Ice hockey: back from the b-rink?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ice hockey was hit hard by the pandemic, with empty arenas and financial losses threatening the sport's future. Now in 2025, North America's National Hockey League (NHL) has come roaring back.
We'll look at that journey and how the sport is about to enjoy a record-breaking season with predicted revenues of $6.6bn.
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Presenter: Sam Gruet Producer: Megan Lawton
(Anton Lundell of the Florida Panthers scores a goal against Joseph Woll of the Toronto Maple Leafs during the first period of Game Seven of the Second Round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Scotiabank Arena on May 18, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily. Coming to you today from the ice. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm Sam Bruet and if you're not familiar with ice hockey, it might surprise you we're talking about it today in June. |
| 0:17.6 | But with the sport's biggest prize, the Stanley Cup in full swing, |
| 0:21.8 | hockey has been booming across North America and the world, |
| 0:25.6 | with revenues in the National Hockey League predicted to exceed $6.6 billion US dollars for this season. |
| 0:32.1 | The record viewership numbers they're seeing, the excitement around the game, |
| 0:35.7 | the new marketing deals, the attendance figures. |
| 0:37.7 | To go, Dallas, we'll send it up the ice, and that'll do it in game seven. |
| 0:42.5 | But the success has followed one of the most difficult times in the league's history. |
| 0:47.0 | Every one of our revenue sources dried up. No ticketing revenue, no food and beverage revenue. |
| 0:53.1 | Today, we're going behind the scenes of one of North |
| 0:56.8 | America's most iconic sports, meeting the new fans. Definitely with the women's league coming |
| 1:03.4 | up, I've definitely started getting more into like the men's league because of that. |
| 1:06.8 | Driving record revenues. Being able to bring to an advertiser, |
| 1:11.1 | a diverse fan group as such the NHL started to bring, |
| 1:14.0 | is changing their revenue. |
| 1:15.4 | We all love a good comeback story. |
| 1:17.5 | Today, ice hockey's COVID bounceback on Business Daily. |
| 1:22.2 | It's a chilly Sunday afternoon in downtown Toronto |
| 1:25.3 | as fans dressed in blue and white jerseys make |
| 1:28.3 | their way into the arena behind me. We're at a game in the American Hockey League, the |
| 1:33.3 | Development League to the NHL, where players hone their skills before making the leap to hockey's |
... |
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