Global Ambitions: Examining the NHL’s Growth Strategy, From the Olympics to a New CBA

Wednesday, September 24 | 12:30 PM ET

Global Ambitions: Examining the NHL’s Growth Strategy, From the Olympics to a New CBA

As the puck drops on the 2025-26 NHL season, SBJ Live brings together leaders working across the league to explore the most important business storylines shaping the year ahead.

What we will discuss:

• Return to the Olympics (2026 Winter Games):
• The NHL’s re-entry into Olympic competition marks a major milestone in its international strategy. What does this mean for player participation, global viewership, and brand exposure?
• New CBA and Salary Cap Expansion: With a new collective bargaining agreement ratified and the salary cap rising significantly for the first time in years, teams are recalibrating their roster strategies and financial planning. We’ll unpack how this impacts competitiveness, free agency, and long-term team building.
• International Growth Strategy: From the successful 4 Nations Face-Off to new content partnerships like the NHL’s collaboration with Serie A, the league is doubling down on global expansion. What markets are next, and how is the NHL positioning itself as a global brand?

Who should attend:

• NHL team and league executives
• Media companies and broadcasters
• Sponsors and brand partners
• Agencies and vendors working with NHL properties
• Anyone interested in the business of hockey

Featured Speakers

Brad Alberts is in his second tenure with the Dallas Stars and currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer after rejoining the team in February 2011.

Additionally, he acts as President and Alternate Governor of the Texas Stars, Dallas' development affiliate in the American Hockey League, roles in which he has served in since July 1, 2017.

Alberts serves on the American Airlines Center Board of Directors, assisting in the management of one of the busiest arenas in the United States.

Alberts, who was named team President on March 2, 2018 and took on the role of Chief Executive Officer on July 10, 2020, oversees all aspects of the Stars business operations. Previously leading all sales and marketing, he’s also in charge of all aspects of the organization's finance and administration, box office, human resources and information technology, as well as the communications department, which has won three Dick Dillman Awards as the NHL’s Western Conference top public relations staff under his leadership.

Alberts' career includes nearly two decades of professional sports experience selling tickets, suites, premium seating and sponsorships. From 1996-2009, Alberts worked for the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers in various sales management roles in tickets, suites and corporate sponsorships. From 2006-09, Alberts served as the Executive Vice President of the Hicks Sports Marketing Group, the in-house sponsorship sales group for the Stars, Texas Rangers and Liverpool Football Club. In 2009, Alberts took over as the Vice President of Sponsorship and Sales at Legends/CSL, overseeing events at numerous venues around the country, most notably the Circuit of The Americas, a Formula One racing track in Austin, Texas.

Since rejoining the team in 2011, Alberts has played an integral role in the resurgence of the Stars in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, helping lead the organization to tremendous growth in brand visibility, attendance and sponsorship sales. Alberts and his leadership team were instrumental in the sweeping rebrand of the team, retiring the numbers of Mike Modano, Jere Lehtinen and Sergei Zubov and creating tremendous sponsorship value for the team and its partners. Under his leadership and direction, the organization hosted the 2020 Winter Classic at Cotton Bowl Stadium against the Nashville Predators. The event sold out within hours of tickets going on sale and was hailed as one of the most successful NHL events of all time, becoming the second-highest attended game in league history with a capacity crowd of 85,630.

Alberts received his bachelor's degree from Ripon College in 1992 where he was a four-year lettermen and co-captain of the basketball team, earning an induction into the Ripon College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002. He received a master's degree in sports administration from University of Northern Colorado in 1995. Alberts is an avid golfer and fitness enthusiast. Alberts serves as a member of the American Cancer Society CEO Board, the Dallas Sports Commission Board and is actively involved in other non-profit causes in the Metroplex.

He resides in Dallas with his wife Kate and their daughter Grace.

Keith Wachtel, President, NHL Business, is responsible for day-to-day leadership and management of numerous revenue-generating initiatives for the NHL and has been a key contributor to the League’s path to more than $6.3 billion in annual revenues. He leads all global corporate partnership efforts for the NHL and assumes P&L responsibility across numerous business areas.

Since joining the NHL in 2007, Wachtel has driven billions in revenue to the League and member Clubs and has helped the NHL to grow and expand in all areas of the business. The NHL partnership business is more robust and vibrant than at any point in its history with more than $260 million in national sponsorship revenue for the 2024-25 season. Corporate partners include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Apple, Verizon, Sportradar, Rogers, SAP, Fanatics, BODYARMOR, Discover, Enterprise, MassMutual, Navy Federal Credit Union, BetMGM, Chipotle, Bally’s, Labatt, Jersey Mike’s, Nestle, PespiCo, Ticketmaster, Scotiabank, Honda, Hyundai, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons and Tylenol.

