish watching the video at a later point, watched about 11 mins or so , then had some other stuff i had to do, with that said, I will say nice video :)
Some local ads even have cult status here. My Club, EV Landshut (DEL2, second tier in Germany, NHL Players like Marco Sturm and Tom Kühnhackl started their career at our club) always has an ad from a local car dealership during the breaks where a guy at the beginning shouts "JA, DAS ISSER!" ("YES, THATS IT!"), while searching for a new car. Everyone just shouts with him and it's always a funny moment.
Same thing with my club, HPK Hämeenlinna, and our former sponsor Sunny Car Center. The owner of said company committed like tax fraud and and other shady shit and then the company went bankrupt and the owner disappeared to Thailand and now everyone remembers the jerseys with the Sunny Car Center logos
Lotta work in this. Well done. I’m giving a full view, etc to help with the algorithm. I notice that RUclips is putting things in my feed, smaller channels. I think this is the only way to get traction. The golden spot might be around 8 minutes as a vlog. Just guessing, of course.
Yeah, I feel like 30 minutes was perhaps too much for a new channel - although weirdly this one took the longest to put together. Unfortunately, I work in the merchant navy which means big gaps between when I can work on videos so it's difficult to get any traction. But thanks for the advice and the watch. It's appreciated.
In Poland in the club I support in addition to the advertisements of the club's sponsors, there are individual sponsors above the players numbers who pay part or all of the salary. In other one club, the announcer spoke through a megaphone about the sponsor of the player who scored the goal (you wrote about this type of advertising here) but this club no longer exists, it was killed by a guy who in Pomerania is called "the gravedigger of Gdańsk hockey" because he owns an ice arena and already slaughtered two clubs playing there... and a lot of things about "ads" overlaps with this video, thx for made this
Sorry to break it to you North Americans but as a Swiss hockey fan who watches NHL games from time to time. I'll always take advertisings on jerseys, the ice and on the boards, over the game being interrupted by a powerbrake every 5 minutes after the replay that was brought to me by the New Jersey Lottery "remember everything can happen in Jersey" and don't forget the Jägermeister shot of the evening, that was crazy. North America also has a stupid advertising culture, but hey, at least the jerseys are nice to look at... for those 5 minutes before the next commercial brake.
J'espère que le hockey reprendra sa popularité en France, nous avons beaucoup fait pour le développement international du sport ! Thanks so much for this video, u deserve more.
Cheers man. I'm really hoping hockey can regain traction in countries like France, Poland, Italy and even Japan. Feels like a lot of countries programs are going backwards and only a few emerging countries like Korea are putting any funding in outside the major nations. I remember visiting Grenoble years ago and seeing kids with practice gear which was cool but I've been told by a friend who used to play and coach over there that numbers are way down. Which seems to be sadly common everywhere.
It’s amazing how people seem to forget how massive the United States and Canada truly is. Alaska, California and Texas individually are bigger than almost all countries in Europe. New York City alone has a larger population than Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Norway, Finland and Latvia, NYC overpopulates some of the countries combined. It’s also unfair to compare viewership of Europe teams and NHL teams. Players in Europe are playing to get drafted by an NHL team or get signed to play in the ECHL/AHL. Most importantly, that population thing I mentioned before. Most of our cities are big enough to make the largest cities in the smaller countries look like a hick town
I don’t think many Americans and Canadians really understand the scale between these two Huge Countries and Western Europe. I myself always thought they were around the same size. Until I visited Western Europe. The USA and Canada are massive.
The good thing about having small markets and thus advertising everywhere is that I can go to the rink with $30, train ticket included - and also beer and food cost at a reasonable price - and thus I can go to see hockey dozens of times in a year, which is not bad since live this sport is 100x better than on TV
Very good breakdown. I hope it reaches some of the people who need to hear it. As a kid me and my da were Ayr Eagles season ticket holders so from a young age I've seen that reality of teams just disappearing because revenue is a difficult thing to maintain. If it had kept the club alive I couldn't have cared who sponsored them. Watching them fold less than ten games into a season made me immeasuarably sad. And thats a team who were at that point 4 years separared from a grand slam and beaiting Ak Barys Kazan in European competition. It's easy to focus in on adverts on the shirts when your own league has no tangible threat till it starts effecting everyone.
Yeah, it gets tiring hearing NHL fans talk about tradition and aesthetics when they have advertising plastered onto everything except their jerseys. They will likely never know how sad it is to completely lose your team and that was kind of the point I was trying to make that most of us would take the ugliest sponsor and jersey if it kept our teams on the ice. It's especially devastating in the UK or Romania for instance when the community is so small and tight-knit and only held together by that club.
@@Outpost-13-Hockeyyou did a cracking job of making the point. And if I could just say as well the sheer work that must've been done getting all your B roll here, showing Fife, Glasgow, Sheffield, it shows that it's a proper labour of love. Subbed. Can't wait to see more when you get the chance.
Another thing is that you can watch hockey for free on our national tv station and they also stream it online (for free). Plus much less ads during power breaks, this is what drives me insane about NHL, constant ads and less time for game review.
I'm a Canadian born in Scotland and now back in Scotland. I've been a Dundee Stars supporter for a long time and was a Dundee Rockets fan back in the day. The explanation of the why and how for ads on the jerseys (and pants) was really good and clear. I know most from North America don't like the ads, but your clear laying out of why the ads are necessary was exactly right. It is better to have the ad on the jersey than lose the club, especially with market size and no real revenue sharing. Adding in that it is still a niche sport with passionate fans actually shows how significant an issue the need to keep clubs afloat actually is. Sorry for droning on, but this is a good video and hits all the marks.
As a Canadian i didn't understand why so much advertisement on european jersey before i've talked with a friend who played in Switzerland and Chekia and couple game in Germany and make totally sense cause it's not all league the owner is a Rich guy or a Buiseness ! but since couple of years in Semi-Pro league in Canada you see more teams been sponsorised and put advertisement of their sponsors in their jersey :) Thanks for the video :)
Great video. I still think that many ads on a jersey is ugly but your explanation on how the ads are there for existential reasons was great. Also, Don who?
For those that are used to a "blank" jersey the European jerseys might seem ugly but to those who are used to the adverts on jerseys they are good looking, I personally love my teams jersey, the ads make it more recognisable, The team I'm loyal to is the one and only, best and most traditional team in FInland Helsingin IFK
What I find distracting in the NHL are the constantly changing sideboards with ads, sometimes animated too. There's still a couple arenas with the old fashioned ads along the boards but I can still remember when there were none at all. As a kid my two favourite hockey players were Bobby Hull and Guy LaFleur, they were both endorsed by Bauer, it was printed on all their gear, skates and sticks, they did tv and radio ads for Bauer so that's the gear I used.
I got the basic idea for a long time now that hockey isn't the big dog in Europe and economic realities meant the jersey ads were needed, so I never really ragged on European leagues for having them. Now that the NHL is embracing them I know even more not to throw stones. It pisses me off how much the NHL and the sport of hockey has been poorly managed by all parties that we are where we are, with the NHL having to resort to jersey ads and the sport not being more accessible for kids to get into. To me, the future of the NHL and the sport of hockey is looking very bleak.
Add total disregard for the national team tournaments on the list. Such an amazing marketing opportunity and dropped ball by NHL in recent decades. They hurt the sport so much by this, especially in Europe. Even Hašek or Jágr wouldn't be quite such legends in home country without fans here actually WATCHING them play for which national team offered unique opportunity. That's what brings kids to sport and even convinces politicians to put money in it. Now Pasta scored GWG in Worlds final today = legendary status. Not that many care or know of his game 7 OT goal here. Everyone and their dog heard about this seconds after it happened. They even destroyed continuity of Olympics since some are and some aren't best on best tourneys.
Great Video. also to add Liiga seems to be adding proper Relegation/Promotion to the league next season where the worst team from liiga faces the champion of mestis (the league below liiga) in a best of 7 series and if the winner of that series has everything needed for the license they would promote and the loser would fall to mestis but if they don't then they can't get to liiga
Very true on the accessibility of soccer, same thing applies to basketball. The reason I started getting into hockey was because my school has a decent NCAA program. Though my NHL home team is gone now.
Honestly I prefer seeing numerous ads on European jerseys compared to the ones found on NHL teams now, mostly due to how with niche the sport is here it makes alot of sense for them to be on the jerseys because they desperately need revenue while I feel that the NHL is doing it because they want to squeeze in more money despite them working fine without them for decades now. Great video btw it's very informative and well edited 👍 are you a fan of any UK hockey team by any chance? I'm a fan of both the Nottingham panthers and Manchester Storm, such fun clubs.
Maybe this is because I’m American but you get to a point in life where you just tune out all the interrupting ads and focus on the game. So when I see jerseys with ads on them (at a national level) it just feels greedy (especially as a casual collector). Small clubs need money; and although the jerseys are hard to look at at times, that doesn’t bring down the quality of the sport.
Economics is king, of course, but thank you for pointing out that there are other elements. The NHL has never been more about big business, it's never been as rich or stable as it is today... yet there was no advertising on jerseys until the last few years. Hell, before TV deals and merchandise, in the 40's and 50's, NHL teams had to make due with whatever revenue stream they could find. Yet, uniforms remained ad-free, and so did the ice and boards. Ugly sponsor jerseys are a choice, they aren't inevitable.
I absolutely loved that video. As someone who was affected by the Hamburg Freezers bankruptcy not as a Freezers Fan but as an Eisbären Berlin Fan who competed against Hamburg in who could keep their Team I have zero issues with Ads on the Jersey. In fact I even like the jerseys more. Compare NHL 13 with NHL 23 and tell me which European jerseys look better. Even if your team is sponsored by a bigger company more often than not the company takes pride in it. Like our main sponsor from the Eisbären is the gas provider Gasag and they are the main sponsor for decades. Next year they will be the main sponsor for 30 years as far as I know. The sponsorship list doesn’t appear to end when they show them on the LED strips across the Arena but it‘s people like Family Müller who are a lawyer and a doctor and visit each game that they can because they love the club and then you think about it and be like „well those guys being able to afford that little bit of extra for the club you support means the club can pay the Zamboni driver or maybe a half time competition or something. Sponsors really care about the team. Not it winning but really the welfare of the club. Clearly that’s not all but the ones that stay do. And no Fan minds that. But going to 2 games between NHL and German Teams what the Fans do care about is the exorbitant prices for concessions, tickets and the sheer never ending stream of breaks and commercials during the game. I rather pay 80€ for a jersey littered with Ads and 20€ for a ticket plus 4€ for a beer than 80€ for a 3 hour Ad Break with some Hockey in between.
