The owners of the LA Kings are over the moon for “Heated Rivalry.”
The spicy show about hockey players who fall for each other has driven up NHL ticket sales, including at Crypto.com Arena.
Ticket reseller SeatGeek said last month that its weekly hockey sales surged 20% after “the sho”Heated Rivalry’s first episodes aired. HBO Max
“It’s beyond belief,” said a team exec who’d previously had no awareness of the HBO series. “I knew nothing about it, I thought it was a reality series,” he said.
The sports vet first heard of “Heated Rivalry” when the show’s breakout, Connor Storrie, made his late-night TV debut on Seth Meyers‘ show last month and then realized at the office that some of his younger, hipper, female colleagues were already such stans that one staffer had watched the debut season three times.
Ticket reseller SeatGeek said last month that its weekly hockey sales surged 20% after the show’s first episodes aired, with revenue spiking over 30%. At rival StubHub, hockey searches increased 75%, with purchases by first-time buyers jumping 5%. Our Kings exec said some teams are playing music from the show during timeouts, and league commish Gary Bettman watched the debut season in one night.
But a hockey insider chimes in to wonder: “What percentage [of players] are gay in the NHL?” So far, one non-NHL pro has come out, and the stars of the show have said they’ve been contacted by closeted players.