The irony is that, in Japan, the NHL offered a service with no advertising for a fair price.

I assume making a decent return off a large number of people is of less importance than fleecing true fans.

I used to think the Japanese baseball league was insanely commercial due to it using corporate sponsor names instead of the city name (Hanshin Tigers, