from Tony Keller of the Globe and Mail,

Canada is home to the world’s largest, most passionate and most financially committed population of hockey fans. The NHL has less than a quarter of its teams in Canada, but is believed to make more than a third of its revenues here, and a far higher percentage of its profits. Nevertheless, the NHL is based in the U.S., and 23 out of 30 teams are American. And thanks to the way the league divides up revenues, much of the money it earns in Canada ends up supporting struggling franchises south of the border.

Canadian national TV money, for example, is shared equally among all of the league’s 30 teams. That means Hockey Night in Canada revenues are almost entirely dedicated to subsidizing hockey nights in America.

Of the $5.2-billion that Rogers paid for a dozen years of Canadian NHL broadcast rights, about $4-billion will end up in the pockets of U.S. team owners. (The owners, as part of their collective agreement with the NHL Players Association, pay half of their revenues to the players).

In addition, the league also has a kind of equalization system under which the most profitable teams must share some of their cash with the most unprofitable. With a few exceptions like the New York Rangers, the money-spinning machines are Canadian, and the money-suckers are American.

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