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If there’s one thing the NHL loves more than forcing rivalries on us, it’s that sweet, sweet advertising revenue. Who can blame them? We all like money, right?
For what seems like forever, advertising at NHL rinks has been limited to two main areas: four spots between the blue lines and the entirety of the boards.
In recent years, some teams began experimenting with those digital ads that appeared on the glass behind the goalie (the ones that only appeared on TV), but those seem to have kind of died out.
While the league is supposedly holding off on jersey ads for a while, they will be adding more advertisements to the ice this season.
In the spring, it was announced that the league had authorized four new on-ice ad spots, and that the ads would begin appearing in the 2018-2019 season. Each of the four spots is in a corner of the rink, below the goal line.
(The league ran pilot tests with these ads during some All-Star festivities and the China games, so you may have noticed them before.)
Today, the TD Garden Twitter account posted a video of the Garden ice surface being worked on as the new Bruins season approaches, inadvertently showing off the new ads in the process.
1st sign of the #NHLBruins season at @tdgarden! YOU could skate on this very ice by purchasing tickets to ‘Break ‘N The Ice’ skating event on 9/15. Proceeds benefit DCR Charitable Trust Fund.
— TD Garden (@tdgarden) August 25, 2018
Session 1 : https://t.co/VnaKM97VFY
Session 2 : https://t.co/xh7ZlToy9v pic.twitter.com/WIfQYWKELf
If you can't watch the video, here's one end:
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And here's the other:
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It looks...weird. Because this is New England, it looks like two of the ads are for Dunkin Donuts. The other, of course, is for WHO BUT WB MASON??? The one in the bottom-left corner is a little harder to see.
(Edit: That's Lahey Health at the bottom-left. Thanks to Weber King in the comments.)
At first glance, it’s a little jarring to see ads down there. It makes sense, from an advertising perspective, because those portions of the rink are “in-play” on TV a lot more than often than the neutral zone.
Hopefully, the NHL stops here and doesn’t go full European, with every inch of the ice plastered in ads. These ones might take a little getting used to, but they’re not exactly garish or hard on the eyes.
Thoughts?