NHL loses a major sponsor

PUBLICATION

Dorin Canaday
June 1, 2022 (12:31)

SHARE THIS STORY

Commissioner Gary Bettman already had suffered a not-so-great reputation from NHL around the world. It took another hit this week, and probably to Bettman and the NHL's wallet as well. With superstars Auston Matthews, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby and others like Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, and Leon Draisaitl finally making deep playoff runs, is it worth questioning his capability of growing the sport?

The news broke that Gatorade has announced that they will not be renewing their contract with the NHL after this season:

Gary Bettman has been NHL Commissioner since February 1st, 1993, in which the league has been through three different lockouts (1994-1995, 2004-2005, and 2012-2013). He even enraged NHL athletes by making them pay back escrow from the 2020-2021 season.

In which Bettman responded:

"If we have to pay out lots of cash, two-thirds of which is going to come back to us, that may cause some stress ... and by the same token, if the players owe us more money than anybody imagined, the salary cap could well be flat or close to flat for the next five or six years, and players into the future will be repaying what we're owed."

Bettman did a great job of expanding the league when he started in the 90s, and I'll give him that, but recently he's only here to make money and protect the already wealthy owners.

The loss of the Gatorade sponsorship is massive, as the company has been an enormous part of the NHL for years. The company's new contract for younger sports stars and for NIL deals may make sense for Gatorade, as it will diversify audiences instead of a league struggling to address multiple issues and PR nightmares.

The global head of Gatorade Sports Marketing, Jeff Kearney, released this statement:

"We view ourselves as both a supplier of best-in-class equipment to help the athlete and the partner, but also a partner that when we work together can make an impact ... We're just trying to move sports and our partnerships forward in that fashion, taking a different lens on all the relationships that we currently have and that we're building in the future."

Clearly, Gary Bettman's version of the NHL is still stuck in the past.