Analysts say the NHL’s China development strategy is loaded with opportunities to attract new fans and talent but also deep uncertainties about what sort of growth is possible.
One crucial question is whether the league would allow its players to participate in the 2022 Olympics – and, if not, how the decision would go over with Chinese fans and officials. (The NHL said no to the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea.)
NHL executives “have to straddle this line where they’re saying, ‘It’s important, but it’s not that important,’ ” Dan Mason, a professor of sports management at the University of Alberta, who has consulted for sports organizations in China, said of the Beijing Games.
“But at the same time, they don’t want to alienate the Chinese government because in the long run the popularity of the NHL in China is going to be a function of how many kids are playing and growing up loving the sport, and wanting to follow those players on television,” he added.
For now, the league has signed broadcasting and livestreaming deals with the Chinese companies CCTV and Tencent, and partnered with several others, including the beer company Tsingtao. League officials declined to provide viewership figures or specific revenue targets.
But in a sign of how much the NHL trails the NBA in China, the hockey league has only about 290,000 followers on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese social-media platform; the NBA has more than 37 million.