GARRIOCH: NHL teams will be cashing in by selling ad space on their jerseys

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Money talks.

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The Montreal Canadiens started this week by announcing early Monday morning that they’ve signed a multi-year agreement with RBC that will see the players wear the logo on their iconic jerseys at the Bell Center during the 2022-23 campaign.

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Why did the Habs opt to go this route?

League sources told Postmedia that teams could be demanding between $4-to-$10 million per season to wear a logo, depending on the size of the market. After wearing stickers on helmets the last two years to help recover lost revenues during COVID-19, this was a natural next step.

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While initially there was some outrage on social media over the decision by one of the NHL’s Original Six teams to sell ad space, it was nearly forgotten within the hour after the Habs announced Nick Suzuki had been named the 31st captain in franchise history.

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That was a piece of brilliant media management by the Habs’ public relations department, but there will be a reminder the RBC logo is there every time a player pulls on the ‘CH’ at home — and Montreal won’t be the only NHL team. to cash in on the brand.

Really, there’s nothing offensive about it, especially when it comes to dollars and sense. If the money from the logo helps to pay the salary of a player or two on the roster, then fans should want their teams to do it.

“I may be old fashioned but (this) hurt my logo today,” former Montreal defenseman Enricco Ciccone, an MNA for Marquette in the Quebec National Assembly, tweeted Monday.

The reality is, people should have prepared themselves for this because ads on the jersey were going to happen sooner or later. We’ve already seen across the country with the eight Canadian Football League teams wearing logos, so this isn’t exactly new.

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“I don’t have an issue with it,” said TSN color analyst Dave Poulin, a former assistant GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs and captain of the Philadelphia Flyers, Wednesday. “I also don’t have an issue with an increased (salary) cap and people signing their own superstars.

“This piece is just another revenue stream and we all know how competitive it is for advertising revenues right now. I don’t have a problem with it. I love the purity of (the logo) but I have too good of an understanding of the importance of revenues after being in the front office with the Leafs for five years.”

The NHL’s board of governors decided to give the blessing to this move last winter because they saw how much the decision meant financially. The space hasn’t been as easy to sell as you might think, and not every team will have a logo on its jersey when the puck drops next month.

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This is an expensive space and this isn’t something that a small company can get involved with so finding a buyer hasn’t been easy. Teams in Canada, for example, already have deals with big companies like Bell Canada, Rogers Communications or brewers like Molson and Labatt’s.

Scotiabank has already invested money with the Leafs by buying the naming rights to the club’s home arena. There’s talk that just over 50 percent of NHL teams have actually been able to get a sponsor for jerseys, and this has turned out to be a little more work than maybe league officials expected.

Nobody is sure what the Habs will be getting in terms of cash for wearing the RBC logo but it’s safe to say it’s in the millions. There’s a charity element because for every jersey sold with the RBC logo this season, $20 will be contributed to the club’s children’s foundation.

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“We are proud to partner with such an iconic brand as RBC,” said France Margaret Belanger, the Habs’ president of sports and entertainment. “There are very few organizations, which, like our own, have a heritage that dates over a century and a legacy of making a difference in the lives of those across generations.”

One result people don’t want to see is NHL teams looking like those in Europe.

Turn on the Spengler Cup during the holiday season, and the four teams that participate in the tourney in Davos, Switzerland are covered in ads from head-to-toe. Ad space has even been sold to the on-ice officials because it’s another opportunity to put more money in the coffers.

Poulin told a funny story about suiting up for Rogle BK in Sweden for a year after leaving Notre Dame University in 1982.

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“I played in Europe in the early 1980s and we had logos everywhere,” said Poulin. “In fact, we signed a contract with a floral company. Our pants, socks, jerseys, helmets and shoulders all had different logos.

“When we signed with this flower company, they literally put the petals of a flower on each (butt) cheek on our pants.”

Hopefully that day never comes, but as Poulin noted the door has been opened.

“Once you go down that road and people get used to the one logo… Who’s going to say, ‘You can’t do this and you can’t do that?'” said Poulin. “I don’t want to see it but I have no issue with the one logo.”

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Twitter: @sungarrioch