HockeyAir Canada letter to NHL is intriguing

Technically, Air Canada can't pull its advertising from the National Hockey League, because it isn't a league sponsor. That's probably why commissioner Gary Bettman reacted so angrily to the letter from the company's director of marketing/communications, Denis Vandal on Thursday.

According to sources, Bettman's been trying to sign up AC as the NHL's official carrier for several years, always unsuccessfully. That's why Southwest Airlines has the official title.

For Air Canada to walk away as a matter of conscience would be somewhat incredible. (If you've missed the story of the week, Vandal's statement comes on the heels of a jarring hit that injured Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty on Tuesday. The Air Canada letter said: "From a corporate social responsibility standpoint, it is becoming increasingly difficult to associate our brand with sports events which could lead to serious and irresponsible accidents."). 

 Those same sources indicate the airline's role of private carrier for 11 teams is lucrative. (Those teams are Canada's six, plus Washington, New Jersey, Carolina, Los Angeles and Anaheim.) Earlier this morning, I wrote that it's believed the company makes about $20 million combined from those teams. Another source pegged it at $35 million, but, from what I've learned, that's way too high.

Basically, how it works is this: the payout is dependent on how much a team travels. Someone like New Jersey, which uses a plane for about 90 hours or so, spends less than Vancouver, which uses about 150. Length of contract also determines your rate. The longer you sign means a better deal.

Dollars and cents 

The safe guesstimate is an average of $2 million per team, which would be $22 million. The NHL also has a small travel deal with Air Canada, which provides the league a discount for on-ice officials' and executives' flights. That's worth a little less than $1 million per year.

Via Twitter, a few of you asked how much money Air Canada would spend on sponsorships. As mentioned, the airline is not a league sponsor, but it does have packages with all six Canadian teams.

When the company went through bankruptcy proceedings in 2003, there were some real battles with the executor over how much it spent on these kinds of things. From what I understand, AC spends about $6 million per year on those teams combined. (And, if the Jets were to return to Winnipeg, you'd have to believe Air Canada would be involved, as that city is where the palatial 320s are maintained.)

The airline also pays $1.5 million per year through 2019 to name the Air Canada Centre, and the Maple Leafs would love it if that was discontinued. They could probably get three times that on the open market. When the airline went through bankruptcy, its management it fought hard to keep those rights because it was such great value.

So, what we're looking at is spending in the $7.5 million range, with revenues at about $23 million. The other bonus of running team travel is that the planes involved don't fly regular routes, which saves on fuel and depreciation. That's pretty good, and why I'm betting some of the airline's sales executives were not pleased with Mr. Vandal. Not a stunner that you haven't heard a peep out of them today.

The final question I had is: What if NHL teams were so angry at Air Canada that they wanted to dump the company. One person who is familiar with these deals answered, "You can get out of any contract at a cost. But, Air Canada is the best at this service and teams are very happy with them. That's not going to happen."

Then, there is the question of other sponsors.

One willing to talk today was Rick White, VP-Brand and Marketing Management for Scotiabank. Scotiabank presents Hockey Night in Canada's pre-game show and is the primary sponsor of Hockey Day in Canada.

The Pacioretty injury comes as Scotiabank is "working at developing its own concussion editorial program" in conjunction with some leading experts in the field, White said. He didn't want to give further details at this point, choosing to wait until the company is ready to reveal the entire package.

But Scotiabank is not considering revoking its sponsorship. "We'd rather work with the NHL and NHLPA to learn about concussions and find the right solution."

(Photo of Max Pacioretty courtesy Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images)