http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2009-07-28-jersey-ads_N.htm
This snippet especially I bring up: "NHL chief operating officer John Collins says the league might put ads on game jerseys for the right price."
Over in Europe, the players in those league are speeding billboards, stacked head to toe with different ads: from players with a big sticker on their front helmet (for example http://media.photobucket.com/image/european%20hockey%20player%20ads/cdnuniguy/International/SamiKapanenKalPa.jpg ) to goaltenders that look like this: http://visualrian.com/storage/PreviewWM/3649/70/364970.jpg
In these economic times, any boost in cash is a good thing, but in this case, the price is too high. There's a reason why to this day that the NHL has not sold out their players to commercial business: TRADITION! Other than fighting going decreasing since The Lockout (has been back on the rise past two years), most of the framework of the sport is still intact. The USA article had a good comment from Bill Daly, NHL Deputy Commissioner:
"As with anything new, you weigh tradition with the commercialization of sports...Obviously, sports are becoming more commercialized each and every year. We have that debate internally all the time. Where do you draw the line? How much is too much? You have to protect the look and feel of the game. You look at professional hockey played in Europe and there's advertising on jerseys and on the ice. You can have so much advertising on the ice that it can be distracting to players. There's a balance there."
Something hockey has still kept is the timeless quote 'You play for the name on the front, not the one on the back.' If ads were allowed on the player, you could change that changed to 'I play for the Coors Light Brewing Company on my helmet, and Sleepy's the Mattress Professionals on my thighs'.
This is a distraction to the players, who should focus on winning and giving their fans what they wanna see, a dam good game of hockey. Fans also would be revolted by this concept. Guarantee that 18,200 fans would want to see their favorite players instead of reading the fine print on the players visors.
What this would do is also take away from the sport, which has finally seemed to regained some legitimacy of a sport America actually cares for. Take the television ads, paint on the ice/boards ads (except don't take up the whole dam ice), but keep those dam things away from the players. Because without tradition, we lose our identity.
