John Collins (football)
Encyclopedia
John Collins is an American
sports executive who has spent most of his career with National Football League
and the National Hockey League
where he currently serves as Chief Operating Officer
.
In 2010, Collins was named an “Executive of the Year” by the American Business Awards, winning a Stevie Award
for his success with the NHL. In May 2011, the NHL was named Sports League of the Year by the SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily. In a press release about the award, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman
said, "In 2010, more people than ever found more reasons than ever -- and more ways than ever -- to connect with our great game and our outstanding athletes.”
Prior to joining the NHL, Collins spent 15 years with the National Football League.
In 2004, Collins was hired as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Browns
, succeeding then retiring Carmen Policy
. That year he was also named one of the top 20 sports advertising executives by Sports Business Journal.
Starting in 2002 with the inauguration of the "NFL Kickoff
" celebration at Times Square
, he steered the NFL's focus toward big events, ultimately increasing NFL sponsorships by $1.9 billion, and doubled annual corporate sponsorship revenues to more than $200 million in 14 months. He also presided over the Super Bowl XXXVI
halftime show featuring U2
. These successes led to Advertising Age naming him one of America's top 50 marketers in 2003.
Collins began his career in professional sports with NFL Films
, where he, helped introduce programming such as HBO’s Hard Knocks
and Inside the NFL
. Collins later teamed up with HBO Sports and its 24/7
reality franchise
to develop “24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic.” He eventually became Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales for the NFL, where he led all marketing, programming, sponsorship and advertising sales functions and was a key member of the team that launched the NFL Network. Collins' career began at advertising agency DDB Needham
. At the NFL, Collins negotiated billions of dollars of marketing and advertising deals, including a landmark, 10-year, $1.2 billion league-wide deal with Pepsi.
. Beginning in the 2011-12 season, NBC Sports Group will broadcast 100 regular season hockey games across its networks and for the first time all NHL playoff games will be broadcast nationally. Collins, who was the lead strategist on the deal, said the agreement would help draw new advertisers and sponsors for the league. By showing every game of the playoffs nationally, the NHL will create “eight weeks of nonstop coverage,” he said. Mamudi, Sam. “NBC, NHL reach 10-year broadcast deal”, “Market Watch,” April 19, 2011
NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol
announced that the Versus Channel would be renamed "within 90 days" to include “NBC” in its title as part of this new sports entity, in order to reflect the synergy of the two networks after Comcast
’s purchase of NBC Universal. Collins said in The Wall Street Journal, "We think it will be a destination for sports fans. We believe they're going to do things differently and make their coverage more consistent with the way NBC Sports operates." This is the first deal Comcast has negotiated since it bought controlling interest in NBCU.
, a high-profile New Year’s Day game played outdoors, with NBC Sports executive Jon Miller, who told The Boston Globe that the key to making the game successful was “Collins’s vision, energy, and passion.” The Classic’s success earned him Marketer of the Year by Advertising Age
Magazine.
Sports Illustrated
columnist Dan Shaughnessy
said of the new Winter Classic, “now hockey owns New Year's Day the way baseball owns the Fourth of July and football owns Thanksgiving.” Sports Business Journal named the NHL Winter Classic the 2008 “Event of the Year.”
Revenues for the 2010 Classic, played between the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers, were expected to generate $8 million in ticket sales at Fenway Park and $3 million in ad sales for NBC.
’s Dundas Square
, and in 2011, the League will re-introduce the NHL Heritage Classic outdoor game in Canada. Under Collins' guidance, the NHL Awards Show has moved to Las Vegas
.
his goal is to “surround our fan with ways to experience the game across all various kinds of tech and distribution so we’re not quite as tied to broadcast television, or even really cable television. We respect them, but we really want to go after the fans who are more tech savvy in more of a digital way."
Collins spearheaded the NHL Network Online, creating partnerships with news sites and portals (The Hockey News, ESPN.com
, Yahoo), blogs (SB Nation, Bleacher Report, Yardbarker), video hubs (YouTube
, Hulu
), and digital retail outposts (iTunes
, PlayStation Network). The NHL’s strategy under Collins is different than many other major sports franchises, which have resisted digital syndication efforts. This may be because, while hockey’s fan base is smaller, it is generally more affluent. NHL.com has seen significantly more traffic recently (up 135 percent from August 2009 to February 2010), receiving a record 13.4 million unique visits in January 2010.
