All-Blogs.net directory Light the Lamp - a Columbus Blue Jackets blog: Honda parks auto sponsorship with NHL

Countdown to Rick Nash's contract expiration:

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Honda parks auto sponsorship with NHL


If you follow the business side of the NHL at all, then you definitely want to catch this article from The Sports Busines Journal about NHL sponsorships (courtesy of Puck-daddy).

The biggest tidbit of news is that the NHL has ended its 13 year partnership with Dodge and has signed a new 3 year agreement with Honda worth 4 million per season. Whats even more interesting is that this is Honda's first foray into stick and ball sports:

“We really like the NHL profile,” said Tom Peyton, senior manager for advertising at American Honda in Torrance, Calif., about 30 miles from Anaheim, where Honda has held naming rights to the home rink of the NHL Ducks since October 2006. “The [NHL] demos of young, affluent suburbanites match well with our target, and when we did our research, we found that for Honda buyers, watching and attending NHL games indexed higher than for any of the other stick-and-ball sports.”

As most of you are probably aware Honda has a big presence in central Ohio with its plants in Marysville. I wonder if this new partnership will see an increased local sponsorship with the Jackets? Of course they would have to replace Hay-Hay-Haydocy!

I tell ya though, I'm going to miss all of those Dodge commercials that air during the Versus games. I mean lets be honest, if you watched a "national" NHL game last year you were likely to get four commercials -- one from Dodge (especially the one with the life size plastic boxers), Bud Light, XM and Verizon Wireless.

Honda makes some pretty creative ads so lets see where they go with this.

The article lists all the major sponsorship deals with the NHL as well.

The NHL Network to have a nightly "pre-game" show? That was another nugget from this article:

This comes while the league takes over production responsibilities for its NHL Network and seeks to add programming, including a nightly national pregame show.

Great. Just what I need -- another reason to watch more hockey!

Check out this read for all the new uni's in the NHL this season. The Jackets get a mention:

The Blue Jackets are wearing a "JHM" memorial patch in honor of team founder John H. McConnell. Further details and a closer look at the patch design are available here.

..and those new Thrasher digs... well, they aren't receiving the warmest of receptions from what I'm reading.

According to the Globe & Mail, the Columbus Blue Jackets are tied for the 9th (with the Lightning) most affordable NHL ticket in the league averaging $78 dollars per ticket. Vancouver clocks in at the highest with a whopping average of $301 dollars per ticket! Yikes.

In fact the top 5 teams are Canadian. All 6 Canadian teams are in the top 10. Think they love their hockey?

-LTL

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I noticed that Toyota had a pretty big sponsorship, replacing Pontiac/GMC... doubt we'll see Honda in NWA for a little while.

Doug Riffle said...

I couldn't imagine paying $70 + for a ticket at Nationwide. Even our lower bowl tickets (102) are only I think $42 per ticket. I think they are half off though because they are bought from the work place.

Anonymous said...

This is off-topic but I still wanted to bring it to everyone's attention.

TSN up here in Canada has posted the "Top 10 NHL Plays of 07/08" on their website and Nash comes in at #5... and of course #1! Way to represent!

#5 was his between his legs goal against St. Louis and #1 was "The Goal" from last year against Phoneix.

Have a look at http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/

Anonymous said...

Wizworm... again.

I can't belive Vancouver beat out Toronto for highest ticket price average!

Every time I go to a Leafs game (or Marlies game vs. the Crunch for that matter) I feel like I'm getting raped! Who knew Vancouver was giving it to their fans like that!? The average price is $301!!? That's insane!

I bet if I did the math it would be cheaper to drive the 6 hours to Columbus and pay for the extra gas to watch games I really care about...

Anonymous said...

Cbus fans better get their act together then... Seeing a sea of Detroit RED makes me ill.