Written by: Kian Jester
Out of the four major sports leagues in the U.S., the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA, the NHL is last in terms of fanbase size and total revenue (Badenhausen, 2025). Part of this can be explained by their weak national presence, as hockey is concentrated in northern states, where youth hockey is prominent, and traditions run deep. They also rely heavily on Canada, as they have a much stronger hockey presence, as well as seven franchises, six more than any other league. While their support is concentrated in the north, the NHL still branches out all over the country with fanbases in Las Vegas, Florida, and California. Fast-paced game play, a century of traditions, and fights draw thousands of fans to the rink from October through June.
Despite this, the NHL generated revenue of 7.9 billion dollars in 2024. This seems significant, yet the NBA, the next closest league, generated 12.3 billion (Badenhausen, 2025). Both leagues have similar capacities for attendance, often residing in the same stadium, yet what separates the NBA is their national revenues, as they draw in a fanbase all throughout the country as well as abroad. The NHL by far has the smallest national revenue at 18%, totaling 1.4 billion dollars; the NFL generates 62%, totaling 13.8 billion dollars (Badenhausen, 2025).
In the NHL, teams play 82 regular-season games with an average attendance of around 17,000 per game, resulting in a total attendance of over 50 million across the season into the playoffs (Barr, 2024). Being the smallest league in terms of fanbase and revenue, that many seats means that the NHL is gate-driven, with over half its revenue coming from ticket sales (43%) and concessions/parking (14%) (Badenhausen, 2025). With few nationally broadcast games and special events that teams can count on, franchises rely on attendance to drive revenues.
With stadium attendance being the most important aspect of generating revenue in the NHL, it is important that teams get as many fans to the game as possible. Pricing is the biggest variable in fan attendance as franchises juggle a variety of factors that impact the final price they offer to fans. Teams use a mix of dynamic and variable pricing to determine appropriate ticket prices. Variable pricing is when ticket costs are determined by past experiences to predict what the market price will be. Using data such as time of year, day of the week, and matchups, teams can get a better idea of what the market will demand. This method is typically fixed at the beginning of the season as it strictly uses data from previous years (Jessiman, 2019).
The opposing team is one factor that impacts variable pricing. Fans are heavily invested in team success, but rivalry matchups simply mean more. Rivalries through region and past play increase fan attendance and their willingness to pay, and teams can utilize this in their variable pricing decisions. (Paul, 2003) . This impacts variable pricing as schedules come out well before the season, and teams can look at past data to assist their ticket pricing decisions (Jessiman, 2019).
Variables such as day of the week, month, and time of puck drop all impact fans’ desire to attend a game. Weekend games are more valuable than weekday games due to consumers having more time in their schedules. This increases attendance and willingness to pay, which is factored into variable pricing (Paul, 2003). Different months also impact NHL attendance as families attend games together during winter breaks as well as during games down the stretch in February and March due to the playoff implications of each game (Anderson, 2016).
Dynamic pricing, adjusts over time as supply and demand are evaluated and prices are modified in response to changing market conditions. If a team outperforms its fan expectations, then prices will likely increase to match the increased demand (Jessiman, 2019). For example, in this current NHL season, attendance at San Jose Sharks games is up 13.5 percent, and Buffalo Sabers games are up six percent. This is due to the increased success of both franchises, allowing them to increase prices as the season progresses to match the increased market demand (Barr, 2024). The weather has a similar effect as warmer games increase NHL attendance, and rainy days have the opposite effect (Anderson, 2016). Both team success and weather impact dynamic pricing because they change as the season progresses. Franchises can appropriately adjust ticket prices as the season progresses to increase total revenue.
Dynamic pricing allows teams to appropriately adjust their ticket costs to adjust for current market conditions, but it is used with variable pricing, as not all factors are subject to change. Variable pricing is the starting point, and dynamic pricing explains the fluctuations throughout the season (Jessiman, 2019). Despite this strategy to increase profits, NHL franchises are not profit maximizers in terms of revenue from tickets. They will often undersell tickets in order to sell out the stadium because full stadiums generate parking and concessions revenue (Drayer, 2012). If franchises raise prices too much, they risk negative fan sentiment, which could undervalue future games (Drayer, 2012). Franchises may generate more revenue at a higher price, but empty stadiums inhibit the fan experience, which is important in retaining customers in the long run. This is especially important when there are at least 41 home games in a season.
When consumers have a higher willingness to pay than the market price, a greater consumer surplus is generated. This consumer surplus is demonstrated in a better fan experience, but is also capitalized on by secondary ticket markets. Websites such as Ticketmaster and Stubhub exploit this consumer surplus by reselling purchased tickets at a price that is greater than what teams offer. People purchase these resold tickets as original tickets are often undervalued, and tickets have a finite amount (Drayer, 2012).
In a gate-driven league, it is important for the NHL to appropriately price its tickets based on fan attendance and willingness to pay. Through variable and dynamic pricing strategies, teams can factor in the array of variables, such as opponents, timing, team success, and weather, to decide pricing and bring their millions of fans into the rink maximizing total revenue.
References
Anderson, Z. (2016, May). Weather’s Impact on NHL Attendance. MOSpace. https://mospace.umsystem.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/33d3c02a-ebe2-44c5-8bb4-dc58141c5406/content
Badenhausen, K. (2025, January 2). How sports teams, leagues and owners make money. Sportico.com. https://www.sportico.com/feature/how-sports-teams-leagues-make-money-1234766931/
Barr, J. (2024, April 3). NHL attendance report 2023-24. Sound Of Hockey. https://soundofhockey.com/2024/04/03/nhl-attendance-report-2023-24/
Drayer, J., Shapiro, S. L., & Lee, S. (2012). Dynamic ticket pricing in sport: An agenda for research and practice (SSRN Working Paper No. 2457101). SSRN. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2457101
Jessiman, E. (2019, September 5). Embracing the dynamic: Franchises turning to New Economic Model. The Hockey News. https://thehockeynews.com/news/all-access/embracing-the-dynamic-franchises-turning-to-new-economic-model
Paul, R. J. (2003). Variations in NHL Attendance: The Impact of Violence, Scoring, and Regional Rivalries. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 62(2), 345–364. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3487916