Under Collins, the NHL has introduced an “all-access” service, tying together its online, radio, and TV offerings, including social and mobile outlets across multiple providers and handsets. This integration has contributed to a “66 percent annual average increase in sponsor support and ad spending on our media properties as well,” Collins told The Wall Street Journal
. The League has also unveiled NHL GameCenter LIVE, enabling fans to watch out-of-market games via live video. These improvements in part led Fast Company Magazine
to name the NHL one of the most innovative companies in 2009.
Technology has been a key part of Collins’ strategy to increase the NHL’s profile, using digital platforms like the NHL Network (in 38 million homes as of May 2010), mobile phones, and a satellite radio alliance with Sirius and XM to reach new audiences. Collins was quoted saying, “What we're seeing is some really well-designed products being offered across multiple platforms, which are providing content to that fan that, quite frankly, they're not getting anywhere else, and for which they have an almost insatiable appetite.”
Collins has also spearheaded use of social media
with the NHL, a move which Yahoo! Sports labeled one of the “Five best NHL decisions of the last decade,” noting, “The NHL had an official YouTube channel and Twitter before most other leagues knew those things are (and in fact the NFL and MLB still make YouTube pull down any clips using their broadcasts, which is six distinct kinds of stupid).” The article also praised the NHL for its use of Twitter
-exclusive contests for their fans and the extensive archives on NHL.com.
As of November 2010, the NHL’s Facebook
and Twitter
pages have more than 1 million fans and a half-million followers respectively. Vitrue, Inc.
named the NHL among the top-50 most social brands in the world.
. TSN’s playoff coverage in Canada was up 70 percent over 2009 while French language RDS coverage was up 84 percent.
The Conference Quarterfinal and Semifinal rounds were the most-watched first two rounds on cable since the 1993/94 season when NHL Playoff viewership became available by Nielsen. For the entire playoffs, CBC averaged 2.102 million viewers, up 62 percent from 2009. The 2010 Stanley Cup
play-offs saw the largest audience in the history of the sport “after a regular season that saw record-breaking business success, propelled in large part by the NHL's strategy of engaging fans through big events and robust digital offerings.”
About these results, Collins said "I love the potential of our sport. The Stanley Cup is one of the biggest brands out there. We have an incredible fanbase and our league is filled with some of the best people around. We have an extraordinary opportunity for the NHL to take a giant leap forward, so this is a very exciting time for us." NHL.com reported that “the fruit of the surging television ratings and all those millions of pageviews” will be seen in 2011 when the league renegotiates its international broadcast contracts.
This success has resulted in a 66 percent rise in NHL advertising and sponsorship revenue. Collins said "It was a great Stanley Cup run, really across every possible metric .... Our fans are consuming more hockey." Merchandise sales were up 22 percent and the number of unique visitors on the NHL.com website were up 17 percent during the playoffs after rising 29 percent in the regular season.
Since 2007, the league has generated $330 million dollars in sponsorship (a 162 percent increase) and revenue has grown 85 percent.
In May 2011 Ad Age reported that "the NHL is on pace for its fifth consecutive year of record total revenue and is projected to bring in more than $2.9 billion by the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and quoted Collins saying, "What I try to bring is a perspective where the NHL just needs to think bigger … We're not going to sit still until hockey reaches its rightful position in terms of relevance in sports and entertainment. ... The Stanley Cup should be, and could be, as big as March Madness from a ratings standpoint and an advertising standpoint."
of the NHL -- MillerCoors
in the United States and MolsonCoors
in Canada. Worth $375 million over seven years, The New York Times called it the biggest corporate sponsorship in N.H.L. history, noting, “For the N.H.L., the new beer sponsorship demonstrates its progress in recent years, especially in reaching young, affluent, technologically savvy fans who love their ice-cold suds.” Collins was quoted saying, “The investment they’re making will help us launch a lot of the marketing and promotional plans we’ve been developing and thinking about for quite some time.”
The Canadian Press quoted Collins saying, “"It's a monster deal. They're going to have major position across all of our events — both our existing events as well as a lot of new ones that we hope to create." The article noted that Collins “helped develop the league's current strategy [to grow its brand through major events] and believes it is starting to pay off.”
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sports executive who has spent most of his career with National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
and the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
where he currently serves as Chief Operating Officer
Chief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...
.
