In many ways, the NHL has a good story to tell. Midway through the Stanley Cup Final in June, the NHL announced that its regular season attendance had increased. set a record in 2023-24, reaching 97% of its capacity over the year (or around 22.5 million people). The league’s revenue last season was approximately $6.2 billion, also a new peak. And the final between Edmonton and Florida is over good tv numbersespecially in Canada. Arizona lost its team, but Utah immediately enthusiastically adopted them. During the summer, the salary cap went up and the unveiling of the new Fanatics jerseys went well. Even the fact that participation increase Participation in the NHLPA’s Player Assistance Program, which provides help for addiction and mental health issues, was welcome news, suggesting that the stigma around admitting vulnerability is starting to fade. fade away.
Financial growth, audience growth, salary growth and emotional growth. Is there any sort of growth for the NHL?
As the 2024-25 regular season begins Friday with a game between the Buffalo Sabers and the New Jersey Devils in Prague, Amazon will launch Faceoff: Inside the NHL, a six-part series on Prime Video, created by Box to Box, the same production company behind the hit Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive. The NHL series, filmed throughout the 2023-24 season, is in the same vein, a unique look at the biggest names in sport, on and off the ice. “This generation of NHL superstars are modern-day gladiators like we’ve never seen before, with big personalities and even bigger playmakers, and we have the perfect partners to capture that energy for a series unprecedented sports documentary,” said NHL Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer. said in spring.
Indeed, expectations are high for Faceoff. The official trailer, released at the end of September, has already confirmed some speculations. It features a viral clip from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ first-round loss to the Bruins, when William Nylander, sitting next to Mitch Marner on the bench, told his teammate to “stop crying, bro,” as Marner threw down his gloves in frustration. . The clip itself appeared immediately after the game and, like Marner’s status with the Leafs, was the subject of intense and often petty discussion throughout the summer – including speculation about what Nylander has actually said. “OH MY GOD THEY ACTUALLY GOT IT,” one X user posted with joy alongside the Amazon trailer clip, confirming all the previous lip readings. Are we not amused?
Of course, but these viral moments are double-edged. In a league full of players who tweet, chat, vent, and celebrate with equal intensity (not to mention endless gameplay highlights), more viral moments like these will come easily – just keep it all the world on the microphone, the drama is already there. there for the taking. And like any modern business focused on growth, it’s no surprise that the NHL, as it seeks to expand its audience and revenue, is turning to shareable content to do so, especially that which is rooted in on individual athletes‘travels. But getting that attention comes at a price, likely paid first by these players, as they become characters rather than people.
As soon as the clip of Nylander and Marner reappeared in the Faceoff trailer, the same questions that swirled in the spring returned to Marner, and his so-called “beef» with his teammates reappeared as a topic of discussion. But what did this candid moment reveal? Was it anything more than a brief argument between teammates during a close and frustrating playoff game? As much as the soul of Faceoff, like Drive to Survive, lies in reality television, it will inevitably be shaped by the logic of social media. This is surely part of its appeal to the NHL, which, like F1, seeks an ever-growing fan base. But social media, a hyper-individualized space where truth is measured in terms of engagement rather than honesty, distorts reality in a way that will inevitably force the NHL to think about the value of its market.
What happens to your sport when social media clips become the truth? This summer, at the Copa América, the outspoken Uruguayan coach Marcelo Bielsa thoughtful the impact of the sport’s insatiable search for attention. “Football has more and more spectators but it is becoming less and less attractive. Football is not just five minutes of highlights… it’s a cultural expression, it’s a means of identification,” Bielsa lamented. “I think we should all ignore this scenario that they are offering us, where the controversy, the accusation, the determination of the culprit, becomes an obsession that worsens the atmosphere in which football should be played.”
There’s a trade-off looming somewhere for the NHL, at some point on the line graph where the increase in its subscriber count intersects with the decrease in the number of people who will actually watch, and therefore understand, a game. – in other words, this is the moment where the content becomes the sport, not the other way around. All sports struggle to find the balance between the game and the business of the game, and the NHL is no different. But continued growth always means culture change. We will see if the NHL and the rest of the hockey world are better prepared for this change than football or F1.
Pulling back the curtain is fun, but it inevitably distorts the perspective inside and outside the game. And it’s the players who must deal with the consequences of the narrative that builds around them at the speed of a social posting. “I think you have to understand that part of the show is that they can contextualize it as much as they want. It’s interesting how they shared it,” said Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid. told reporters when asked about his own viral moment sparked by the Faceoff trailer (in which he yells at his teammates in the locker room). “They obviously have to create a story.” As for Marner, he said he “probably won’t watch” the Amazon series. Which seems both a shame and a good idea.
