How rich is the NHL league HQ?

[macavoy]

How much money as a whole does the league have? It costs millions to run the league in salaries for Bettmen, all the HQ staff, the referees.

Where do they get money to fund its operation? Do they make enough in licencing the NHL brand to cover its complete operations or does each team pay franchise fees to the league?

Can they afford to absorb Phoenix's losses for another year? Adding $5-8 million to the league's operating costs has to affect the league's profitability. Coyotes attendance has dropped by 3000 people per game this year. Last year, they had 600k people attend and so far this year, only 450k.

Losses this year gotta be $10m+.

[Hermit Wizard Eater]

Bettman gets paid 4/9 million a year (I forget which)

[thas]

I can't tell you how rich the league is, but the amount of money the league is worth should give you an idea. Most recent information (which is not that recent,but is higher now) suggests that the league is valued at $2 billion.

The nhl does make quite a bit of money from licensing. The only knock on them is their tv revenues. Not sure about the franchise fees, but I am sure the nhl has enough money to absorb the loses from phoenix, but people are greedy.

[Xavier Ouellet]

I believe he earns 8.7 million a year, the NHL ho does.

[BruinsBtn]

I wonder how much the Player's Emergency Assistance Fund has? When I guy gets suspended his salary goes there. I'm not sure what they do with the $ but I bet they have a pile of it.

[Xavier Ouellet]

Originally Posted by BruinsButton

I wonder how much the Player's Emergency Assistance Fund has? When I guy gets suspended his salary goes there. I'm not sure what they do with the $ but I bet they have a pile of it.

They assist players during the occurance of an emergency?

[Jonas1235]

All of the national revenue streams are shared by all the clubs. Each club also pays the league a licensing/registration fee.

According to Forbes, the NHL had an operating income of $180 million last season. That number is before taxes. This is why they were able to buy the Coyotes in the first place.

I believe they had an operating loss of $120 million pre-lockout.

The Maple Leafs operating income alone is greater than every team that is losing money.

[macavoy]

Originally Posted by Jonas1235

All of the national revenue streams are shared by all the clubs. Each club also pays the league a licensing/registration fee.

According to Forbes, the NHL had an operating income of $180 million last season. That number is before taxes. This is why they were able to buy the Coyotes in the first place.

That is the total profit of the individual teams. I did a bit of research and the NHL itself is a NON PROFIT association.

http://www.bizofhockey.com/docs/NHLConsitution.pdf

Each team pays the league annual dues. It is on page 23 of the constitution. So, it seems that its possible that the 30 team owners 'may' have to pay the league a fee to cover the league's losses. I have no idea if this is true or not.

But its definitely a possibility.

[yukoner88]

Originally Posted by macavoy

That is the total profit of the individual teams. I did a bit of research and the NHL itself is a NON PROFIT association.

http://www.bizofhockey.com/docs/NHLConsitution.pdf

Each team pays the league annual dues. It is on page 23 of the constitution. So, it seems that its possible that the 30 team owners 'may' have to pay the league a fee to cover the league's losses. I have no idea if this is true or not.

But its definitely a possibility.

[kdb209]

Originally Posted by yukoner88

Not so .

The league itself is organized as a non for profit Joint Venture.

The centrally generated league revenues do not go to the League itself - they are distributed equally to the 30 Member Clubs (minus any cut used for revenue sharing).

League operations are funded by dues and assessments charged to each Member Club. The amounts are determined each year at an annual BoG meeting under the authority of Article IX of the NHL Constitution.

In addition to revenues from the Member Clubs, the Commissioner also has the authority to establish Lines of Credit. It is likely that the current Coyotes' operating expenses are coming from such a line of credit. If the Coyotes are not sold and costs recovered, it is likely that the Member Clubs will face assessments this offseason to cover the operating costs accrued.

[Jonas1235]

It's worth noting that David Stern and the NBA got $200 million dollar line of credit for it's teams just last year. They're not doing so hot right now.

[macavoy]

Originally Posted by kdb209

League operations are funded by dues and assessments charged to each Member Club. The amounts are determined each year at an annual BoG meeting under the authority of Article IX of the NHL Constitution.

In addition to revenues from the Member Clubs, the Commissioner also has the authority to establish Lines of Credit. It is likely that the current Coyotes' operating expenses are coming from such a line of credit. If the Coyotes are not sold and costs recovered, it is likely that the Member Clubs will face assessments this offseason to cover the operating costs accrued.

This is exactly what I thought. Thanks for the feedback. I wonder where they got the money to buy the yotes from. I guess a big portion of what they paid the old owner was owed back to them. It'll be interesting to see how long the 30 owners are willing to pony up to prop them up.