Under its new deal with Scripps, the club will earn a smaller annual rights fee than the roughly $15M per season that two NHL sources said it previously received from Bally Sports Arizona. The rights fee from Scripps is believed to be in the low-to-mid seven figures, according to both an NHL and broadcast industry source.
The Coyotes will also be responsible for producing their local telecasts (81 this regular season), a financial and operational burden previously shouldered by Bally Sports. There is upside, however, in the form of advertising and sponsorship revenue, and the team’s games will be available to a wider audience at no cost to viewers. Coyotes President & CEO Xavier Gutierrez said the team’s games will be available in nearly 3 million homes with Scripps; a source said that roughly 800,000 homes had access to Bally Sports Arizona last season.
When asked how the Scripps deal compares to the now-defunct Bally agreement, Gutierrez said the economics are “different.” The Scripps deal, he said, offers the Coyotes “some financial certainty” in the form of a rights fee but is “more grounded in advertising and in sponsorship” revenue, which the Coyotes and Scripps will share.
Playfly Sports COO Craig Sloan, whose company sells advertising on NHL, NBA and MLB telecasts through its Home Team Sports division, said there is potential for the increased reach of broadcast to lead to increased revenue from sponsorship, merchandise sales, ticketing and other lines of business for teams like the Coyotes. Closing the rights fee gap, however, is a long-term proposition.
"It's not an overnight fix,” Sloan said. “It's definitely a marathon view that the teams are taking if they're making this change, thinking about the cumulative effect over the years to have broader distribution and then be able to make the revenue on other mechanisms that they can sell their fan base.”
The decline in guaranteed media revenue and new production costs follow the team's move before the 2022-23 season from their longtime home in Glendale, now called Diamond Desert Arena, to the 4,500-seat Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State. While the team said ticketing revenue increased following the move, the team has less sponsorship inventory to sell and does not share in revenue from non-hockey events at the facility.
Impactful & Committed Executive focused on Brand Partnerships - Cause and Experiential Marketing
1moGo Cosmina Schulman and NESN TEAM GO!!!!! 👊 👏 👊