Air Canada threatens to pull NHL sponsorship: reports
Posted March 10, 2011 9:23 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO (NEWS1130) – The NHL has received a major financial body check from Air Canada.
The airline is reportedly threatening to pull sponsorship dollars from the NHL unless its cleans up its acts over head shots. Reports say Air Canada is very concerned about associating its brand name to a sport in which players are getting seriously hurt and worries there will eventually be a fatality.
According to the Toronto Sun, the airline has informed the NHL it will withdraw all of its corporate sponsorship, unless the league takes immediate and serious action against head shots.
Outside the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, a hockey fan named Jim agreed with that sentiment. “If they let this slide, then the kids of the hockey future will think it is okay to bully around the smaller players, and it’s not right,” he says.
Air Canada not only owns the naming rights to the arena in Toronto, it’s also a big backer of all six Canadian teams.
