from Eben Novy-Williams and Scarlet Fu of Bloomberg,
The National Hockey League may miss out on as much as $200 million this season because of the slide of the Canadian dollar, according to league commissioner Gary Bettman.
Bettman said in an interview on Bloomberg Television that while he still believes the NHL will set a revenue record this year, it will do so in spite of a Canadian dollar that fell to a 13-year-low in January.
“It’s a fact of life, it’s something we deal with,” Bettman said.
The Loonie has since rebounded, rising to 76 U.S. cents from 68 U.S. cents, but remains well below the 92-cent rate of two years ago. Bettman said the league, which is currently considering expanding to Las Vegas or Quebec City, assumes it will stabilize at about 80 U.S. cents.
The league will record an estimated $4 billion in revenue for the 2015 fiscal year, up about 8 percent from last year’s record $3.7 billion. About one-third of the NHL’s revenue comes from Canada -- either from ticket sales for the seven teams North of the border, its $5.2 billion television deal with Rogers Communications Inc. (which pays in Loonies) or from Canadian sponsorships. For a league that conducts all its business in U.S. dollars, a weak Canadian dollar means less profit.
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