Report: No jersey ads for NHL - yet

TSN's Rick Westhead reports, via a source, that the NHL believes it could generate $4 million per team  - at least $120 million league-wide - were it to allow corporations to advertise on jerseys.

But they won’t be doing it. Not yet, anyway.

"Gary and owners like the money, but they don't want to be first out of the box with this in North America," said the source. "They'll wait for the NBA or baseball to do it and then be second or third."

Agent Ritch Winter offered this viewpoint: "When you can add additional revenue, it creates options. It doesn't have to start with ads on every jersey. Maybe you have a third jersey or maybe ads are just on goalie jerseys. What's wrong with a new tradition? The majority of immigrants to North America come from Europe and Africa and Asia, where they are used to seeing ads on jerseys. Is Manchester United's jersey any less popular around the world than the New York Yankees' jersey?"

Source: Rick Westhead, TSN.ca