I grew up watching hockey in Minnesota, especially college, since I grew up in St. Cloud and attended UMD. I studied in Sweden in the spring of 2005 and became a big fan of the Växjö Lakers, then in the second level HockeyAllsvenskan and featured UMD alum Shjon Podein that season. I learned a couple things that spring, 1. Promotion/Relegation takes place in many sports, not just Association Football, 2. Supporters clubs, tifos, singing and everything else that American really only associate with Association Football happens in all the other sports too. The Laker Lackeys were a lot of fun to stand amongst, I learned some of their songs and participated in a couple of tifos. European atmospheres for all sports are >>> than American professional sports and, on average, > American college sports as well. I wish other leagues besides MLS would pick up on that, it makes the games much more fun in-person. I still follow the Lakers to this day and they were promoted to the SHL in 2011 and have since won the Swedish Championship 4 times! Heya heya heya Lakers, VLH alla em bästa!
Great breakdown of this topic! One question I’ve always tried to find the answer to is why does junior hockey thrive in North America? Specifically the USHL and CHL leagues. My local USHL team has an average attendance approximately the same as many European pro leagues. They have zero televised games so no media deals, their jerseys have zero ads, and the ice isn’t full of ads either. Now I know that not technically paying the players plays a part in this but I don’t feel like that alone is enough to make the whole difference. I don’t know about the CHL leagues, but in the USHL, the team covers practically every expense for their players. The local billet families also get a pretty hefty stipend for hosting players. Maybe this is enough to avoid the onslaught of ads, but if anyone knows the answer I’d be interested to know.
Not paying the players. Most of these teams have streaming services and the rinks are municipally owned and loaned to the USHL/NAHL/NAHL3 team and as such all the money at the gate goes to the municipality that then subsidises the team. Juniors is also a great way for a millionaire to get a team without the bs of trying to own 10% of an NHL team.
I'll tie two points into one, one that agrees with a point you made, and one that maybe serves as a bit of a counter-point to your premise. An anecdote. Some friends and I were discussing a few years back the prospect of advertising on NHL uniforms. "Never! Nobody wants those gaudy European jerseys." "Ah," I chimed in "I agree that nobody wants the gaudy aspect. So what if we just get ads that aren't gaudy?" "No way! Those jerseys are sacred!" "So," I continued "of the following corporate advertisements, which one is the sacred one? The one for Warrior Sports on the stick? The one for Reebok on the jersey? The one for CCM on the gloves?" "But that's just the company that makes the gloves!" "Yes," I added "and do you think they stamp it on there too avoid besmirching the name of Nike? Or is that so when you see your favorite player wearing CCM gloves you go buy CCM gloves?" After several back and forths my friends conceded, there had, indeed, been corporate advertisements on these players all along. They just didn't notice them because by design they blended in so well. ' And that's where I perhaps offer a counter-point. I don't blame any hockey club, from the NHL to the Euro leagues, for trying to squeeze a few more bucks of revenue in wherever they can. I blame the laziness of how they integrate it into the jersey. Imagine if instead of some big ugly blocky patch they brought in a couple graphic designers who figured out how to keep the logos, but incorporated them in a way that enhanced the aesthetic of the jersey? Or at least just blended in better. You highlighted the Priority 1 Red Wings patch in your video. Would it surprise you to learn that as someone who watches every Red Wings game (yes, even those God awful pandemic season ones) I didn't even know that patch was on there until I read about it on Twitter? I think that's a great example of how to add a patch to a jersey they keeps with the beauty of the design but gets some ad revenue for its inclusion back into the team coffers.
I mean, the main reason I highlighted Priority, was that after the Red Wings put that patch on there, the team started to tank which became a bit of a meme. I find it odd that fans are bothered about jersey ads, when they watch their team in a stadium that could have had an iconic name... if it weren't for the corporate sponsorship... or the 7 minutes of every period reserved for advertisers powerbreaks. I've always liked the Euro Jerseys, I mean my other love is speedway and that's another sport totally dependent on advertising - and the bikes and race suits are covered in adverts, so maybe that's why it doesn't bother me. It just gives them character. I've watched a lot of quite low level hockey - be it the British Elite League, the NIHL or the Oberliga. It's just the price of doing business, but also in the case of small sponsors advertising to fans (Priority are advertising to the Red Wings corporate ticketholders, not the regular fan), like a local taxi service... do they want to pay for a patch that blends in so well it's basically invisible? I mean there's an argument if there are loads of sponsors it eventually becomes visual noise. I work on ships where there are hundreds of emergency signs and you eventually just stop seeing them. So it's possible covering jersey's simply means your advert becomes invisible anyway.
I think its a true testament of british/european hockey that Fife Flyers have been playing hockey since 1938 and still going strong! Theyre not world beaters by any means but I love their history and heritage.
Most teams in Sweden have started to incorporate the sponsors logos into the jerseys better by making the logos in the teams colors rather than the company's.
Hockey for kids is a money pit for parents. I went to hockey camp for 6 seasons, in 1980 I started taking goalie camp which is more expensive than regular hockey camp for some unknown reasons, it cost something like $1,500 for a 12 day course or $125 a day, it was sorta like summer camp but cost more than twice as much for half the time, Camp Little Big Water cost $1,100 for 3 weeks, or roughly $50 a day. Soccer camps cost maybe $100 per kid for a week and might cost the parents $1,000 over an entire season if their kid gets on a team. My goalie sticks cost around $75-$80 each (the old wood ones, I had to use a blowtorch to curve the blade) and I went through a dozen a season.
I mean, as an American, and one who is still pissed about the moving board ads the nhl recently added because they constantly distract me from actually watching the game, you get used to jersey ads soooo quickly. I watched the nhl for about a season before deciding to see what Europe had to offer, and it really only took one game to get over the ads on jerseys. And then so few ad breaks, and none of the ads are moving around distracting me from the players whose movements are the ones i want to be watching, European hockey is actually a lot more pleasant to watch. The jerseys are fine. Some of the jersey ads are fun or even funny. It was fascinating watching a game where the crowd was just chanting and singing the entire time. I dunno, i didn't grow up watching sports with ads all over the uniforms (i barely watched sports at all), so it isn't something i was used to At All, and it really, really is fine. It's fine! The jersey ads are fine! The "it's ugly, i could never watch hockey with ads on the jerseys, i would stop watching" stuff is incredibly silly to me. Yes, obviously the ideal would be no sports team ever having to have ads on jerseys bc ads as a concept overall suck, but that's not the reality we live in, and in our reality where jersey ads help hockey to keep happening, i will look at as many jersey ads as it takes, because i love watching hockey, and also i cannot stress enough that the jerseys with ads look completely fine.
As an American, I look at this and wonder what if the major cities formed a "European League". Wouldn't that trigger a cycle of long term growth and prestige? For example Prague vs Helsinki or Berlin vs Vienna sounds exciting. Even trying to bring in non traditional markets like London vs Paris. Such massive populations provide huge markets that even a few % interest adds up. We don't constrain the Yankees to play small cities like Albany just because they're in the same state; we let them play against peer cities across the continent.
Europeans generally like the competition of our local rivals. We also like to travel as fans. It's much easier to travel to a team in your own country than one hundreds of miles across the continent. We have the CHL and that brings in Ok numbers, but the KHL tried to be a continental league and see how well Slovan Bratislava and Jokerit were treated for jumping ship. What you are suggesting is a European SuperLeague, and you should see how popular an idea that is in soccer circles. I don't think Europeans would embrace this the way you think they would. And fans of smaller teams with long histories such as Leksand and Ambri-Piotta would wonder why they're being frozen out if you put the 20 largest arena teams together.. Some of these league have long histories. I know as a fan I would care much less if my team was playing the Slovakian champions rather than my local rivals.
You know what's more disgusting? No replays of shots and penalties because of ad break. And you're not gonna see that in European TV but american one, I would rather have a Skoda logo on my jersey and watch the game without interuptions than being fed 300 ads a game because there is 4 seconds break there
Cool video but i don’t know where you got the fact that the Swiss National Hockey League is the most popular domestic league. That’s definitely not the case, Hockey is viewed as an casual sport to go when you have nothing else to do, its also more affordable than watching a football game. But the Swiss Football league still is so far ahead that most people in Switzerland don’t even know who’s champion in Hockey while we’re all basically forced to know that Bern got champions this year in Football. You almost never see any gravity’s of the ZCS Lions in Zurich while Gravitys of FC Zurich are literally everywhere, you see more people saying they’re fan of their local 2nd or 3rd division club than any hockey team unless you specifically ask them. On Social Media the Swiss Football teams also have way more followers and more consistent likes and comments on their posts than the hockey clubs.
Thanks for the heads up. I wasn't sure and asked google and r/switzerland what was more popular and most tended to suggest the hockey league was more popular domestically while football was more popular broadly. However Googles algorithms are probably skewed by the fact I don't look up football much at all...