Career
As the NHL’s chief operating officer since August 2008, Collins is responsible for strategic leadership and oversight for all of the League’s global business, marketing, sales, broadcast and digital media operations. Collins joined the NHL in November 2006. In May 2007, he earned the title of Senior Executive Vice President, Business and Media. His work with the NHL has led to a record number of sponsors and television viewers, resulting in a 66 percent rise in NHL advertising and sponsorship revenue.In 2010, Collins was named an “Executive of the Year” by the American Business Awards, winning a Stevie Award
Stevie Awards
The Stevie Awards were created in 2002 to honor and generate public recognition of the efforts, accomplishments, and positive contributions of companies and business people worldwide...
for his success with the NHL. In May 2011, the NHL was named Sports League of the Year by the SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily. In a press release about the award, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman
Gary Bettman
Gary Bruce Bettman is the commissioner of the National Hockey League , a post he has held since February 1, 1993. Previously, Bettman was a senior vice-president and general counsel to the National Basketball Association...
said, "In 2010, more people than ever found more reasons than ever -- and more ways than ever -- to connect with our great game and our outstanding athletes.”
Prior to joining the NHL, Collins spent 15 years with the National Football League.
In 2004, Collins was hired as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, succeeding then retiring Carmen Policy
Carmen Policy
Carmen Policy is an attorney and American football executive who is best known for his front office work for the San Francisco 49ers during the 1980s and 1990s. Policy, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, joined the San Francisco 49ers in 1983 as vice president and counsel...
. That year he was also named one of the top 20 sports advertising executives by Sports Business Journal.
Starting in 2002 with the inauguration of the "NFL Kickoff
National Football League Kickoff game
The NFL Kickoff game, and related festivities, mark the start of the National Football League season. The first game of the season is currently scheduled for the Thursday following Labor Day. A single game is held, preceded by a concert and other ceremonies. Since the 2004 season, the defending...
" celebration at Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, he steered the NFL's focus toward big events, ultimately increasing NFL sponsorships by $1.9 billion, and doubled annual corporate sponsorship revenues to more than $200 million in 14 months. He also presided over the Super Bowl XXXVI
Super Bowl XXXVI
Super Bowl XXXVI was an American football game played on February 3, 2002 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 2001 regular season. The American Football Conference champion New England Patriots won their first Super...
halftime show featuring U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
. These successes led to Advertising Age naming him one of America's top 50 marketers in 2003.
Collins began his career in professional sports with NFL Films
NFL Films
NFL Films is a Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based company devoted to producing commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries on the National Football League, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows...
, where he, helped introduce programming such as HBO’s Hard Knocks
Hard Knocks (TV series)
Hard Knocks is a reality sports documentary television series produced by NFL Films and HBO. The series follows a select National Football League team through its training camp and provides an in-depth perspective of the team's preparation for the upcoming season. The series is described as one of...
and Inside the NFL
Inside the NFL
Inside the NFL is a weekly cable television sports show that focuses on the National Football League. It originally aired on HBO from 1977 through 2008...
. Collins later teamed up with HBO Sports and its 24/7
24/7
24/7 is an abbreviation which stands for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", usually referring to a business or service available at all times without interruption...
reality franchise
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
to develop “24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic.” He eventually became Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales for the NFL, where he led all marketing, programming, sponsorship and advertising sales functions and was a key member of the team that launched the NFL Network. Collins' career began at advertising agency DDB Needham
DDB Worldwide
DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc., known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group Inc, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies...
. At the NFL, Collins negotiated billions of dollars of marketing and advertising deals, including a landmark, 10-year, $1.2 billion league-wide deal with Pepsi.
NHL/NBC Sports Group deal
On April 20, 2011, the NHL and NBC Sports Group announced a 10-year broadcast deal reportedly worth $2 billion – roughly $125 million a year more than reported sums under the previous NHL deal with VersusVersus (TV channel)
Versus is a sports-oriented cable television channel in the United States. It was previously known as Outdoor Life Network and was launched on July 1, 1995, focusing on fishing, hunting, and other outdoor sports...
