The NHL putting ads on helmets is unfortunately necessary for revenue

In a season where the NHL will be bleeding money at unprecedented levels, the approval of helmet ads is unfortunately a necessary step to get some of that money back.

It’s been a brutal nine months for the NHL ever since the 2019-20 season was paused in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic that swept across North America. All teams across the league have been losing money like crazy due to no gate coming in, and the effects have been well documented as layoffs continue to happen across the league and the salary cap stays flat.

With no fans coming in for at least the beginning of the 2021 NHL season that’s coming up in less than a month, the NHL needs at least some way to bring way revenue in to support their franchises.

In a report by Sports Business Daily, the NHL Board of Governors could approve helmet advertisements as soon as Thursday. If approved, the sponsors would be located on both sides of a player’s helmet and only one brand would be allowed at a time on the helmet. The size of the advertisements is still unclear at this point in time.

Helmet sponsors are ugly, but a necessary evil

All teams will likely have the option of having one sponsor for home games and another for away games, but they won’t be able to swap between sponsors once the season eventually gets underway.

As much as we all hate the idea of players being plastered with ads every time they step on the ice, the helmet ads at bare minimum are a necessary compromise to help franchises stop the financial bleeding

It should go without saying that this is also a very dangerous slippery slope for the NHL to be embarking on. Helmet advertisements are one thing, they’re barely noticeable and can easily be ignored. The second these advertisements start to leak onto the jerseys, we have a problem. We don’t need NHL players to start looking like a NASCAR every time they’re on the ice.