Newsday September 28th 1994

 IN THE NOVEMBER issue of GQ magazine, goalies Mike Richter of the Rangers and Martin Brodeur of the Devils model winter coats. Vogue has a photo of the Red Wings' Russian star Sergei Federov and quotes him as preferring "good fabrics and Armani and Versace." Details magazine gushes over Flyers hotshot Eric Lindros as a cross between "Krishna and the Kennedys."

Wait a second.

We realized that by wearing colorful, oversized NHL jerseys in videos and on stage, rap stars such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Salt N' Pepa lit the fuse for a street fashion explosion.

We saw that the Rangers' jinx-shattering championship in June triggered tens of millions of dollars in sales of commemorative merchandise from key rings to $16 miniature Stanley Cups to $1,400 logo-emblazoned leather jackets.

We knew that Fox Sports was willing to shell out $155 million to buy the national over-the-air TV rights to the NHL, believing it can marry its 18- to 34-year-old demographics to a regional sport whose speed and battle garb is the logical successor to the marketing behemoth known as "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," the hot show for the pre-adolescent set.

We read that more than 13 million fitness-crazed people, including, it seems, half the daily visitors in Central Park, have bought and laced up in-line skates, more than double the number since 1991.

But NHL players, unmasked and preening on the upscale pages of the trendy? Now that's a breakthrough.

Beyond all the other media and merchandising dynamics at work, it's a powerful symbol that hockey's popularity is rising. The only black cloud on the horizon appears to be NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's threat of a lockout that would postpone the start of the season Saturday.

But even with a delay, hockey's arrow is pointing up. With the success of expansion to Florida, southern California and Texas, the league should draw more than 16 million fans in 26 markets this season, up by more than 2 million. Sales of licensed merchandise rose from $100 million in 1988-89 to more than $1 billion in 1993-94, the fastest growth of all four major sports.

"We feel it's the growth sport of the 90s," said Channing Souther, vice president of marketing for Logo 7 Inc., the Indianapolis apparel maker that uses the Blackhawks' Chris Chelios in national ads. "It's all coming together for them. They're ready to go over the wall."

Nike, which is expanding its street-hockey campaign, and Anheuser-Busch, which is tying its "Ice" brand to the NHL, have signed up for $5-million sponsorships. ESPN and ESPN2 will air four games a week. And besides the $31 million Fox is paying for each of the next five years, the network's promotional muscle is a significant boost.

"The game is on a roll," said Rick Dudley, the senior vice president and chief operating officer of NHL Enterprises, the NHL's marketing arm. "Things are very positive right now." While trying to add more corporate sponsors, Dudley says the league also is exploring other ways to capitalize on the newfound interest in the sport and its gear.

Following the lead of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, San Jose Sharks and Florida Panthers, which are among the top sellers in NHL team apparel, three teams will introduce new looks this season. The St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames will unveil new uniforms, and the Dallas Stars' logo will include the city name. And three U.S. clubs and one Canadian team will wear a "third jersey" for about six games this season, Dudley said. "We're testing it and hope to expand to all 26 teams next year. A club would wear the third jersey six times a year, Dudley said, "maybe on a promotional day or when a rival is coming into your building." Naturally, the jerseys will be available for fans to buy.

Selling the game itself, which ESPN has done well, is where Fox should really help. "We won't devote a lot of money to tell people the NHL is on Fox like we did with the NFL. The NFL had a wide audience, we just had to tell them to switch channels," said Tracy Dolgin, vice president of marketing for Fox Sports. "Here, we have to create stars like the NBA did with Magic and Bird, build an appetite for the game beyond the loyal segment of the audience it has. I'm not going to spend my money tryng to convince hockey fans, the hard-core viewer, to watch us. They will find us because on those days, we are the only game in town. We have to make it approachable for the people who don't know the game to build a Sunday hockey habit on Fox. But it won't happen overnight."

What did seem to happen overnight was the awareness of the NHL, in large part because of the high-profile Rangers' storybook season in the largest market in the U.S. Although he could not provide overall figures, Dudley said sales of Rangers Stanley Cup merchandise will be the NHL's biggest merchandise event ever and certainly propel the team "higher than its current No. 11 sales ranking. It's definitely a bigger share of our business."

Lee Berke, vice president of marketing for Madison Square Garden, said sales from postseason orders from a Rangers merchandise catalog, a $12.95 "instant book" about the season that sold 50,000 copies, and souvenirs from a special stand set up in Penn Plaza were approaching $1 million. "That's above and beyond sales inside the arena itself," Berke said.

And Patty Moyles, manager of Gerry Cosby's Sporting Goods at the Garden, said "it has been sheer, utter insanity since the playoffs. The day after Game 7, we were selling right out of the boxes. Not just T-shirts; we've sold 10,000 six-inch replicas of the Cup at $16 each. Generally there's a dip in the summer, but the numbers have kept up."

Nationally, a spokesperson for Starter, which had the license for the official Stanley Cup champs hat and T-shirt, said the company hoped to sell between 50,000 and 75,000 T-shirts. They sold three or four times that.

"The numbers were in line with, and in some cases exceeded, championship sales for teams in the NBA and NFL," the spokesperson said. "Because there are transplanted New Yorkers around the country, we had a larger percentage of Rangers merchandise sales outside of New York than in other years. It can't match the Cowboys or the Bulls, because they're considered national teams, but it's amazing for hockey." Catching Up Fast NHL merchandise lagged behind others sports for years. Over the last five, however, it's on the rise. U.S. retail sales of licensed merchandise (in billons):
NFL NBA NHL MLB
1990 $1.5 bil $0.75b $0.15b $1.5 bil
1991 1.7b $1.0b .275b 2.0b
1992 2.0b 1.4b .600b 2.4b
1993 2.6b 2.1b .800b 2.8b
1994 3.0b 2.5b $1.1 bil 3.0b

NHL Team Rankings Sales for period from July, 1993 through March, 1994. Therefore, chart does not reflect sales of Ranger merchandise during and after Stanley Cup run.

NHL 1. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 2. Florida Panthers 3. Chicago Blackhawks 4. Pittsburgh Penguins 5. San Jose Sharks 11. New York Rangers 16. New Jersey Devils 20. New York Islanders

Source: NHL