. Beginning in the 2011-12 season, NBC Sports Group will broadcast 100 regular season hockey games across its networks and for the first time all NHL playoff games will be broadcast nationally. Collins, who was the lead strategist on the deal, said the agreement would help draw new advertisers and sponsors for the league. By showing every game of the playoffs nationally, the NHL will create “eight weeks of nonstop coverage,” he said. Mamudi, Sam. “NBC, NHL reach 10-year broadcast deal”, “Market Watch,” April 19, 2011
NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol
Dick Ebersol
Duncan "Dick" Ebersol is an American television executive and a senior adviser for . He had previously been the chairman of NBC Sports, producing large scale television events such as the Olympic Games and National Football League broadcasts....
announced that the Versus Channel would be renamed "within 90 days" to include “NBC” in its title as part of this new sports entity, in order to reflect the synergy of the two networks after Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
’s purchase of NBC Universal. Collins said in The Wall Street Journal, "We think it will be a destination for sports fans. We believe they're going to do things differently and make their coverage more consistent with the way NBC Sports operates." This is the first deal Comcast has negotiated since it bought controlling interest in NBCU.
NHL Winter Classic
In 2007, Collins spearheaded the development of the NHL Winter ClassicNHL Winter Classic
The NHL Winter Classic is an annual event held by the National Hockey League on New Year's Day where regular-season games are played outdoors, in areas hosted by NHL teams. Though largely derived from the Heritage Classic outdoor game held in Edmonton in 2003, the Winter Classic has so far only...
, a high-profile New Year’s Day game played outdoors, with NBC Sports executive Jon Miller, who told The Boston Globe that the key to making the game successful was “Collins’s vision, energy, and passion.” The Classic’s success earned him Marketer of the Year by Advertising Age
Advertising Age
Advertising Age is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930...
Magazine.
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
columnist Dan Shaughnessy
Dan Shaughnessy
Dan Shaughnessy is an American sports writer.-Career:After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, Shaughnessy began his career as a beat reporter covering the Baltimore Orioles for the Baltimore Sun in 1977. He has been a sports writer for the Boston Globe for approximately 30 years,...
said of the new Winter Classic, “now hockey owns New Year's Day the way baseball owns the Fourth of July and football owns Thanksgiving.” Sports Business Journal named the NHL Winter Classic the 2008 “Event of the Year.”
Revenues for the 2010 Classic, played between the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers, were expected to generate $8 million in ticket sales at Fenway Park and $3 million in ad sales for NBC.
Other major events
Moreover, the start of the NHL season is now marked by NHL Face-Off, a hockey and entertainment street festival featuring musical performances in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
’s Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Yonge-Dundas Square is a commercial junction and public square, situated at the southeast corner of the intersection of Yonge Street and Dundas Street East in Downtown Toronto...
, and in 2011, the League will re-introduce the NHL Heritage Classic outdoor game in Canada. Under Collins' guidance, the NHL Awards Show has moved to Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
.
Use of technology
Collins has made expanding technology to sports fans a priority in his career. He told ForbesForbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
his goal is to “surround our fan with ways to experience the game across all various kinds of tech and distribution so we’re not quite as tied to broadcast television, or even really cable television. We respect them, but we really want to go after the fans who are more tech savvy in more of a digital way."
Collins spearheaded the NHL Network Online, creating partnerships with news sites and portals (The Hockey News, ESPN.com
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
, Yahoo), blogs (SB Nation, Bleacher Report, Yardbarker), video hubs (YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
), and digital retail outposts (iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, PlayStation Network). The NHL’s strategy under Collins is different than many other major sports franchises, which have resisted digital syndication efforts. This may be because, while hockey’s fan base is smaller, it is generally more affluent. NHL.com has seen significantly more traffic recently (up 135 percent from August 2009 to February 2010), receiving a record 13.4 million unique visits in January 2010.
Under Collins, the NHL has introduced an “all-access” service, tying together its online, radio, and TV offerings, including social and mobile outlets across multiple providers and handsets. This integration has contributed to a “66 percent annual average increase in sponsor support and ad spending on our media properties as well,” Collins told The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
. The League has also unveiled NHL GameCenter LIVE, enabling fans to watch out-of-market games via live video. These improvements in part led Fast Company Magazine
Fast Company (magazine)
Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
to name the NHL one of the most innovative companies in 2009.
Technology has been a key part of Collins’ strategy to increase the NHL’s profile, using digital platforms like the NHL Network (in 38 million homes as of May 2010), mobile phones, and a satellite radio alliance with Sirius and XM to reach new audiences. Collins was quoted saying, “What we're seeing is some really well-designed products being offered across multiple platforms, which are providing content to that fan that, quite frankly, they're not getting anywhere else, and for which they have an almost insatiable appetite.”
