The National Hockey League announced today that sponsorship revenue for last Sunday’s Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic was the highest for any event in league history.
Official figures were not released, but a representative of the NHL indicated in an e-mail that the outdoor game generated sponsorship revenue in the “mid-seven figures” for corporate partners such as Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, Scotiabank and Blackberry, beating the standard set just weeks earlier at the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic in Pittsburgh.
The game was a ratings hit in both Canada and the U.S. More than 2 million Canadians watched the game on CBC, a 7% increase on the network’s afternoon broadcast average. The French broadcast on RDS, meanwhile, peaked at 1.6 million viewers.
The clash between the host Calgary Flames and the Montreal Canadiens also generated strong television numbers south of the border, where 608,000 viewers watched the game on Versus. That number is 95% more than the station’s average for league games and the fourth-highest total for an NHL broadcast in its history. The U.S. audience was the highest ever recorded for a game between two Canadian-based NHL teams since the league began keeping track in 1993.
In addition, the league’s numbers suggest that the Heritage Classic generated social media buzz, with the topic #HeritageClassic peaking as the third-ranked trending topic worldwide and the top trend emerging from Canada on the day.
