UFC president Dana White has slammed the NHL for their outdated marketing approach.
White, 52, was reacting to claims that the NHL did not want anything to do with Canadian-American YouTubers Nelk and their Full Send brand. The group, which has over four million followers on TikTok and almost eight million YouTube subscribers, have found internet fame with prank videos.
Contrastingly, White collaborates with their Full Send brand and recently released a line of UFC merchandise around the promotion returning to Canada earlier in June. They hosted a pop-up shop in Vancouver before the event to coincide with their new items dropping.
Others whom Nelk have platformed include former US president Donald Trump. Andrew Tate, a social media influencer who continues to be the subject of a human trafficking investigation in Romania and remains under house arrest, is another controversial individual they have previously worked with.
But, as Nelk explained in a video published on TikTok, they will not be working with the NHL anytime soon. "The NHL told us if Nelk Boys is involved, we don't want anything to do with it," one group member explains to White. "Yeah, we're too edgy," another adds.
White did not mince his words when reacting to those revelations. "F*** 'em. They're all old dumb f****** people that have no idea what's going on. They have no idea where this younger generation is, how you reach them, any of that s***."
The American businessman then quotes viewing figures from the Stanley Cup Playoffs to further his point. "Total video views for the NHL- in the middle of their conference finals, they did 25 million video views."
White then compares these with the fighting promotion company he owns and executive produced, Power Slap, in which contestants slap each other in the face. "Power Slap did 90 million," he says.
"So all these people that are talking s*** out there, you know, it's all old, dumb f****** journalists. NHL don't want the Nelk Boys? No problem. I got 'em."
Whether it was down to not working with the Nelk Boys or not, viewing figures for the NHL postseason were down 10 percent from the previous year. That was somewhat due to a one-sided Stanley Cup Final, which averaged only 2.6 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch, as the Vegas Golden Knights topped the Florida Panthers in just five games.
Those figures are two million down from 12 months ago when the Colorado Avalanche beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. Disregarding the 2020 and 2021 Cup Finals, which were played out-of-season because of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to decreased viewerships across all sports, 2023 is the least-watched since 2007.
Again, that is likely due to the unfancied nature of both teams reaching the Cup Final for just the second time in each of their respective histories, with neither previously lifting the Stanley Cup.