Collins has also spearheaded use of social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
with the NHL, a move which Yahoo! Sports labeled one of the “Five best NHL decisions of the last decade,” noting, “The NHL had an official YouTube channel and Twitter before most other leagues knew those things are (and in fact the NFL and MLB still make YouTube pull down any clips using their broadcasts, which is six distinct kinds of stupid).” The article also praised the NHL for its use of Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
-exclusive contests for their fans and the extensive archives on NHL.com.
As of November 2010, the NHL’s Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
pages have more than 1 million fans and a half-million followers respectively. Vitrue, Inc.
ViTrue, Inc.
Vitrue, Inc. is a provider of social media publishing software, offering software-as-a-service tool to help businesses harness the marketing potential of social media such as Facebook and Twitter....
named the NHL among the top-50 most social brands in the world.
Rising NHL popularity
The NHL has seen considerable rise in viewership metrics recently. Game 6 of the Final on NBC was the most-watched (8.28 million) and highest-rated NHL game (4.7) on U.S. television in 36 years. In Canada, Chicago’s win over Philadelphia in Game 6 averaged more than 4 million viewers, the highest audience ever for an all-U.S. Stanley Cup Final on the Canadian Broadcasting CorporationCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
. TSN’s playoff coverage in Canada was up 70 percent over 2009 while French language RDS coverage was up 84 percent.
The Conference Quarterfinal and Semifinal rounds were the most-watched first two rounds on cable since the 1993/94 season when NHL Playoff viewership became available by Nielsen. For the entire playoffs, CBC averaged 2.102 million viewers, up 62 percent from 2009. The 2010 Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
play-offs saw the largest audience in the history of the sport “after a regular season that saw record-breaking business success, propelled in large part by the NHL's strategy of engaging fans through big events and robust digital offerings.”
About these results, Collins said "I love the potential of our sport. The Stanley Cup is one of the biggest brands out there. We have an incredible fanbase and our league is filled with some of the best people around. We have an extraordinary opportunity for the NHL to take a giant leap forward, so this is a very exciting time for us." NHL.com reported that “the fruit of the surging television ratings and all those millions of pageviews” will be seen in 2011 when the league renegotiates its international broadcast contracts.
This success has resulted in a 66 percent rise in NHL advertising and sponsorship revenue. Collins said "It was a great Stanley Cup run, really across every possible metric .... Our fans are consuming more hockey." Merchandise sales were up 22 percent and the number of unique visitors on the NHL.com website were up 17 percent during the playoffs after rising 29 percent in the regular season.
Since 2007, the league has generated $330 million dollars in sponsorship (a 162 percent increase) and revenue has grown 85 percent.
In May 2011 Ad Age reported that "the NHL is on pace for its fifth consecutive year of record total revenue and is projected to bring in more than $2.9 billion by the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and quoted Collins saying, "What I try to bring is a perspective where the NHL just needs to think bigger … We're not going to sit still until hockey reaches its rightful position in terms of relevance in sports and entertainment. ... The Stanley Cup should be, and could be, as big as March Madness from a ratings standpoint and an advertising standpoint."
MolsonCoors sponsorship
In February 2011, Collins negotiated a milestone sponsorship deal for Coors to become the official beerBeer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
of the NHL -- MillerCoors
MillerCoors
MillerCoors is a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company, announced on October 9, 2007. The joint venture has the responsibility of selling brands such as Miller Lite, Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft, Coors, Coors Light, Molson Canadian, and Blue Moon in the United...
in the United States and MolsonCoors
Molson Coors Brewing Company
Molson Coors Brewing Company is a company that was created by the merger of two of North America's largest breweries: Molson of Canada, and Coors of the United States, on February 9, 2005...
in Canada. Worth $375 million over seven years, The New York Times called it the biggest corporate sponsorship in N.H.L. history, noting, “For the N.H.L., the new beer sponsorship demonstrates its progress in recent years, especially in reaching young, affluent, technologically savvy fans who love their ice-cold suds.” Collins was quoted saying, “The investment they’re making will help us launch a lot of the marketing and promotional plans we’ve been developing and thinking about for quite some time.”
The Canadian Press quoted Collins saying, “"It's a monster deal. They're going to have major position across all of our events — both our existing events as well as a lot of new ones that we hope to create." The article noted that Collins “helped develop the league's current strategy [to grow its brand through major events] and believes it is starting to pay off.”