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With the 2025 Stanley Cup Final underway between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers, the league has something else to celebrate. NHL teams generated a record $1.53 billion in sponsorship revenue, up 9% from $1.4 billion last season and up nearly 20% from the 2022-23 season, according to sports marketing research firm SponsorUnited.
The company’s data does not include league-wide deals in its reports, but the NHL holds its own compared to other pro sports leagues, including the NFL ($2.49 billion), Formula 1 ($2.04 billion), MLB ($1.90 billion) and the NBA ($1.62 billion). It has a sizable lead over MLS’s $670 million. The average NHL team’s sponsorship contract goes for $529,000, a total slightly larger than MLB’s average of $520,000.
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Each NHL team on average holds about 91 sponsorships, with deal volume up 7% since the 2022-23 season. Such deals include board signage along the ice, naming rights for premium hospitality areas and Zamboni branding.
By SponsorUnited’s count, the Nashville Predators lead the league with 141 deals, with ten teams in total having over 100 agreements. The Oilers—who leveled out the Stanley Cup Final at 2-2 after a historic comeback capped by Leon Draisaitl’s overtime goal in Thursday’s Game 4—rank fourth among all teams with 119.
A major area of revenue generation comes from jersey/sweater and helmet patches. Jersey patch deals, according to the report, range from $3.4 million-$4.2 million per season, generally lower price points versus those from the NBA, MLB or MLS.
Deals for helmet decals run between $900,000 and $1.2 million. Among the most notable helmet agreements in 2024-25 were the Toronto Maple Leafs pairing up with Mondelez’s Oreos brand, the New York Islanders linking with AI-focused tech company Viam and the Philadelphia Flyers connecting with Chevy dealerships in their market. Those three brands are among the 500 new sponsors the NHL picked up in 2024-25,
The Flyers’ deal helped the auto sector pull in an additional $8.5 million in sponsorship spend (an 8% increase year-over-year) as the category remained the third-biggest sector for the league. By far, financial firms led the way with an additional $19 million spend (+8%), led by three deals for the Utah Mammoth and the Colorado Avalanche’s jersey patch deal with IMA Financial Group. Business services had the most growth of all categories at 18%, accounting for $17 million in new money.
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