@@Outpost-13-Hockeywell the fact is that 40 percent of population in Switzerland are immigrants from non hockey countries, so before this part of population get interested in hockey you need 2 or 3 generation depending also of the region they live in. But still, the Swiss born population is declining while numbers at the arenas are constantly growing despite more and more games played along the season, so some even if not many of the new Swiss are starting to follow the sport
I think you raise completely valid points but your depiction of north american fans and mentalities is a bit one dimensional. We don't universally worship Don Cherry (I certainly don't) and I think the perception of European hockey as "soft" hasn't been a prevalent narrative I can recall outside of cesspits like RUclips comment sections since the late 90s/early 00s, especially with how the game has evolved the last couple decades here. I mean not that a sample size of one means a damn thing but my favourite player of all time is Swedish. While I do absolutely despise the appearance of a jersey covered in ads, I also completely understand why they are there, and understand the irony of complaining about ads when every surface of everything else in the Arena is an ad, including helmets and whatnot. I am not under the illusion that Hockey is unique to Canada, many of us are very aware of waning participation due to the exorbitant cost of hockey... I mean hell, I quit hockey as a teenager because I was a goalie and the equipment cost was getting so out of hand I hated the idea of being a financial burden on my family. I appreciate the passion but in the midst of some very good points and perspectives you counter lazy generalizations with lazy generalizations of your own. Don't build your perception of a fanbase from RUclips comment sections. I don't believe they are representative. That's my honest feedback, make of it what you will.
Just leaving a note i work for a Norwegian hockey team called Sparta Sarpsborg i think we have amazing looking jerseys although we have add on them but well place i think except for the helmets that is a bit unfortunate placed ad and since you Are former goalie our goalie equipment looks i think good seen em pop up on differensiert places takling about the looks you should do a quick search and see what you think maybe Ads Are not so bad looking that they ruin it
We might have a bit too many ads on our jerseys, even here in Switzerland, but at least you don't have an adbreak every 5 min. Edit: just saw your sub count of 100. You are way too good for your size, take this sub.
Hey thanks for the feedback. I'm editing using headphones, and trying to keep around -12db which is what I read... somewhere, but it's obviously giving me a false sense of loudness. I'll make sure to push the sound up a bit next time.
Good piece but I will say, having moved from Ireland (where I've never even heard of an ice hockey game being played) to Canada I think you are vastly underestimating the interest of hockey in Canada. If you look down at the CHL there's a team in just about every Canadian town and city. They usually are run more for passion and often still have amazing attendance and support (the London Knights of the OHL has consistently outcompeted a couple NHL teams in recent years). It doesnt hurt that they're also far more affordable (here in Ottawa a ticket to prime seats in the 67's OHL arena is twice as cheap as the worst seats in the Senators arena). While not on the same amount of money obviously I could see an all Canadian pro league operate fairly comfortably.
How is your channel so small? Great video, stumbled upon it in my recommendations! I have just one thing that I wanted to mention, and it's that sometimes the video was a little hard to follow when you were speaking about one thing and the subtitles were mentioning another point. It would make it easier to watch if you cleared that up. Nonetheless, I have to subscribe!
I've been a hockey fan since I was 8 or 9 years old going to my local AHL teams games (rip Peoria Rivermen), and played travel hockey as a tendy for a long time. seeing the way the NHL has continually made it harder for fans to watch their games is simultaneously hilarious and depressing. The ever increasing price of the sport too definitely doesn't help viewership either (couldn't even imagine the cost of being a goalie today). I would love to see the league turn it around and start gaining popularity, but unfortunately I don't think it'll happen.
I think you also missed one key difference. Advertising money in the US is insane. I'm a photographer that shoots for a US fashion cataloge for 3 months of the year. For that, I get $600k. In the UK and EU, I can get around $10k, for a weeks work. An advert on british TV can cost £4k during GMB... One of the most watched morning shows, is £4k to advertise your brand... And the US can charge $100k for the same slot. Or $12m during the superbowl. How the hell are our leagues suppost to compete when even if 10% of the advert makes it to the sports team ownership group? If I said to you Dundee Stars vs Braehead Clan would get them £200 per advert during a game on TV. You'd probably think "the teams will love that!!" If say Colorado vs the Stars "only" got $5k (and I'm being kind with these numbers) per advert. You'd think something is wrong...
Gonna add a bit more perspective on KHL - jerseys there do have fewer ads on them, but this is mostly because most teams have a big corporate sponsor, usually an oil or gas company. KHL teams are not as financially sustainable as those in EU and hockey also struggles in terms of popularity. Moscow with 12mln+ population has 3 teams and yet they struggle to fill the 7.5-10K seat arenas.
Yeah, it's why I don't tend to think of the KHL as European hockey anymore. Aside from their ban, their game was already increasingly feel... other. As I mentioned in another reply, they're NHL light. Filled with teams bankrolled by oligarchs. And They've also seen plenty of hubris and overstretch causing franchises to implode. Not to mention Kunlun has turned the KHL into a league that straddles continents.
If you're going to have so many sponsorship patches, atleast integrate the logos with the the team colors. That way the players don't look like clowns with every color of the rainbow on them somewhere
Always figured that the less jersey sponsors, the more financially stable the league (or team) is, in Australia rugby union jerseys have more sponsors than rugby league, who have more than AFL but only because the AFL plays in singlets. The date at which sponsors were introduced probably makes rugby league fans put up with excessive sponsorships more than they should, but fans seem attached to some former sponsors
"Always figured that the less jersey sponsors, the more financially stable the league (or team) is" I would not necessarily say that. Some teams have only one big sponsor on their jerseys, which might go well for a certain time. However, if this huge main sponsor goes bankrupt, cuts back on the sponsorship deal or lets it run out entirely, these teams usually face huge financial troubles. One recent example of this in Germany are the Blue Devils Weiden who were heavily sponsored by the company Ziegler Group, which has recently gone Bankrupt and has put the club in a very difficult situation with a very unclear future. So while huge sponsors like that can provide financial stability for a while, the dependency on a single sponsor also comes with a huge risk to the existence of an entire club.
Anyone else find some irony in the fact the Toronto Dominion Bank logo was on the helmets of the Boston Bruins when they eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Watching the CBC feeds I found it funny watching Bruins vs Leafs and then seeing an ad that straight says "Canadian hockey team hasn't won the cup for 30 years, maybe it's time to try something different." and it's an ad for "Boston Pizza"
It's insane that transfer fees barely exist in ice hockey considering the huge money in the NHL. The EU should get involved or something. I mean, if Frölunda received decent money for the players they provide NHL regularly, they could very likely finance a new arena independently and we tax payers in Gothenburg wouldn't have to invest in that. And the worst logo on a hockey jersey is often the club's own. Calling themselves 'Indians' and 'Redhawks' and other cringy stuff that belong in North America.
*only Blackhawks. Please do find me another racist NHL name.
8 месяцев назад+1
You are right, transfer fees are a joke. European leagues serve as development leagues for NHL, they spend huge money on developing young players, and then they get 100K dollars or so when their player is drafted. Thats not enough money to cover the cost of salary for a top tier player in fucking czech league, so I guess in other european leagues it will be even worse.
Saying that sponsors look better than a logo is outrageous, and saying names are cringe shows you don’t understand North American sports, wich is alright you don’t need to, but don’t comment on things you don’t know about just making fun of them
@@stingray541mochi2 Chill, I mean they are cringe in our context here. Swedish ice hockey clubs and sports clubs are not named like that traditionally. They started doing that in the 90's when the ice hockey executives lost their plot. It's cultural appropriation really. Malmö Idrottsförening (Malmö Sports Club) started calling themselves Malmö Redhawks and Frölunda from my city added 'Indians' to their name. Needless to say that name was controversial but they kept it until 2022. All this has somewhat alianated the sport from their communities. Ice hockey was more popular than football in Sweden in the 80's but nowadays football is definately the people's sport of choice while ice hockey is more of a tacky, corporate and too expensive for many.
When I first watched american sports, I was very surprised to see there is no sponsoring on the jerseys in the home of stupendous capitalism. I was certain the LA Kings would have big McDonalds sponsoring on the jersey. Even assoc. football has at least one big sponsor on the jersey even for big, financially well doing teams like Madrid or Bayern. After time you come to ignore the sponsoring billboards for a jersey design, like in F1. But yes, the landscape is completely different and the teams have to cope with it (cries in Freezers fan), still, the extreme passion at a european derby is something that's hardly comparable to NA games.
The idea that Europeans are soft has been around for a long time I attribute it to rule differences in North American vs European leagues surrounding fighting and cultural differences in playing style that emphasized more dump and chase in North America which requires playing physical to gain control of the puck rather than skating the puck in which usually requires more finesse to get past defenders
4:41 The junior clubs aren't a financial drain, because they help develop players who the team will have the rights to (because there is no draft in European sports) and who can either play for the team or be sold for a hefty transfer fee.
But junior sports in Europe generates very litte cash when under the umbrella pf a larger organisation suxh as Barcelona FC. The Barcelona FC junior hockey program is a drain that mercifully the people behind Barcelona FC are willing to absorb because nobody is really watching U13 Spanish ice hockey. Yeah, it's great that thry get to keep the kids they trained but ultimately for what? Even the senior Barcelona hockey team earns what... 0.001% of the income of the football team?
@Outpost-13-Hockey for Barcelona FC it may not be as important because of its near-infinite transfer budget, but for smaller teams with smaller budgets the only way to get a star player is to grow one through the academy system.
Nhl have ads on the ice now, two powerbreaks, brand sponsored slow motion replays, ads on the tv broadcast scoreboard. Moving and flashing ads on the boards themselves. No too long until the first teams have larger ads on the jerseys
I am sure the jerseys are nice in most cases but the financial realities of the various leagues force teams to take on as much advertising as possible just to pay the bills.
That's true, but there are definitely teams who do ads on jerseys better than other teams. It's not just about how many ads a club has to put on their jerseys, but also about where to place them and some clubs do a really good job placing even a large number of ads in such a way that it doesn't completely ruin the look of the jersey, while other clubs just seem like they don't care at all and just put them wherever it fits. I think that some teams already have the ads in their minds when they design their jersey and base the design around the ads to end up with a decent looking overall jersey, while others seem to design their jersey without any ads in mind and then just place them randomly all over it.
