CHL brings national and regional sponsorship & media sales in-house

The Canadian Hockey League (CHL), in collaboration with the Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), has announced that it is bringing both corporate sponsorship and media sales in-house after outsourcing its sales operations for over 20 years. In order to effect this transition, the CHL will create a new corporate sponsorship team led by Ryan Hudecki, who will serve as the CHL’s new Vice-President of Partnerships. Hudecki comes into this new role with a deep understanding of the CHL having spent the better part of the last two decades helping manage the CHL’s sponsorship business during his time at Canadian Controlled Media Communications (CCMC).

Led by Hudecki, the CHL’s new corporate sponsorship team will feature dedicated sales representatives for each of the CHL’s three member leagues: WHL, OHL, and QMJHL. Industry veterans Rishi Lal and Randy Paul will be National Sales Directors for the CHL focusing on integrated media and event sponsorships, while Regional Sales Directors Alysia Olsen (WHL), Joe Gallello (OHL), and Caroline Vanasse (QMJHL) will focus on assets in each league. 

The creation of this team will facilitate new and innovative opportunities for current and prospective partners of the CHL. The league’s commercial outreach strategy will be developed with local execution in as many as 60 CHL communities across North America. The CHL will use its in-house sales team to optimize current revenue streams, which include annual events like the Memorial Cup and the Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game, as well as establish new opportunities.

“As we continue to innovate and grow, we are excited about the new opportunities that will be born out of bringing both corporate sponsorship and media sales in-house,” said Dan MacKenzie, President of the CHL. “We also couldn’t be more excited to welcome Ryan Hudecki, who brings a wealth of experience having done an excellent job of managing the CHL’s sponsorship business as a member of CCMC for 18 years. Building on the great work done by CCMC, our newly structured corporate sponsorship team at the CHL will maximize existing revenue drivers while identifying exciting new ones across our league’s three-member leagues.”

This past season, the CHL enjoyed incredible fan support and large viewership numbers during the 2022-23 campaign, which was capped off by a memorable 2023 Memorial Cup. Specifically, a total of 4.5 million viewers tuned in to TSN and RDS to watch this year’s Memorial Cup, including an average audience of 687,000 who watched the event’s championship game. From an attendance perspective, the CHL welcomed over 8.5 million fans to the arenas of its 60 member clubs over the course of the 2022-2023 season, which represented an increase of over 30% from the previous year.

In 2024, for the first time in 26 years, the Memorial Cup will be hosted south of the border when next year the championship of the CHL will be held in Saginaw, Michigan from May 23 to June 2. While, the 2024 Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game will be played at Avenir Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick, on January 24, 2024.

Prior to today’s announcement, the CHL had previously outsourced its sales operations to CCMC, which served as the league’s exclusive sales agency for the past 20 years. CCMC, which was led by its president Kim Locke since 1982, recently closed its doors after an impressive 41-year run as one of North America’s leading sports and entertainment marketing agencies. In addition to working with the CHL, CCMC owned the SCOREGolf brand and partnered with a number of other major properties over the years, including the Toronto Blue Jays, the NHL, and the CFL.