NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly believes expansion to Europe will happen
After comments made by NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, it sounds that it is only a matter of time before the NHL expands to Europe.
“I think it would be a real positive statement to create the first really trans-ocean league,” Fehr said to David Shoalts of The Globe and Mail on Monday. “I think it would be an extraordinary achievement for everybody. Whether it will happen in my tenure remains to be seen, but hopefully sooner or later.”
While Fehr, who speaks personally and not on behalf of the Players’ Association, wants what seems to be an inevitable expansion to happen sooner rather than later, Daly doesn’t see the growth of the league overseas as something that will happen anytime in the near future.
“Do I see it happening someday? Yes,” Daly said Thursday on TSN 1050’s Leafs Lunch. “Do I see it happening in the short term? Probably not.”
However, Daly is intrigued by the success the league has already had in Europe.
“Our international fan-base is really growing because of our [television] rights-holders in Europe and how much NHL hockey is being consumed there,” Daly noted. “It’s been enormously successful a month and a half into the season. Television and the ability to translate your game to new audiences is very, very important.”
Issues that the league is looking to sort with expansion are travel, appropriate ticket pricing, NHL-capacity venues, and negotiating with hockey teams operating in destination markets. However, the league doesn’t view any of these concerns to be deal breakers.
“Those are short-term barriers and we’ll see if they can change in the long-term,” Daly explained. “I think we have a very good relationship with all the European leagues. When we bring games over there, we do it in concert with the existing leagues and federations.”
The NHL’s deputy commissioner also remarked that global participation is peaking and that this move would be met by a lot of interest.
“The number of players from outside Canada that are coming into our league now has never been higher. There’s a lot of good hockey players out there,” he said. “I think there would be sufficient interest and capital in European markets to support ownership.”
As part of the NHL’s 2018 Global Series, the league hosted five games in Europe this season. This marked the second straight year of the organization’s Global Series, which expanded on the two games which took place in Europe in 2017.
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