Yeah the jerseys are super ugly, I get they need to and according to Europeans in the comments it’s balanced because there’s not as many commercial breaks and sponsors for things like shot of the period or intermissions, but damn id rather have commercial breaks to have time to get a drink or use the bathroom or digest the game or hear a game say some tagline real quick. than have the players wear the most ugly, eye assaulting, distracting jerseys of all time. The jerseys are just 95% ads so none of them are recognizable and they all look terrible. I think NHL or any American sport jersey I think of iconic logos like the Yankees, lakers, red wings, and packers. European even soccer I just think ads
As a Swede, I’m fully aware of why there are so many ads on the jerseys. However, many european teams still have horribly ugly jerseys even without the ads. And not to mention the club logos. It feels like many clubs have a logo that were drawn 50-60 years ago by someone’s kid and then they stick with it. I mean, at least re-design them into properly executed logos and not go with the hand-drawn non-symmetric crap.
Heritage? I mean why not stick with it? So many European soccer clubs have recently redesigned their logos to be more marketable and they're spectacularly dull.
After starting to see European sports in college, I’m surprised it has taken American sports until now to put sponsors on the uniforms. They’re everywhere else
i don't see how a team can draw 100% of their market to the games but still need ads on the jerseys. I would assume if you're able to sell out the arena you should be making money from that
I do agree with the ads supporting the team, but I also think they could make them blend into the jersey a bit more. For example. The IDBO logo; put it on the jersey or the socks, and get rid of the white square around it
7:54 Euro hockey needs something like the NPB-MLB Posting System,,wherean MLB club pays X amount of many to a players Parent NPB club ,just to be able to get the rights to talk to him.
Hello, im From germany and a big fan of the Straubing Tigers. I`ve been to two NHL Games and I think that the speaker saying „The gole have been presented by ….“ or other cals like that is way more anoying than Sponsorship on the Jersys. Just my Opinion
I dont like the way we do ads, they should match the teams colours to allow the teams to maintain their identity more easily, both in Europe and NHL. Like the Bruins stickers are out of place but the ones on the capitals helmets are almost unnoticeable. I also feel like cherry is a man of the era and he gave alot to the game over many years and later on just remained stuck in the early 2000s mentality. Hes a legend but parts of the game have moved on
The NHL is forever going to be the 4th to even 6th/7th sports (depending on location and time of year) viewing option for Americans to watch. NHL viewers are going to have Ads everywhere like it or not.
I'd rather have sponsors on the shirts than mid period brakes to show beer commercials or what not. I already hate the one brake per period we have in my league now.
Feels like the NHL do a better job at marketing to Europe than the NBA, I watch hockey and basketball games in the mid-morning in Australia but I notice afternoon US time (prime time EU time) hockey games are a lot more common than NBA games
Perhaps it's because I grew up around the busier NARCh-style inline roller hockey jerseys, but I've thought the SHL jerseys looked fantastic for as long as I can remember
European hockey is as popular in their respective countries as soccer is in the United States, people didn’t grow up with it, it’s not in the fabric of society as other sports like soccer in Europe and American football in the US
That is definitely not the case in all european countries. Here in Czechia ice hockey is much more popular than football (soccer) and it’s not even close.
Nothing you're saying is a mystery but it needed to be said: Europe is smaller market-wise, money makes the world go round, and jerseys are free real estate. At the same time we Americans aren't wrong, the jerseys are atrocious at times. Both are true, as one needs to exist and the other is a reality of that need.
I'd rather have ads on jerseys than have to sit thru 1000 commercial breaks per period.
Don't worry...we're going to have ads all over the ice and jerseys AND countless ads. But you can add a $9.99 monthly charge in addition to your subscription to "limit" ads (not remove them altogether.) I can see that coming REAL soon.
I wonder how much it would affect player fatigue as every commercial break serves as a time out.
I DVR everything, I cannot watch TV live to save my life. I try to watch with at least an hour delay. Forwarding thru commercials is a blessing from our creator.
No you don't
Theres ads so they can pay thr best players in the world 10mil a season _ nhl im talking about, not these ahl calibre players you are glazing over
It’s so ironic that North American considering that advertisements don’t belong on jerseys while their own teams are literally owned by some mega corporation that could move the team to another city.
How this has gone so many days with only 5 views is insane. This was actual informative content, thank you!
Hey thanks man, I appreciate that. I just make videos for fun, unfortunately I think the RUclips algorithm isn't so friendly to newer creators who can't put out a video a day/week. But it is what it is.
@@Outpost-13-HockeyWould you look at that! Things have improved. Congratulations. Looking forward to your next video.
In the 1980’s people were in an uproar when they started putting ads on the boards
its unreal how companies will pay money for something no one wants. its so anoying watching on espn with the 4 repeting commercials i make sure to avoid those brands for pissing me off.
another when they digitalized said ads lol
@Swisba yeah it's gotten worse
@@moody9442
Still it subconsciously affects you. You know they are brands and affects your behaviour.
I remember Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto having no ads on the boards and barely any in the building.
whenever I try to watch nhl using IPTV there is more ads than game, I’d much rather have ads on the the jerseys than every 5 minutes
NHL has the fewest ad breaks by far compared to NBA, NFL and MLB
@@donairsauce2496 Oh yes. Used to have MLBtv at one point. Very annoying to watch the "No ads to show for your country" screen every 5 minutes. Could they not run highlights of the week or something at least during that time!?😅
@@donairsauce2496doesn't change the point, that US sports are mostly made for entertainment and advertising, rather than the sport itself
European hockey also has commercial breaks, what are you talking about
@@kevvin7563 not even close to as much as the nhl does.
Here in Finland pro hockey would be impossible without ads considering we only have 5,5 million people. after a while the ads on jerseys dont bother, they kinda grow on you. i like the jersey of my hometown team tappara!
I’m from Toronto grew up playing hockey my whole life me and my buddies like your guys jerseys with the sponsors way more !!
@@jordantanner8 And we have way less ad breaks during a game compared to the NHL.
❤🇫🇮
@@Bruh-jr2epReally ? But all the US sports have long commercial breaks anyway..
And to be fair, many Finnish teams have integrated the ads to their jerseys with class. Like TPS, Pelicans, SaiPa, HIFK and Ilves for example.
NHL paying an absolute joke sum for European players is killing what would be European Clubs' biggest income.
This agreement was done with the help of iihf. If there was no agreement the players would just leave for free after their contract ends
@@muti7632still doesn’t remove his point
@@muti7632 They wouldn't even wait for contracts to end. N. Americans were angry about Kovalchuk leaving NHL when under contract but the other way around? Who cares...
European hockey is definitely not soft. for example in Liiga most teams play defensive and physical style of hockey that forces players to battle for the puck near boards and in corners perhaps even more than North American coast to coast style.
You mentioned the costs. I grew up in a hockey state, Minnesota, but I didn't play organized hockey because it was too expensive for my working-class parents to afford.
And the situation is only getting worse and outside of major hockey nations the cost of equipment really spikes. I played in goal and that quickly became unfeasibly expensive.
Season dues have doubled in the past 5 years, equipment is up 30%, and I have gone from 1 kid playing to 3 in that time. I'm considering taking a second job to help pay for all of this. It's nuts.
@@Outpost-13-Hockey I played football from 7th to 10th grade and I didn't have to pay for my equipment except maybe my cleats, not that I remember but probably mouth guard and jock strap (you know, the most important protection). Those were loaned to us by the school team. I wonder why hockey players can't do the same. I remember playing hockey in my friend's driveway, of course no ice, he had goalie pads. They were really expensive.
@@Jefff72 I live in MN and my kids play hockey. Many if not most youth associations do actually provide free or loaner gear for the youngest levels U4 through U8, they also work hard to keep those registration fees low most ranging in the $75-500 a season range for that Mini mite and mite ages (U8). Travel hockey starts at Squirts/U10 the price typically jumps at that time but is dependent on the association typically $500-1500 for registration and now you will need to buy your equipment, this cost will gradually increase for each level after that until Bantams u14 typically in that $1,000-1,5000 per season range. High school hockey goes back to a school sport and like all other school sports is more or less free for registration purposes and many HS will provide your visible equipment Helmets, gloves and Pants at no cost. Luckily in MN there is a strong used market due to the large number of participants. Also many associations will give registration discounts to goalies and many will provide free equipment for goalies as well through Bantams. If not they might have a other reimbursement options. Also many associations offer financial add and sponsorships for families in need but you have to check into those. All of this is what leads to the success of hockey in MN. Community bases, non-profit, volunteer ran associations with community owned arenas help keeps the cost down which allows greater access to the sport in MN. For a state of about 5.5 million people we have about 55,000-60,000 youth hockey players. about 50,000 USA registered players and another 8,000-10,000 high school players which are not registered with USAHockey. That doesn't count all the Junior teams and players, adult rec and league players.
On Long Island NY in the 90s there was only a handful of leagues to play in and it ended up more plausible to play roller or street hockey. Sadly your ability in one didn't translate too well to another.
You disserve more recognition you're videos are insane quality and effort. Great video
Thanks, I appreciate that. It takes a lot of time putting these together and it's a bit deflating when you sit on 35 views for three months.
This comment has insane quality and effort.
As a born and bred American hockey fan I have zero issue with the advertising if it keeps hockey clubs going. Plus Euro fans tend to ve more rabid and have such a great home atmosphere. Cheering for 60 minutes, win or lose. Meanwhile in America they leave early to beat traffic. Heck ive gotten yelled at for talking to my friend during a game because yge guy in front of me was trying to watch the game. Boring fans over here.
Agreed people here in Europe really treat the sport with passion compared to viewing it as a form of entertainment like in America.
In Canada aside from Ottawa you can WALK to our NHL arenas.
100% My cousin was in Germany studying in Frankfurt, she went to her first & only hockey game. She loved it, she said the atmosphere inside the arena felt so much like a football game.
@@shawklan27z Americans love their hockey just as much as Europeans & Canadians, that's why the NHL is expanded to US cities that don't have any historical references to hockey like Utah.
@@JohnManzoYou can't do that in the US, Europe or UK ?
Ambri is even crazier than Leskends. The Village of Ambri has arround 300 residents. So they have 20x more viewers than residents.
I don't think they're ugly. There's probably a term for it but Ill just say one advert is ugly but when it's plastered all over it almost melts into some kind of art.
