RALEIGH — The NHL is in line to post another revenue record, but league commissioner Gary Bettman said the new milestone will be short-lived as the sport’s boom times continue.
Speaking before an electric Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, won 5–4 by the Golden Knights over the Hurricanes, Bettman said the league is projecting $7.5 billion to $8 billion in mixed U.S. and Canadian currency for the 2025–26 season.
That’s up from a comparable figure of about $6.5 billion in the prior season, and arrives as the league had record attendance of 23.16 million during the regular season while playing to near-capacity levels. The NHL has also been on a postseason viewership heater that is expanding the NHL’s aspirations for the next set of U.S. media rights deals. Other key revenue drivers such as sponsorships and special events continue to grow as well.
“Every platform, every source of revenue is growing,” Bettman said. “It’s going to be even better next year because the new media deal in Canada kicks in.”
That pact is a 12-year English-language rights deal with Rogers Communications worth $7.7 billion, will run through the 2037–38 season, and will inform upcoming rights deals not only in the U.S. but a separate French-language pact in Canada now under development.
