from Carol Schram at Forbes,
It’s no small feat, bringing the NHL to Australia for a pair of preseason games.
Back in June, the league dispatched three 40-foot shipping containers from Philadelphia on a freighter. The cargo, which includes everything from the rink boards to the pucks and even the Zambonis, reached its destination in Melbourne at the end of July.
Similar to the process that goes into setting up for an outdoor game, the hockey rink will soon be assembled from scratch inside Rod Laver Arena. That process begins on Thursday, before the Arizona Coyotes and the Los Angeles Kings face off on Sept. 23 and 24 before an expected total capacity crowd of more than 25,000 fans.
Mounting NHL games for the first time ever in the Southern Hemisphere is a massive undertaking. But the league has been receiving data for years which indicates that Australians are — perhaps surprisingly — hot for hockey.
“I would say for the last, at least, eight years, we’ve kind of kept an eye on it,” said David Proper, the NHL’s senior executive vice president of media and international strategy. “The numbers just continue to increase. We’re starting to significantly over-index in Australia across most or all of our metrics. And it just feels like it’s the right opportunity.”
Those metrics include viewership, with all regular-season and playoff games streamed via ESPN Australia, as well as NHL App visits, merchandise sales on NHLShop.com and content consumption on the NHL’s YouTube and social media channels
NEW YORK (Sept. 12, 2023) The Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings are set to face off in the 2023 NHL Global Series™ - Melbourne, to open the NHL preseason, at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday, Sept. 23 and Sunday, Sept. 24. Both games will start at 2 p.m. AEST (9Go!, 9Now, ESPN Australia, NHL Network).
The 2023 NHL Global Series™ - Melbourne will mark the first-ever NHL games played in the Southern Hemisphere, but not the first international trip for either the Kings or Coyotes. The Kings most recent foray overseas was for two preseason games in China in 2017. In addition, Los Angeles has seen preseason action in Austria (2007) and Germany (2011), and has also played regular-season games in England (2007), Germany (2011), and Sweden (2011). Arizona traveled to Latvia for one preseason game, and to Czechia for two regular-season games, in 2010. A complete history of NHL preseason games and regular-season games played outside North America can be found by clicking the links below:
* Preseason Games Played Outside North America
* Regular-Season Games Played Outside North America
The games in Melbourne will feature some of the NHLs top talent. The Coyotes roster includes forwards Clayton Keller, Jason Zucker and Nick Schmaltz, defensemen Matt Dumba and J.J. Moser, and goaltender Karel Vejmelka. The Kings counter with captain Anze Kopitar, fellow forwards Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe and Pierre-Luc Dubois, and defensemen Drew Doughty and Australian native Jordan Spence.
In addition to the Coyotes-Kings contests in Melbourne, the 2023 NHL Global Series will visit Stockholm, Sweden, where an unprecedented four NHL Clubs will play matchups in a single European city. The Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs will be featured in a slate of four regular-season games to take place Nov. 16-19 at Avicii Arena.
More information on the 2023 NHL Global Series Melbourne is available on NHL.com, and on TikTok and Instagram at @nhlaus.
Not a fan of the games across oceans. And it's always some Western Conf teams with travel schedules that are already brutal, and make them take a 18 hour flight each way to Melbourne and deal with a +19 hour time change. Notice how the Rangers never go on these things? Are the Yotes really the team Gary wants to showcase to a brand new audience?
Will the League ever run out of bad ideas?😉
Create an Account
In order to leave a comment, please create an account.