The truth today in all professional sports is that schedules might end — but leagues never shut down. Just about three and a half months after the National Hockey League Commissioner, Gary Bettman, handed the Stanley Cup to Carolina Hurricanes captain Rod Brind’Amour, and 27 months after many predicted doom and gloom for the NHL because of an owner’s lockout, the 30 NHL franchises are back at work. Franchises have to sell luxury boxes, club seats, and season subscriptions and tickets to the regular folks who want to see a few games here and there.

On the league level, there are sponsorships and marketing agreements that need to be sold. The NHL, which has a revenue-sharing agreement with NBC (television networks typically pay upfront for American broadcast rights), has the additional task of finding national sponsors for network broadcasts. On the local level, NHL teams are charged with acquiring sponsors and marketing partners and, in some cases, have to find sponsors for games aired on regional sports cable channels. Canadian television, various satellite and cable TV packages, along with international broadcast arrangements, radio, the Internet, and all the other technically advanced gadgets like iPods, cellular downloads, and video games also require attention.

So just how is the NHL doing two years after the lockout that wiped out the 2004–05 season?

It’s too early to gauge by ticket sales, but NBC has added a number of games to its hockey package and the Peacock may shortly announce that it will extend its broadcast agreement with the league beyond 2007. The NHL’s cable partner, Versus, now reaches 70 million homes in America. So the league figures to increase its national exposure in America.Versus is not at ESPN subscriber levels, but a cable TV network — even one that is as branded as the self-described “World Wide Leader” ESPN — is not the sole source of hockey or sports on TV, the Internet, video on-demand, or other technology. A number of Versus cablecasts will be shown on Yahoo! Sports on a weekly basis, and the NHL will be given prominent space on the new NBCSports Web site when the network begins its 2007 broadcast package.

The NHL also begins the second year of a 10-year $100 million deal with XM, which has a dedicated hockey channel. The league will enjoy some presence on Sirius this year and in 2007–08, XM will become the exclusive satellite radio partner. The XM deal followed the deal with Versus and came just weeks after the end of the lockout. The lockout seemed to have little effect on NHL corporate partnerships.

At some point during the next two years, when TV rights come up for renegotiation, the league is going to hit a financial jackpot in Canada. A Canadian senate committee would like to see the state-run Canadian Broadcast Corporation get out of the sports business. The CBC holds the rights to the biggest TV sporting franchise in Canada, “Hockey Night in Canada,” and the program is a big revenue and audience producer for the CBC. There is nothing better for Bettman and the 30 NHL owners than to see a major bidding war between the CBC and the CTV-TSN combination. TSN is partly owned by the Walt Disney Company (which owns ESPN) and it seems highly unlikely ESPN will be carrying NHL games in America anytime soon — for a variety of reasons — even though the NHL-Versus deal could end after the 2006–07 season.

Comcast, which owns the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers, created Versus (previously the Outdoor Life Network, then OLN) and is partnered in various cable TV deals with the Boston Bruins, Madison Square Garden, the Washington Capitals, and the Chicago Blackhawks ownership groups. ESPN does not have any partnerships with NHL ownership at the moment. Comcast is also creating an American hockey channel.

On the sponsorship side, the 2004–05 lockout and its aftermath has not scared off companies from signing marketing deals with the league. Pepsi is in, and Coke is out, as the official beverage of the NHL. The Pepsi-owned Gatorade will become the “official sports drink” of the NHL. The deal was signed last June, just days after Pepsi-QTG Canada and Frito Lay Canada signed a three-year marketing agreement with the Pittsburgh Penguins center, Sidney Crosby.

Exactly where Crosby will be playing after this season is a major concern for the NHL. The Penguins aren’t trading Crosby but the franchise is being sold to a Hartford businessman, Sam Fingold, who may move the team to Kansas City if Pittsburgh does not commit to building a new arena soon.

Mario Lemieux and his partners have decided they don’t want the franchise anymore. This leaves the NHL and Fingold to deal with a possible franchise shift. Lemieux and his partners did work out a deal with a Mississippi-based company, the Isle of Capri Casinos, to help fund a new Pittsburgh arena with some of the proceeds from a slot machine parlor license, should Harrisburg, Penn., state gaming officials award the casino company a slot license. If another group gets the slots license, there is no guarantee that Pittsburgh will receive funding for a new building.

Kansas City and Houston, along with Las Vegas, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Quebec City, and Hartford — three cities that once had NHL franchises — seem to be most interested in landing an NHL team.

There seems to be potential for problems to arise in certain cities: the ownership groups in Edmonton and Calgary want to replace existing arenas, while San Jose’s ownership has informed the city that its 13- year-old arena needs sprucing up. It has asked San Jose officials to look into having the arena re-fitted so the Sharks’ ownership can go after a National Basketball Association franchise.

It also appears that Newark Mayor Cory Booker is not going to stop construction of an arena in the city as he had threatened shortly before he assumed office in July. The arena, which will be home to the New Jersey Devils, is scheduled to open in about a year. Booker thought the monies allocated for arena construction would be better spent on other projects in Newark.

On Long Island, Islanders owner Charles Wang will oversee the renovation of Nassau Coliseum; apparently, he is serious about staying on the Island as he demonstrated in signing goaltender Rick DiPietro to be the face of the organization through 2021.

When NHL owners and players ended sports’ longest work stoppage 14 months ago, there were questions about the league’s future. The questions were way off base. The sports business is very sophisticated and all leagues have business plans — something that was virtually unheard of 40 years ago.

Sports fans come in two varieties: ticket-buyers and those who never set foot in arenas or stadiums. Owners cater to the ticket-buyers and hope that sports fans that watch the games on TV or call in to sports radio talk shows produce revenue by buying T-shirts and other team paraphernalia.

The NHL still maintains a loyal following from both these types of fans. And that’s why the league was able to get back to doing business with no problems. Their customers have no problems with the way the NHL goes about doing its business.