If you get one scratch on your car, it looks effed. But if there's a million scratches it becomes kind of cool and eye catching
I'm sure the scratched car trend won't last very long. 😂
Also some of the most beautiful jerseys I have seen, were from Europe. When I first started watching NHL, I actually found the jerseys to be boring and not cool. They have so much options with no ads, and they simply go for a logo in the midlle of the jerseys most of the times. BOOOOOORING.
Considering the average size of most European arenas is 5,000 both seated and terrancing. It's no wonder that the teams have so many sponsors.
Can't they increase the capacity, the way they to with soccer/football ?
@@tudormiller887Most of the time the market is too small, and the thing is that expanding an arena simply is also extremely expensive and theyre almost always run by the municipality, who also uses it for other events (basketball, handball, community events, all sorta stuff) which, quite often dont need like 10k capacity either. 5k is basically fine for most European cities/towns except for bigger cities.
Indoor sports are less popular then football in most of Europe, and football stadiums are simply way cheaper to maintain really. A 10k football stadium is a relatively normal, single tier around the field stadium. A 10k arena is quite tall, and needs a second ring quite often, and its roof quite high due to that, adding to the cost of the building and also to upkeep
@@tudormiller887When they built arena in Prague for 2004 Worlds (the only one "NHL caliber in country) , it ruined whole system of financing of ALL SPORTS! Even frikin' skiers or divers suffered financial loses coz of it and whole system had to be rebuild. So...answer is nope.
@@tudormiller887 nope,too expensive,,you will need to actually tear out, and rebuild the walls in order to expand capacity, the money that would need to be put into it wouldn't be worth it since both Hockey and Basketball are very much niche sports in Europe.
@@tudormiller887 Well, hockey is a very niche sport in the biggest countries and in the smaller ones where it is popular, football/soccer is usually still the biggest sport. The biggest country where hockey is a popular sport in Europe is Sweden and that's still only 10m inhabitants. You can't really expect this to sustainably fill up big stadiums of a whole league.
I heard interest in the NHL is high this season. The ratings from late season till now deep in the playoffs, have been dominating over the NBA this year. Heard it from the Pat McAfee show, so hopefully its accurate information. Great video by the way, im gonna stick around and watch more of your videos. Subscribed
Cheers man, that's appreciated. I think the NHLs biggest issue in the regular season is the absolute shitshow of a broadcasting agreement - especially the Bally sports debacle. If they centralized their product they may make less immediate money, but they would get more eyes on them, which would generate more revenue.
But in the UK you have to go to an obscured digital channel to find it, which is baffling. But ultimately they can only sign with who tenders and it's easier to watch hockey in Thailand than it is in the UK...
I only just became interested in Hockey after the news that the Coyotes were moving here, so I've been watching a lot of the playoffs
I can understand that as the isbnkreand nirr younger player and Tumblr girlies running these fans accounts and fanfics draw eachother 😂 hell I got that way into hockey snd I am staying up late watching Rangers.hahahaha
@@Outpost-13-Hockey NHL used the same media broadcasting set up like NBA and MLB uses Regular Seasons games on Local Stations with selected Games with the National TV Partners and the National TV Partners get all playoff games after the first round. The NFL and MLS are the only major team sports with a centralize Broadcasting in the US.
Speaking as a swede watching the SHL mostly and watched a few NHL games on 3rd party viewing sites.
´First off, I disagree that the jerseys are any more or less "ugly" compared to the NHL, there may be more advertisments on the jerseys themselves, but some of them are very well worked in (while some are just, ugly.)
2nd, I would much rather watch hockey with the ads being on the jerseys rather than having massive ad breaks, in the SHL, when not attending the games but watching them on the TV, we get a total of ~1:30 - 2 min worth of ads during breaks, and 1:30 - 2 mins worth of ads just prior to the game starting back up, nothing else.
in the NHL games i've seen, i have not timed the ads but I swear those ads have been ages long + more ad breaks during the 2x power breaks during the game, squeezing in ads as much as possible. This alone makes me soo much less intressted in watching NHL ((I do reserve the right to change my mind if this last part may be incorrect, as stated only watched a few NHL Games and may have found some poor re-streams))A
Oh, I don't think the jerseys are ugly. Leksand's and Vaxjo's are some of my faves. I also love that Italian one Asiago. It's just the prevailing belief in North America that our jerseys are ugly and I was trying to point out why they look like they do.
I actually mention advert breaks at the end of the video. I can tell you how long NHL ad breaks are. When the NHL cuts to commercial - if I'm watching on demand I have to push the 15 second advance button 7 times. So that's 1min 45 seconds... three times a period. I'd take ads on jerseys over that any day. Imagine how much of your life that is if you watch a lot of hockey...
@@Outpost-13-Hockey Fair enough! Was intending to finish watching the video at a later point, watched about 11 mins or so , then had some other stuff i had to do, with that said, I will say nice video :)
Well said
Some local ads even have cult status here.
My Club, EV Landshut (DEL2, second tier in Germany, NHL Players like Marco Sturm and Tom Kühnhackl started their career at our club) always has an ad from a local car dealership during the breaks where a guy at the beginning shouts "JA, DAS ISSER!" ("YES, THATS IT!"), while searching for a new car. Everyone just shouts with him and it's always a funny moment.
Same thing with my club, HPK Hämeenlinna, and our former sponsor Sunny Car Center. The owner of said company committed like tax fraud and and other shady shit and then the company went bankrupt and the owner disappeared to Thailand and now everyone remembers the jerseys with the Sunny Car Center logos
Lotta work in this. Well done. I’m giving a full view, etc to help with the algorithm.
I notice that RUclips is putting things in my feed, smaller channels. I think this is the only way to get traction.
The golden spot might be around 8 minutes as a vlog. Just guessing, of course.
Yeah, I feel like 30 minutes was perhaps too much for a new channel - although weirdly this one took the longest to put together. Unfortunately, I work in the merchant navy which means big gaps between when I can work on videos so it's difficult to get any traction. But thanks for the advice and the watch. It's appreciated.
In Poland in the club I support in addition to the advertisements of the club's sponsors, there are individual sponsors above the players numbers who pay part or all of the salary. In other one club, the announcer spoke through a megaphone about the sponsor of the player who scored the goal (you wrote about this type of advertising here) but this club no longer exists, it was killed by a guy who in Pomerania is called "the gravedigger of Gdańsk hockey" because he owns an ice arena and already slaughtered two clubs playing there...
and a lot of things about "ads" overlaps with this video, thx for made this
Sorry to break it to you North Americans but as a Swiss hockey fan who watches NHL games from time to time. I'll always take advertisings on jerseys, the ice and on the boards, over the game being interrupted by a powerbrake every 5 minutes after the replay that was brought to me by the New Jersey Lottery "remember everything can happen in Jersey" and don't forget the Jägermeister shot of the evening, that was crazy.
North America also has a stupid advertising culture, but hey, at least the jerseys are nice to look at... for those 5 minutes before the next commercial brake.
J'espère que le hockey reprendra sa popularité en France, nous avons beaucoup fait pour le développement international du sport !
Thanks so much for this video, u deserve more.
Cheers man. I'm really hoping hockey can regain traction in countries like France, Poland, Italy and even Japan. Feels like a lot of countries programs are going backwards and only a few emerging countries like Korea are putting any funding in outside the major nations. I remember visiting Grenoble years ago and seeing kids with practice gear which was cool but I've been told by a friend who used to play and coach over there that numbers are way down. Which seems to be sadly common everywhere.
It’s amazing how people seem to forget how massive the United States and Canada truly is. Alaska, California and Texas individually are bigger than almost all countries in Europe. New York City alone has a larger population than Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Norway, Finland and Latvia, NYC overpopulates some of the countries combined.
It’s also unfair to compare viewership of Europe teams and NHL teams. Players in Europe are playing to get drafted by an NHL team or get signed to play in the ECHL/AHL. Most importantly, that population thing I mentioned before. Most of our cities are big enough to make the largest cities in the smaller countries look like a hick town
Well, for players , they might play to get to N.America but for fans it's their team and NHL happens mostly at night.
I don’t think many Americans and Canadians really understand the scale between these two Huge Countries and Western Europe. I myself always thought they were around the same size. Until I visited Western Europe. The USA and Canada are massive.
The good thing about having small markets and thus advertising everywhere is that I can go to the rink with $30, train ticket included - and also beer and food cost at a reasonable price - and thus I can go to see hockey dozens of times in a year, which is not bad since live this sport is 100x better than on TV
Very good breakdown. I hope it reaches some of the people who need to hear it. As a kid me and my da were Ayr Eagles season ticket holders so from a young age I've seen that reality of teams just disappearing because revenue is a difficult thing to maintain. If it had kept the club alive I couldn't have cared who sponsored them. Watching them fold less than ten games into a season made me immeasuarably sad. And thats a team who were at that point 4 years separared from a grand slam and beaiting Ak Barys Kazan in European competition. It's easy to focus in on adverts on the shirts when your own league has no tangible threat till it starts effecting everyone.
Yeah, it gets tiring hearing NHL fans talk about tradition and aesthetics when they have advertising plastered onto everything except their jerseys. They will likely never know how sad it is to completely lose your team and that was kind of the point I was trying to make that most of us would take the ugliest sponsor and jersey if it kept our teams on the ice. It's especially devastating in the UK or Romania for instance when the community is so small and tight-knit and only held together by that club.
@@Outpost-13-Hockeyyou did a cracking job of making the point. And if I could just say as well the sheer work that must've been done getting all your B roll here, showing Fife, Glasgow, Sheffield, it shows that it's a proper labour of love. Subbed. Can't wait to see more when you get the chance.
Another thing is that you can watch hockey for free on our national tv station and they also stream it online (for free). Plus much less ads during power breaks, this is what drives me insane about NHL, constant ads and less time for game review.
