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Business of Hockey

NHL Revenue Sharing Under the New CBA: What Changed and Why It Matters

By Arnel2 min read

When the NHL and NHL Players' Association agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement, the changes went far beyond player salaries. Revenue sharing — how money flows between the league's highest-earning franchises and its struggling markets — got a significant overhaul.

For casual fans, this stuff is invisible. For team executives, arena operators, and anyone building a business around hockey, it's everything.

What Actually Changed

The new CBA increased the percentage of hockey-related revenue that gets shared with lower-revenue teams. The exact formulas are complex, but the direction was clear: the league wanted to keep competitive balance by making sure teams in Tampa, Nashville, and Arizona weren't permanently outgunned by Toronto, New York, and Montreal.

The salary cap was tied to revenue projections, which meant more predictability for teams planning long-term contracts. But it also meant escrow — the percentage of player salaries held back if league revenue fell short of projections — remained a contentious issue.

Why Revenue Sharing Matters for the Sport

I've been building a global hockey directory, and one of the things that's always stood out to me is how uneven the landscape is. Some markets have two decades of fan loyalty and corporate sponsorship. Others are still building that foundation.

Revenue sharing is the mechanism that keeps the league competitive despite that imbalance. Without it, you'd see a handful of mega-market teams dominating year after year, while the rest fall further behind.

What Teams Are Actually Doing With It

Smart franchises aren't just spending their revenue sharing allocation on player salaries. They're investing in development staff, analytics infrastructure, and arena revenue generators — the things that create long-term competitive advantages.

Teams like Nashville and Tampa have used their revenue sharing arrangements to build rosters that consistently compete with much larger markets. That's not an accident. It's a strategy.

The Bigger Picture

For the NHL to grow globally, the domestic business has to be healthy. Revenue sharing is how the league keeps that healthy — by making sure hockey works everywhere, not just in the markets that already have it made.

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Arnel

Founder, RinkStop

Arnel is a hockey coach, entrepreneur, and founder of RinkStop — the world's hockey directory. He has been involved in hockey for over 20 years, from playing in Chicago to coaching in the Philippines.