When the prospective owners of the Phoenix Coyotes recruited investors earlier this year, this was part of their pitch: We’re not buying the team. We’re buying 1/30th of the National Hockey League.

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The NHL had just gone through another lockout. But now it had a new labor agreement that reduced the players’ share of hockey-related revenue from 57 percent to 50 percent, at a time when league revenues were poised to pop.

Total HRR had grown from $2.2 billion to $3.3 billion in the seven years between lockouts. The league expected to generate $1 billion more in national revenue over the next three years, with things like outdoor games and, oh, let’s see, a new Canadian TV contract. The owners would split that 30 ways.

“I like to say that the NHL is where the NFL was 20 years ago,” said Anthony LeBlanc, the Coyotes’ president and CEO, in an interview last month. “If you see what is driving television advertising these days, it’s sports. It’s 100-percent sports. It’s the only thing that is DVR-proof. It really is. That’s how television networks make their money, and look at what they’re paying the NFL. The NFL, every team is profitable.

“Are we going to be a $4 billion-a-year league in regards to television? Certainly not in the near future. But Canada, that could be a good deal.”

It turned out to be a record deal. The NHL announced Tuesday it had sold its national Canadian rights across all platforms to Rogers for 12 years for $5.232 billion Canadian – or $4.97 billion U.S. using the current exchange rate. Content is king, especially content that sells cable subscriptions and attracts live viewers, and Rogers president Nadir Mohamed said to his customers “hockey is the holy grail.”



[Related: Winners & Losers in NHL's 12-year pact with Rogers]





In Canada, the media landscape has been turned upside down. There is concern about TSN being shut out and how this will affect Don Cherry. CBC is keeping “Hockey Night in Canada,” a longtime tradition, at least for four more years. But while CBC is paying nothing to Rogers, it is losing control over the content, talent, sales and revenue. It is receiving nothing in return but promotion and prestige.

In Canada, there is anticipation, too, that the strength of the Canadian dollar, the strength of the Canadian economy and the demand for the NHL product above the border will lead to another Canadian NHL franchise, even as commissioner Gary Bettman insists the league is not considering a “formal” expansion process “in the short term.”

Not long ago, there were six Canadian franchises. At least four were in trouble because of a weak Canadian dollar and high taxes. Now there are seven Canadian franchises, and they are an economic engine – all ranked among the top 16 teams in value according to Forbes. While the NHL generates $200 million a year from its American national TV contract with NBC, it will generate an average of $414 million U.S. a year from Rogers using the current exchange rate. It’s as if the Canadian assistance plan has become the American assistance plan, and it’s much bigger.

But that is the significance of this deal across the NHL – that it fits into the larger economic plan and strengthens the league from top to bottom. Two governors of American teams said Tuesday they were thrilled, though they could not comment publicly because the board still has to approve the deal Dec. 9-10 at its meeting in Pebble Beach, Calif.

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