Wachtel has also led the NHL to new revenue segments and partnership opportunities, most recently with the NHL’s new Digitally Enhanced Dasherboard (DED) technology, an advanced approach to dynamic dasherboard advertising that launched at the start of the 2022-23 season. The DED system allows for the digital replacement of camera-visible arena dasherboards within local, national, and international NHL game broadcasts, and has generated more than $200 million in incremental revenue for the League and Clubs. DED was nominated for the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award at the 2023 Sports Emmys and won the Sports Breakthrough of the Year award at the Sports Business Journal’s 2023 Sports Business Awards.

Over the past several seasons, Wachtel also established new revenue segments with Player Helmet Decals and the NHL Jersey Sponsorship Branding program, as well as in the technology and sports betting categories. In 2024, the NHL led the way in North American sports jersey sponsorship deals with 16 new team-level deals, and 27 Clubs have at least one jersey patch sponsor.

Wachtel was instrumental in the negotiation and planning of strategic, innovative collaborations with industry-leading technology providers to improve and enhance the NHL, including AWS, Verizon, Apple, Sportradar and SAP, as well as a partnership with SportsMEDIA Technology (SMT) to develop NHL EDGE, the League’s Puck and Player Tracking technology. In addition, Wachtel has been a driving force in the NHL’s progressive approach to sports betting, securing the League’s first official sports betting partnership with Bet MGM in 2018 following the repeal of PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Provision Act). Under Wachtel’s leadership, the League currently has a roster of 13 sports betting partners across the United States, Canada and Europe including BetMGM, FanDuel, Bet365, Bet99, DraftKings, PROLINE+, Tipsport, PointsBet, Bally’s, Betway, OlyBet, Interwetten and Veikkaus.

The tremendous success of the NHL partnership business helped in securing the recent historic and innovative seven-year television, streaming and media rights deals with the Walt Disney Company and ESPN, and Warner Bros. Discovery, which began with the 2021-22 season and will continue through the 2027-28 season. The tremendous success of the League’s partnership business was also integral to fostering robust broadcast and media rights agreements with NBC/Comcast (2011), Rogers (Canada) (2013) and Disney Streaming Services (DSS) (2015). As part of these agreements, Wachtel spearheaded North American digital sales partnerships with NBC Sports, Rogers and DSS for all NHL.com, NHL Network and NHL Mobile ad sales to non-League partners.

The NHL, guided by Wachtel and his team, continues to generate significant revenue through its yearly event calendar. To date, the League has staged 46 regular season games at venues outside North America and a total of 42 outdoor games in front of more than 2.1 million fans. Other marquee events include NHL All-Star, NHL international events including 4 Nations Face-Off and World Cup of Hockey, NHL Awards, the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Stanley Cup Final. Wachtel utilizes a creative sales approach to support these assets including the continual evolution of new League and Club marketing and branding opportunities like the most recent DED, NHL Jersey Sponsorship Branding Program, Player Helmet Decals, Virtual Slot In-Ice Branding and in-ice advertising positions below the goal line.

In addition to North America, Wachtel drives NHL revenue growth internationally, including across preseason and regular season games in Europe. An impressive roster of partners support the NHL’s global efforts including Apple, SAP, AWS, Upper Deck, Fastenal, Caterpillar, PepsiCo and Sportradar.

Prior to joining the NHL, Wachtel was Director of Business Development for the National Football League. During his six seasons with the NFL, Wachtel was involved in securing more than $300 million in long-term League partnerships. In addition to developing corporate sponsorships, other responsibilities included the sale of the NFL’s Super Bowl Halftime property and the League’s extensive calendar initiatives such as the NFL Draft, NFL Opening Kickoff and the Pro Bowl.

Prior to joining the NFL in 2001, Wachtel was the Director of Integrated Sales & Marketing for SFX Sports Group. Before working on the properties side of the business, Wachtel spent eight years from 1992-99 within some of the largest media buying agencies specializing in sports including Young & Rubicam, Bates U.S.A and Zenith Media.

In 2009 and 2010, Sports Business Journal named Wachtel as one of the Forty Under 40. A native New Yorker, Wachtel lives in Westchester, NY with his wife, Alison, and their two children. He graduated from the George Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and later went on to earn his Masters of Business Administration from Fordham University.

Registration is free. All registrants will receive a recording of the webinar following the event.

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