For NBA and NHL trading partners at the team level, the two-month playoff stretch can really be the equivalent of a second season. By the time the postseasons conclude later this month for each league, as many as 3.4 million fans will have attended a game at one of the 28 arenas that have hosted at least one playoff game.
More than 1.5 million of those fans will have been to a stadium where Levy oversees food and beverage operations. For context, that’s more than the combined regular-season attendance of the Miami Heat and Vegas Golden Knights, Levy clients who are playing in the finals of their respective leagues.
According to an analysis of SBJ Atlas data, the Chicago-based company served meals for fans of 15 playoff teams in 13 stadiums across the two leagues, for a total of at least 81 additional games (a total that could reach 85 if both finals go seven games).
Concession sales data was not available, but caps for F&B at a regular-season NBA game typically range from $14 to $22, according to an executive with decades of experience.
Levy has become almost a mainstay in the Finals: The company has had at least one NBA Finals team in each of the past 10 seasons (including three times hosting both teams) and at least one NBA Finals finalist. the Stanley Cup eight times in the last decade. .
Another behind-the-scenes success story is Legends, which will host nearly half a million playoff fans if the Denver Nuggets-Heat series goes seven games.
The company’s food and beverage playoff venues included the Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center and the New Jersey Devils’ Prudential Center, and the Nuggets’ championship run continued a recent streak of success for the Legends relationship. -Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. KS&E owns Ball Arena and its tenants: the Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche (who hosted four playoff games), and the NLL Colorado Mammoths (who reached the league finals for the second year in a row).
As for exposure, eight of the 10 stadiums with the highest playoff attendance totals have a naming rights partner. Heading into each league’s finals, Boston’s TD Garden had hosted the most fans, thanks to the Celtics’ consecutive seven-game series. But if the Nuggets-Heat series returns to Denver for Game 5, Ball Arena will move into the top spot.
Ball Corp., the Colorado-based producer of aluminum containers for beverages and other uses, already garnered significant television exposure during the playoffs, such as Games 1 and 2 of the Nuggets’ four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference. Each of the finals averaged more than 7.36 million viewers on ESPN.
Likewise, if Miami hosts a Game 6, a Heat sellout will edge out the Kaseya Center over Crypto.com Arena (which benefited from having three teams in the playoffs).
Kaseya, a Miami-based IT and security software company, purchased the naming rights to the arena just days before the playoffs began.
At least half of the Stanley Cup Finals will be played at a venue that does not have a naming rights partner. Florida Panthers FLA Live! the venue has had more corporate names than any other professional sports arena: National Car Rental; Deposit office; Atlantic Bank; and BB&T Center, but has not had a naming rights deal since 2021.