I'm a Canadian born in Scotland and now back in Scotland. I've been a Dundee Stars supporter for a long time and was a Dundee Rockets fan back in the day. The explanation of the why and how for ads on the jerseys (and pants) was really good and clear. I know most from North America don't like the ads, but your clear laying out of why the ads are necessary was exactly right. It is better to have the ad on the jersey than lose the club, especially with market size and no real revenue sharing. Adding in that it is still a niche sport with passionate fans actually shows how significant an issue the need to keep clubs afloat actually is. Sorry for droning on, but this is a good video and hits all the marks.
As a Canadian i didn't understand why so much advertisement on european jersey before i've talked with a friend who played in Switzerland and Chekia and couple game in Germany and make totally sense cause it's not all league the owner is a Rich guy or a Buiseness ! but since couple of years in Semi-Pro league in Canada you see more teams been sponsorised and put advertisement of their sponsors in their jersey :) Thanks for the video :)
Chekia is a violation, that's like writing Keneda
Great video. I still think that many ads on a jersey is ugly but your explanation on how the ads are there for existential reasons was great.
Also, Don who?
For those that are used to a "blank" jersey the European jerseys might seem ugly but to those who are used to the adverts on jerseys they are good looking, I personally love my teams jersey, the ads make it more recognisable, The team I'm loyal to is the one and only, best and most traditional team in FInland Helsingin IFK
What I find distracting in the NHL are the constantly changing sideboards with ads, sometimes animated too. There's still a couple arenas with the old fashioned ads along the boards but I can still remember when there were none at all.
As a kid my two favourite hockey players were Bobby Hull and Guy LaFleur, they were both endorsed by Bauer, it was printed on all their gear, skates and sticks, they did tv and radio ads for Bauer so that's the gear I used.
At new Nokia arena in tampere they have LEDs on boards to show ads
I got the basic idea for a long time now that hockey isn't the big dog in Europe and economic realities meant the jersey ads were needed, so I never really ragged on European leagues for having them. Now that the NHL is embracing them I know even more not to throw stones. It pisses me off how much the NHL and the sport of hockey has been poorly managed by all parties that we are where we are, with the NHL having to resort to jersey ads and the sport not being more accessible for kids to get into. To me, the future of the NHL and the sport of hockey is looking very bleak.
Add total disregard for the national team tournaments on the list. Such an amazing marketing opportunity and dropped ball by NHL in recent decades. They hurt the sport so much by this, especially in Europe. Even Hašek or Jágr wouldn't be quite such legends in home country without fans here actually WATCHING them play for which national team offered unique opportunity. That's what brings kids to sport and even convinces politicians to put money in it. Now Pasta scored GWG in Worlds final today = legendary status. Not that many care or know of his game 7 OT goal here. Everyone and their dog heard about this seconds after it happened. They even destroyed continuity of Olympics since some are and some aren't best on best tourneys.
Great Video. also to add Liiga seems to be adding proper Relegation/Promotion to the league next season where the worst team from liiga faces the champion of mestis (the league below liiga) in a best of 7 series and if the winner of that series has everything needed for the license they would promote and the loser would fall to mestis but if they don't then they can't get to liiga
Very true on the accessibility of soccer, same thing applies to basketball. The reason I started getting into hockey was because my school has a decent NCAA program. Though my NHL home team is gone now.
Honestly I prefer seeing numerous ads on European jerseys compared to the ones found on NHL teams now, mostly due to how with niche the sport is here it makes alot of sense for them to be on the jerseys because they desperately need revenue while I feel that the NHL is doing it because they want to squeeze in more money despite them working fine without them for decades now.
Great video btw it's very informative and well edited 👍 are you a fan of any UK hockey team by any chance? I'm a fan of both the Nottingham panthers and Manchester Storm, such fun clubs.
Great video, so happy that there was a photo of my team
Ha, cool. Who's your team? I was trying to cast a wide net across the big and small teams.
Maybe this is because I’m American but you get to a point in life where you just tune out all the interrupting ads and focus on the game. So when I see jerseys with ads on them (at a national level) it just feels greedy (especially as a casual collector). Small clubs need money; and although the jerseys are hard to look at at times, that doesn’t bring down the quality of the sport.
Economics is king, of course, but thank you for pointing out that there are other elements.
The NHL has never been more about big business, it's never been as rich or stable as it is today... yet there was no advertising on jerseys until the last few years. Hell, before TV deals and merchandise, in the 40's and 50's, NHL teams had to make due with whatever revenue stream they could find. Yet, uniforms remained ad-free, and so did the ice and boards.
Ugly sponsor jerseys are a choice, they aren't inevitable.
I absolutely loved that video. As someone who was affected by the Hamburg Freezers bankruptcy not as a Freezers Fan but as an Eisbären Berlin Fan who competed against Hamburg in who could keep their Team I have zero issues with Ads on the Jersey. In fact I even like the jerseys more. Compare NHL 13 with NHL 23 and tell me which European jerseys look better. Even if your team is sponsored by a bigger company more often than not the company takes pride in it. Like our main sponsor from the Eisbären is the gas provider Gasag and they are the main sponsor for decades. Next year they will be the main sponsor for 30 years as far as I know. The sponsorship list doesn’t appear to end when they show them on the LED strips across the Arena but it‘s people like Family Müller who are a lawyer and a doctor and visit each game that they can because they love the club and then you think about it and be like „well those guys being able to afford that little bit of extra for the club you support means the club can pay the Zamboni driver or maybe a half time competition or something. Sponsors really care about the team. Not it winning but really the welfare of the club. Clearly that’s not all but the ones that stay do. And no Fan minds that. But going to 2 games between NHL and German Teams what the Fans do care about is the exorbitant prices for concessions, tickets and the sheer never ending stream of breaks and commercials during the game. I rather pay 80€ for a jersey littered with Ads and 20€ for a ticket plus 4€ for a beer than 80€ for a 3 hour Ad Break with some Hockey in between.
I grew up watching hockey in Minnesota, especially college, since I grew up in St. Cloud and attended UMD. I studied in Sweden in the spring of 2005 and became a big fan of the Växjö Lakers, then in the second level HockeyAllsvenskan and featured UMD alum Shjon Podein that season. I learned a couple things that spring, 1. Promotion/Relegation takes place in many sports, not just Association Football, 2. Supporters clubs, tifos, singing and everything else that American really only associate with Association Football happens in all the other sports too. The Laker Lackeys were a lot of fun to stand amongst, I learned some of their songs and participated in a couple of tifos. European atmospheres for all sports are >>> than American professional sports and, on average, > American college sports as well. I wish other leagues besides MLS would pick up on that, it makes the games much more fun in-person. I still follow the Lakers to this day and they were promoted to the SHL in 2011 and have since won the Swedish Championship 4 times! Heya heya heya Lakers, VLH alla em bästa!
Great breakdown of this topic! One question I’ve always tried to find the answer to is why does junior hockey thrive in North America? Specifically the USHL and CHL leagues. My local USHL team has an average attendance approximately the same as many European pro leagues. They have zero televised games so no media deals, their jerseys have zero ads, and the ice isn’t full of ads either.
Now I know that not technically paying the players plays a part in this but I don’t feel like that alone is enough to make the whole difference. I don’t know about the CHL leagues, but in the USHL, the team covers practically every expense for their players. The local billet families also get a pretty hefty stipend for hosting players.
Maybe this is enough to avoid the onslaught of ads, but if anyone knows the answer I’d be interested to know.
Not paying the players. Most of these teams have streaming services and the rinks are municipally owned and loaned to the USHL/NAHL/NAHL3 team and as such all the money at the gate goes to the municipality that then subsidises the team. Juniors is also a great way for a millionaire to get a team without the bs of trying to own 10% of an NHL team.
What’s crazy is despite these economic realities, ticket prices are quite affordable in European hockey
Recently in Finland atleast they have started to integrate those ads better to jerseys
I'll tie two points into one, one that agrees with a point you made, and one that maybe serves as a bit of a counter-point to your premise. An anecdote. Some friends and I were discussing a few years back the prospect of advertising on NHL uniforms.
"Never! Nobody wants those gaudy European jerseys."
"Ah," I chimed in "I agree that nobody wants the gaudy aspect. So what if we just get ads that aren't gaudy?"
"No way! Those jerseys are sacred!"
"So," I continued "of the following corporate advertisements, which one is the sacred one? The one for Warrior Sports on the stick? The one for Reebok on the jersey? The one for CCM on the gloves?"
"But that's just the company that makes the gloves!"
"Yes," I added "and do you think they stamp it on there too avoid besmirching the name of Nike? Or is that so when you see your favorite player wearing CCM gloves you go buy CCM gloves?"
After several back and forths my friends conceded, there had, indeed, been corporate advertisements on these players all along. They just didn't notice them because by design they blended in so well.
'
And that's where I perhaps offer a counter-point. I don't blame any hockey club, from the NHL to the Euro leagues, for trying to squeeze a few more bucks of revenue in wherever they can. I blame the laziness of how they integrate it into the jersey. Imagine if instead of some big ugly blocky patch they brought in a couple graphic designers who figured out how to keep the logos, but incorporated them in a way that enhanced the aesthetic of the jersey? Or at least just blended in better. You highlighted the Priority 1 Red Wings patch in your video. Would it surprise you to learn that as someone who watches every Red Wings game (yes, even those God awful pandemic season ones) I didn't even know that patch was on there until I read about it on Twitter? I think that's a great example of how to add a patch to a jersey they keeps with the beauty of the design but gets some ad revenue for its inclusion back into the team coffers.
I mean, the main reason I highlighted Priority, was that after the Red Wings put that patch on there, the team started to tank which became a bit of a meme.
I find it odd that fans are bothered about jersey ads, when they watch their team in a stadium that could have had an iconic name... if it weren't for the corporate sponsorship... or the 7 minutes of every period reserved for advertisers powerbreaks.
I've always liked the Euro Jerseys, I mean my other love is speedway and that's another sport totally dependent on advertising - and the bikes and race suits are covered in adverts, so maybe that's why it doesn't bother me. It just gives them character. I've watched a lot of quite low level hockey - be it the British Elite League, the NIHL or the Oberliga. It's just the price of doing business, but also in the case of small sponsors advertising to fans (Priority are advertising to the Red Wings corporate ticketholders, not the regular fan), like a local taxi service... do they want to pay for a patch that blends in so well it's basically invisible? I mean there's an argument if there are loads of sponsors it eventually becomes visual noise. I work on ships where there are hundreds of emergency signs and you eventually just stop seeing them. So it's possible covering jersey's simply means your advert becomes invisible anyway.
