The AHL Is Back

While I often spend time yapping about the business of the NHL on HBIC, I should note that the other leagues who do business with the NHL need to have solid business plans in order to remain in business as well. If the AHL were to run into insolvency problems, I'm not certain the NHL would want to bail them out of their problems as much as they'd need to do that thanks to their affiliation relationships with a number of teams. Because of this, the NHL would have a definite interest in hearing that the AHL is turning a profit as soon as possible following their pandemic years, and it seems that happened this season as the AHL is back in the black ink for 2023-24 as per AHL president and CEO Scott Howson.

"We've just recovered so quickly," Howson told The Associated Press this week. "It's a testament to our product. It's a testament to our markets. It's a testament to what our teams are doing and what the staffs of our teams are doing to put people in the building."

All those testaments aside, having full buildings for the Calder Cup Final between the Hershey Bears and Coachella Valley Firebirds certainly doesn't hurt, and total playoff attendance has reportedly surpassed 500,000 fans which is a record for the AHL. As per the AHL release one week ago, the Calder Cup Playoffs have seen a "league average of 6,235 per game ranks the 2023 postseason third-highest in the last 60 years, behind only the 2016 playoffs (6,513 over 67 games) and the 1964 playoffs (6,794 over 17 games)." We also shouldn't overlook this fact:

"The Coachella Valley Firebirds, in their first season of play in the AHL, are leading the way with 117,879 fans over 13 home dates, the highest playoff attendance by one team in league history. The Firebirds have recorded four postseason sellouts at the 10,087-seat Acrisure Arena, including each of the first two games of the Calder Cup Finals against Hershey."

According to Howson, revenue levels have also spiked to "15% to 20% above pre-pandemic levels" which would make this the most profitable year on record for the developmental league. It's not all rosy, though, as a handful of teams have not made up all the ground lost to the pandemic, but the threats of contraction or relocation of teams is nil thanks to the solid growth this season.

"There's really no weak spots," Howson said. "Some are obviously doing better than others, some markets are better than others, but we're really stable from an ownership point of view and a market point of view."

And that makes me scratch my head because as recently as the end of March, there were calls for Howson to be fired from his position as teams were unhappy with the direction in which Howson was taking the league. As we know, the Chicago Wolves have decided to move back to their independent ways as they've walked away from their affiliation with the Carolina Hurricanes, so perhaps they were one of the unhappy teams. In any case, if just one of 32 teams is unhappy with the direction the league is headed in, it seems silly to remove Howson after all the good seen this year.

When it comes to the first-year Coachella Valley Firebirds and the relocated Henderson Silver Knights, Howson stated that they had "'raised the bar for everybody' as revenue generators". Cornerstone franchises like Hershey and Rochester have shown that their fanbases are still passionate about those teams, the West Coast expansion seems to be paying off despite Stockton's move north to Calgary, and IHL franchises like Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, and Chicago will always get great crowds out to their buildings. Whatever the AHL is doing is working well, and it would be wise to keep an eye on the future by using some of this revenue to prepare for bigger and better.

"There's so many positive things going on with our league right now from a business point of view, and I think it starts with the hockey," Howson said. "The entertainment value's really high, and that translates into the business."

If business is good, you don't make changes, and the AHL Board of Governors decided to reward Howson in May by getting him to sign a multi-year contract extension to continue as AHL president and CEO. Whatever tension there was in March when it came to Howson's performance, people clearly came to their senses as the AHL continued to show a strong bottom line. Add in an expanded Calder Cup Playoff field of 23 teams, a 72-game schedule for all teams, women working in all sectors of the AHL including officiating, and new partnership and sponsorship revenues, and it would seem the decision to bring Howson back was more elementary than the AHL may have admitted in March.

If you're a fan of the NHL, you're benefitting from the AHL's work. The AHL has done incredible work developing players for the next level of hockey, and a vast number of teams have used their AHL affiliations to strengthen their squads. Thanks to Scott Howson, the AHL is benefitting from that relationship when it comes to marketing those future stars, and I believe that the AHL is better with Scott Howson than without him based on what he's done in his role.
The AHL is back and is stronger than ever thanks to the efforts of Scott Howson and the AHL executive team. The more-than-seven million fans that went through AHL turnstiles for just the third time in AHL history is all the evidence needed.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!