The Los Angeles Kings and Arizona Coyotes have two preseason games in Australia this month, and the National Hockey League (NHL) is looking to expand its overseas presence even further in the coming years.
Ahead of the meetings, which will take place on September 23-24 at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, the project can already be described as a success, with the response from the local public having been “strong,” according to the NHL Deputy Commissioner , Bill Daly. We can therefore expect two full houses when the Kings and the Coyotes play in the den of the Australian Open tennis tournament.
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The league therefore intends to use this enthusiasm to potentially organize more games outside of Canada and the United States. Since 2007, she has visited several countries including Germany, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden; From November 16th to 19th, four clubs will be visiting Stockholm, including the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators.
“I’m not going to discard country names now, but there are other markets that we haven’t sent teams to yet and that represents a unique opportunity that we’re looking at,” Daly told NHL.com. As with every business decision we make, as a league we need to be creative and have a little focus on change.
In progress
And here the presentation of future games in distant countries as part of the regular calendar could become more common.
“At one time, all international games were held during the exhibition phase. Due to our progress and popularity, we have revised this model. I believe this will continue to be the case and over time we have seen other seasonal games in European markets. I think we need to be flexible in adapting our strategies to demand in order to grow our brand,” the manager said.