The NHL is going through a little bit of a conundrum.
Following the extremely profitable inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off in February, the league is now below strain to take care of that stage of competitors and funding for future mid-season showcases.
Plans to function extra international-level play each few years between Olympic competitions have already been introduced, together with the World Cup of Hockey’s return in 2028.
Nevertheless, there’s much less readability on what comes subsequent for the extra conventional All-Star video games in different years, as each participant and fan curiosity has waned over time.
Talking to media on the common supervisor conferences on Wednesday, league commissioner Gary Bettman was requested about subsequent season’s All-Star weekend, which is about to be hosted by the New York Islanders at UBS Area.
“We’re reevaluating how we need to do issues as a result of I feel we have raised the bar about as excessive as you may for an All-Star sport in any sport, and so we need to ensure no matter we do is as much as the requirements that we have created,” Bettman informed reporters.
When requested to additional elaborate on what their choices might seem like for the occasion, Bettman replied, “I do not need to begin hypothesis. We have promised the Islanders an occasion, and Islander followers deserve occasions that we have promised, so we’re centered on what we have to do.”
The 4 Nations Face-Off averaged 6.5 million viewers throughout North America, a 256 per cent enhance from the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
The championship sport between Canada and the U.S. drew 16.1 million viewers, with 9.3 million within the U.S. and 6.3 million in Canada. It grew to become the second-most watched hockey sport of the previous decade, behind solely Sport 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Closing.
