Seconds earlier, the horn had sounded, marking the first intermission of Wednesday’s World Cup of Hockey game between dependable hockey superpower Sweden and a whirling cyclone of kids. “Man, that was great,” Bettman, the NHL commissioner for more than 23 years, says. “Hockey resonates with us, and across the country, when it stems from moments — think of 1980 and the Miracle on Ice or my generation and the 1996 World Cup,” he added. Rogers has a twelve-year, $5.2 billion broadcast deal with the league that runs to the 2025-26 season and includes the World Cup. Last year, Forbes magazine estimated that 55 per cent of the NHL’s total profits came from its Canadian franchises, but those franchises pay salary expenses in U.S. dollars while bringing in Canadian revenue.

Source: National Post September 23, 2016 22:18 UTC