Paperless Voting in the NHL

With the loss of their retail and title sponsor last year, the NHL was expected to move its all-star voting to in-arena, online and cell phone voting. Instead, they surprised everyone by making voting a paperless process. The president of the NHL, Ed Horne, stated that “it created immediacy” and that it would allow fans to vote whenever and wherever they wanted to.

Voters had the option to vote online or on their cell phones. Whether it was on the website or from a mobile phone, voters were able to watch streaming videos of highlights, view statistics, and a list of players. Phone submissions could be done through Bell or Verizon, but the league expected most votes to come from the website.

Considering Best Buy was no longer a retail sponsor, the NHL decided to increase print, television, and radio spots to promote the new voting system. Each spot was featuring Mark Messier and was set to air on partners Versus, CBC, and NASN, which in total would reach the US, Europe, and Russia. Having not had an all-star game for the past two years, the NHL expects this game and new voting system to go very well.