Why the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off Scored Big—and What Other Leagues Can Take Away

If you didn’t tune into the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament, you missed something spectacular. It was a big hit because the best hockey players in the world gave it their all, playing for their country and setting aside personal benefit.  

It was the antithesis to the ceremonial play of a typical all-star weekend like that staged by the NBA and the ratings showed it with ESPN setting records for most watched hockey game (16.1 million viewers) and the NBA declining 13% with 4.7 million viewers. So, did the NHL just dunk on the NBA? Maybe. Basketball is still much more popular than hockey, but fans flow to what’s new and interesting. So, imagine if the NBA took a page from the NHL and from college basketball – which has awesome 3 day, 8 team tournaments like the Maui Invitational – where NBA stars represented where they came from (countries, cities/states, schools…) brought their ‘A’ games. Even a U.S. vs World format would be a step in the right direction. 

The MLB all-star game is better competition but imagine if they replaced it by the successful World Baseball Classic, something that should be built into the next collective bargaining agreement to adjust the current 162 game season to accommodate it.  

And let’s just kill off the NFL Pro Bowl (which hit a new record low in viewership) and replace it with an international Flag Football Championship during the off week between the playoffs and Super Bowl.  

If we can’t do the above every year, make it during the off year to the Olympics as hockey, basketball, baseball and (starting in ‘28) flag football are Olympic sports.  

These all-star weekends are a primary league-level sponsorship asset, and the deterioration has made it less attractive for brands to be a league partner. They are sold as jewel events, and they need to be remade to fulfill that promise. Beyond the NHL itself, its brand partners like Discover and AWS were big winners here beyond the ratings as the tournament’s success made their association more valuable. If fan interest carries over to the Stadium Series and Stanley Cup Playoffs that benefit will multiply for league partners. 

Let’s hope this puts the nail in the coffin of leagues asking brand partners to be sponsors of those embarrassing “celebrity” games. Those should be banished for the good of us all!