I think its a true testament of british/european hockey that Fife Flyers have been playing hockey since 1938 and still going strong! Theyre not world beaters by any means but I love their history and heritage.
Most teams in Sweden have started to incorporate the sponsors logos into the jerseys better by making the logos in the teams colors rather than the company's.
Hockey for kids is a money pit for parents. I went to hockey camp for 6 seasons, in 1980 I started taking goalie camp which is more expensive than regular hockey camp for some unknown reasons, it cost something like $1,500 for a 12 day course or $125 a day, it was sorta like summer camp but cost more than twice as much for half the time, Camp Little Big Water cost $1,100 for 3 weeks, or roughly $50 a day. Soccer camps cost maybe $100 per kid for a week and might cost the parents $1,000 over an entire season if their kid gets on a team. My goalie sticks cost around $75-$80 each (the old wood ones, I had to use a blowtorch to curve the blade) and I went through a dozen a season.
I mean, as an American, and one who is still pissed about the moving board ads the nhl recently added because they constantly distract me from actually watching the game, you get used to jersey ads soooo quickly. I watched the nhl for about a season before deciding to see what Europe had to offer, and it really only took one game to get over the ads on jerseys. And then so few ad breaks, and none of the ads are moving around distracting me from the players whose movements are the ones i want to be watching, European hockey is actually a lot more pleasant to watch. The jerseys are fine. Some of the jersey ads are fun or even funny. It was fascinating watching a game where the crowd was just chanting and singing the entire time.
I dunno, i didn't grow up watching sports with ads all over the uniforms (i barely watched sports at all), so it isn't something i was used to At All, and it really, really is fine. It's fine! The jersey ads are fine! The "it's ugly, i could never watch hockey with ads on the jerseys, i would stop watching" stuff is incredibly silly to me. Yes, obviously the ideal would be no sports team ever having to have ads on jerseys bc ads as a concept overall suck, but that's not the reality we live in, and in our reality where jersey ads help hockey to keep happening, i will look at as many jersey ads as it takes, because i love watching hockey, and also i cannot stress enough that the jerseys with ads look completely fine.
As an American, I look at this and wonder what if the major cities formed a "European League". Wouldn't that trigger a cycle of long term growth and prestige? For example Prague vs Helsinki or Berlin vs Vienna sounds exciting. Even trying to bring in non traditional markets like London vs Paris. Such massive populations provide huge markets that even a few % interest adds up. We don't constrain the Yankees to play small cities like Albany just because they're in the same state; we let them play against peer cities across the continent.
Europeans generally like the competition of our local rivals. We also like to travel as fans. It's much easier to travel to a team in your own country than one hundreds of miles across the continent. We have the CHL and that brings in Ok numbers, but the KHL tried to be a continental league and see how well Slovan Bratislava and Jokerit were treated for jumping ship. What you are suggesting is a European SuperLeague, and you should see how popular an idea that is in soccer circles.
I don't think Europeans would embrace this the way you think they would. And fans of smaller teams with long histories such as Leksand and Ambri-Piotta would wonder why they're being frozen out if you put the 20 largest arena teams together.. Some of these league have long histories. I know as a fan I would care much less if my team was playing the Slovakian champions rather than my local rivals.
The KHL was actually going this route before Russia became an international pariah. They had teams all over Eastern Europe.
You know what's more disgusting? No replays of shots and penalties because of ad break. And you're not gonna see that in European TV but american one, I would rather have a Skoda logo on my jersey and watch the game without interuptions than being fed 300 ads a game because there is 4 seconds break there
Cool video but i don’t know where you got the fact that the Swiss National Hockey League is the most popular domestic league. That’s definitely not the case, Hockey is viewed as an casual sport to go when you have nothing else to do, its also more affordable than watching a football game. But the Swiss Football league still is so far ahead that most people in Switzerland don’t even know who’s champion in Hockey while we’re all basically forced to know that Bern got champions this year in Football. You almost never see any gravity’s of the ZCS Lions in Zurich while Gravitys of FC Zurich are literally everywhere, you see more people saying they’re fan of their local 2nd or 3rd division club than any hockey team unless you specifically ask them. On Social Media the Swiss Football teams also have way more followers and more consistent likes and comments on their posts than the hockey clubs.
Thanks for the heads up. I wasn't sure and asked google and r/switzerland what was more popular and most tended to suggest the hockey league was more popular domestically while football was more popular broadly. However Googles algorithms are probably skewed by the fact I don't look up football much at all...
@@Outpost-13-Hockeywell the fact is that 40 percent of population in Switzerland are immigrants from non hockey countries, so before this part of population get interested in hockey you need 2 or 3 generation depending also of the region they live in. But still, the Swiss born population is declining while numbers at the arenas are constantly growing despite more and more games played along the season, so some even if not many of the new Swiss are starting to follow the sport
I think you raise completely valid points but your depiction of north american fans and mentalities is a bit one dimensional. We don't universally worship Don Cherry (I certainly don't) and I think the perception of European hockey as "soft" hasn't been a prevalent narrative I can recall outside of cesspits like RUclips comment sections since the late 90s/early 00s, especially with how the game has evolved the last couple decades here. I mean not that a sample size of one means a damn thing but my favourite player of all time is Swedish. While I do absolutely despise the appearance of a jersey covered in ads, I also completely understand why they are there, and understand the irony of complaining about ads when every surface of everything else in the Arena is an ad, including helmets and whatnot. I am not under the illusion that Hockey is unique to Canada, many of us are very aware of waning participation due to the exorbitant cost of hockey... I mean hell, I quit hockey as a teenager because I was a goalie and the equipment cost was getting so out of hand I hated the idea of being a financial burden on my family.
I appreciate the passion but in the midst of some very good points and perspectives you counter lazy generalizations with lazy generalizations of your own. Don't build your perception of a fanbase from RUclips comment sections. I don't believe they are representative.
That's my honest feedback, make of it what you will.
Just leaving a note i work for a Norwegian hockey team called Sparta Sarpsborg i think we have amazing looking jerseys although we have add on them but well place i think except for the helmets that is a bit unfortunate placed ad and since you Are former goalie our goalie equipment looks i think good seen em pop up on differensiert places takling about the looks you should do a quick search and see what you think maybe Ads Are not so bad looking that they ruin it
We might have a bit too many ads on our jerseys, even here in Switzerland, but at least you don't have an adbreak every 5 min.
Edit: just saw your sub count of 100. You are way too good for your size, take this sub.
Great channel. Continue and you will be big!
Its wild im one of the first 200 subscribers to this channel, the production quality is on point.
The Sweaters and the rink both look like a product placement disaster
Great video. The sound was a bit quiet though. I had to crank the volume all the way up to hear.
Hey thanks for the feedback. I'm editing using headphones, and trying to keep around -12db which is what I read... somewhere, but it's obviously giving me a false sense of loudness. I'll make sure to push the sound up a bit next time.
Good piece but I will say, having moved from Ireland (where I've never even heard of an ice hockey game being played) to Canada I think you are vastly underestimating the interest of hockey in Canada. If you look down at the CHL there's a team in just about every Canadian town and city. They usually are run more for passion and often still have amazing attendance and support (the London Knights of the OHL has consistently outcompeted a couple NHL teams in recent years). It doesnt hurt that they're also far more affordable (here in Ottawa a ticket to prime seats in the 67's OHL arena is twice as cheap as the worst seats in the Senators arena). While not on the same amount of money obviously I could see an all Canadian pro league operate fairly comfortably.
How is your channel so small? Great video, stumbled upon it in my recommendations!
I have just one thing that I wanted to mention, and it's that sometimes the video was a little hard to follow when you were speaking about one thing and the subtitles were mentioning another point. It would make it easier to watch if you cleared that up. Nonetheless, I have to subscribe!
I've been a hockey fan since I was 8 or 9 years old going to my local AHL teams games (rip Peoria Rivermen), and played travel hockey as a tendy for a long time. seeing the way the NHL has continually made it harder for fans to watch their games is simultaneously hilarious and depressing. The ever increasing price of the sport too definitely doesn't help viewership either (couldn't even imagine the cost of being a goalie today). I would love to see the league turn it around and start gaining popularity, but unfortunately I don't think it'll happen.
tldr: european hockey clubs aren't owned by billionares like the NHL so hella ads and sponsorships is the only way to keep the teams financed
I think you also missed one key difference.
Advertising money in the US is insane. I'm a photographer that shoots for a US fashion cataloge for 3 months of the year. For that, I get $600k.
In the UK and EU, I can get around $10k, for a weeks work.
An advert on british TV can cost £4k during GMB... One of the most watched morning shows, is £4k to advertise your brand... And the US can charge $100k for the same slot.
Or $12m during the superbowl.
How the hell are our leagues suppost to compete when even if 10% of the advert makes it to the sports team ownership group?
If I said to you Dundee Stars vs Braehead Clan would get them £200 per advert during a game on TV. You'd probably think "the teams will love that!!"
If say Colorado vs the Stars "only" got $5k (and I'm being kind with these numbers) per advert. You'd think something is wrong...
Gonna add a bit more perspective on KHL - jerseys there do have fewer ads on them, but this is mostly because most teams have a big corporate sponsor, usually an oil or gas company. KHL teams are not as financially sustainable as those in EU and hockey also struggles in terms of popularity. Moscow with 12mln+ population has 3 teams and yet they struggle to fill the 7.5-10K seat arenas.
Yeah, it's why I don't tend to think of the KHL as European hockey anymore. Aside from their ban, their game was already increasingly feel... other. As I mentioned in another reply, they're NHL light. Filled with teams bankrolled by oligarchs. And They've also seen plenty of hubris and overstretch causing franchises to implode. Not to mention Kunlun has turned the KHL into a league that straddles continents.
If you're going to have so many sponsorship patches, atleast integrate the logos with the the team colors. That way the players don't look like clowns with every color of the rainbow on them somewhere
Most teams do exactly that tho
Im honest if done right European jerseys with the ads are looking better then the empty nhl jerseys
Always figured that the less jersey sponsors, the more financially stable the league (or team) is, in Australia rugby union jerseys have more sponsors than rugby league, who have more than AFL but only because the AFL plays in singlets. The date at which sponsors were introduced probably makes rugby league fans put up with excessive sponsorships more than they should, but fans seem attached to some former sponsors
"Always figured that the less jersey sponsors, the more financially stable the league (or team) is"
I would not necessarily say that. Some teams have only one big sponsor on their jerseys, which might go well for a certain time.
However, if this huge main sponsor goes bankrupt, cuts back on the sponsorship deal or lets it run out entirely, these teams usually face huge financial troubles.
One recent example of this in Germany are the Blue Devils Weiden who were heavily sponsored by the company Ziegler Group, which has recently gone Bankrupt and has put the club in a very difficult situation with a very unclear future.
So while huge sponsors like that can provide financial stability for a while, the dependency on a single sponsor also comes with a huge risk to the existence of an entire club.
Anyone else find some irony in the fact the Toronto Dominion Bank logo was on the helmets of the Boston Bruins when they eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Watching the CBC feeds I found it funny watching Bruins vs Leafs and then seeing an ad that straight says "Canadian hockey team hasn't won the cup for 30 years, maybe it's time to try something different." and it's an ad for "Boston Pizza"
It's insane that transfer fees barely exist in ice hockey considering the huge money in the NHL. The EU should get involved or something. I mean, if Frölunda received decent money for the players they provide NHL regularly, they could very likely finance a new arena independently and we tax payers in Gothenburg wouldn't have to invest in that.
And the worst logo on a hockey jersey is often the club's own. Calling themselves 'Indians' and 'Redhawks' and other cringy stuff that belong in North America.
*only Blackhawks. Please do find me another racist NHL name.
You are right, transfer fees are a joke. European leagues serve as development leagues for NHL, they spend huge money on developing young players, and then they get 100K dollars or so when their player is drafted. Thats not enough money to cover the cost of salary for a top tier player in fucking czech league, so I guess in other european leagues it will be even worse.
@@AD_RC the Blackhawks are a historic team and the Indian nation supports the team, it’s a healthy relationship and one of the best logos in the nhl
Saying that sponsors look better than a logo is outrageous, and saying names are cringe shows you don’t understand North American sports, wich is alright you don’t need to, but don’t comment on things you don’t know about just making fun of them
@@stingray541mochi2 Chill, I mean they are cringe in our context here. Swedish ice hockey clubs and sports clubs are not named like that traditionally. They started doing that in the 90's when the ice hockey executives lost their plot. It's cultural appropriation really. Malmö Idrottsförening (Malmö Sports Club) started calling themselves Malmö Redhawks and Frölunda from my city added 'Indians' to their name. Needless to say that name was controversial but they kept it until 2022. All this has somewhat alianated the sport from their communities. Ice hockey was more popular than football in Sweden in the 80's but nowadays football is definately the people's sport of choice while ice hockey is more of a tacky, corporate and too expensive for many.
The Maple Leaf Gardens was where the Maple Leafs played... it was named after the team.
When I first watched american sports, I was very surprised to see there is no sponsoring on the jerseys in the home of stupendous capitalism. I was certain the LA Kings would have big McDonalds sponsoring on the jersey.
Even assoc. football has at least one big sponsor on the jersey even for big, financially well doing teams like Madrid or Bayern. After time you come to ignore the sponsoring billboards for a jersey design, like in F1. But yes, the landscape is completely different and the teams have to cope with it (cries in Freezers fan), still, the extreme passion at a european derby is something that's hardly comparable to NA games.
The idea that Europeans are soft has been around for a long time I attribute it to rule differences in North American vs European leagues surrounding fighting and cultural differences in playing style that emphasized more dump and chase in North America which requires playing physical to gain control of the puck rather than skating the puck in which usually requires more finesse to get past defenders
Great content, keep up the great work
4:41 The junior clubs aren't a financial drain, because they help develop players who the team will have the rights to (because there is no draft in European sports) and who can either play for the team or be sold for a hefty transfer fee.
But junior sports in Europe generates very litte cash when under the umbrella pf a larger organisation suxh as Barcelona FC. The Barcelona FC junior hockey program is a drain that mercifully the people behind Barcelona FC are willing to absorb because nobody is really watching U13 Spanish ice hockey. Yeah, it's great that thry get to keep the kids they trained but ultimately for what? Even the senior Barcelona hockey team earns what... 0.001% of the income of the football team?
@Outpost-13-Hockey for Barcelona FC it may not be as important because of its near-infinite transfer budget, but for smaller teams with smaller budgets the only way to get a star player is to grow one through the academy system.
Nhl have ads on the ice now, two powerbreaks, brand sponsored slow motion replays, ads on the tv broadcast scoreboard.
Moving and flashing ads on the boards themselves.
No too long until the first teams have larger ads on the jerseys
*three powerbreaks. And don't forget ad reads during regular stoppages of play.
I am sure the jerseys are nice in most cases but the financial realities of the various leagues force teams to take on as much advertising as possible just to pay the bills.
That's true, but there are definitely teams who do ads on jerseys better than other teams.
It's not just about how many ads a club has to put on their jerseys, but also about where to place them and some clubs do a really good job placing even a large number of ads in such a way that it doesn't completely ruin the look of the jersey, while other clubs just seem like they don't care at all and just put them wherever it fits.
I think that some teams already have the ads in their minds when they design their jersey and base the design around the ads to end up with a decent looking overall jersey, while others seem to design their jersey without any ads in mind and then just place them randomly all over it.
Yeah the jerseys are super ugly, I get they need to and according to Europeans in the comments it’s balanced because there’s not as many commercial breaks and sponsors for things like shot of the period or intermissions, but damn id rather have commercial breaks to have time to get a drink or use the bathroom or digest the game or hear a game say some tagline real quick. than have the players wear the most ugly, eye assaulting, distracting jerseys of all time. The jerseys are just 95% ads so none of them are recognizable and they all look terrible. I think NHL or any American sport jersey I think of iconic logos like the Yankees, lakers, red wings, and packers. European even soccer I just think ads
European ice hockey teams will always be littered with ads because those are governen local teams
As a Swede, I’m fully aware of why there are so many ads on the jerseys. However, many european teams still have horribly ugly jerseys even without the ads. And not to mention the club logos. It feels like many clubs have a logo that were drawn 50-60 years ago by someone’s kid and then they stick with it. I mean, at least re-design them into properly executed logos and not go with the hand-drawn non-symmetric crap.
Heritage? I mean why not stick with it? So many European soccer clubs have recently redesigned their logos to be more marketable and they're spectacularly dull.
It makes sense. Their fan base is smaller so they need to max money. I get it
Great to hear a European perspective! Hope to one day go to a game in Europe and feel the unreal atmosphere of a hockey game with that much passion.
After starting to see European sports in college, I’m surprised it has taken American sports until now to put sponsors on the uniforms. They’re everywhere else
i don't see how a team can draw 100% of their market to the games but still need ads on the jerseys. I would assume if you're able to sell out the arena you should be making money from that
I do agree with the ads supporting the team, but I also think they could make them blend into the jersey a bit more. For example. The IDBO logo; put it on the jersey or the socks, and get rid of the white square around it
7:54 Euro hockey needs something like the NPB-MLB Posting System,,wherean MLB club pays X amount of many to a players Parent NPB club ,just to be able to get the rights to talk to him.
At least we don't have power breaks. I much prefer ads on jerseys over power breaks
I’ve watched the SM Liiga for years, and I must say, I’ve forgotten the ads completely, but overall they look worse with them
Rip Hamburg Freezers 💙🤍😢
Hello, im From germany and a big fan of the Straubing Tigers. I`ve been to two NHL Games and I think that the speaker saying „The gole have been presented by ….“ or other cals like that is way more anoying than Sponsorship on the Jersys. Just my Opinion
the betman is the problem with the nhl. he came from the nba and its been his goal to keep the nhl under the nba.
I dont like the way we do ads, they should match the teams colours to allow the teams to maintain their identity more easily, both in Europe and NHL. Like the Bruins stickers are out of place but the ones on the capitals helmets are almost unnoticeable.
I also feel like cherry is a man of the era and he gave alot to the game over many years and later on just remained stuck in the early 2000s mentality. Hes a legend but parts of the game have moved on
The NHL is forever going to be the 4th to even 6th/7th sports (depending on location and time of year) viewing option for Americans to watch. NHL viewers are going to have Ads everywhere like it or not.
I'd rather have sponsors on the shirts than mid period brakes to show beer commercials or what not. I already hate the one brake per period we have in my league now.
Its kills me knowing the Red Wings have a actual trash company logo on their jersey
Feels like the NHL do a better job at marketing to Europe than the NBA, I watch hockey and basketball games in the mid-morning in Australia but I notice afternoon US time (prime time EU time) hockey games are a lot more common than NBA games
i didn't know the Hamburg Freezers went bust, i thought they just got relegated.
And Japanese baseball teams are generally know for their sponsor and not the city they play in .
Capitalism is the voluntary exchange of goods and services. People mentioning money plus something else doesn't automatically equal capitalism.
Why is every other NHL hockey jersey either white or blue?
White is the primary away game colour. Even teams who doesn't feature white in their logos wear primary white jerseys on the road.
@@Mad_Matt42 NHL need more creativity for their jerseys.
Perhaps it's because I grew up around the busier NARCh-style inline roller hockey jerseys, but I've thought the SHL jerseys looked fantastic for as long as I can remember
European hockey is as popular in their respective countries as soccer is in the United States, people didn’t grow up with it, it’s not in the fabric of society as other sports like soccer in Europe and American football in the US
That is definitely not the case in all european countries. Here in Czechia ice hockey is much more popular than football (soccer) and it’s not even close.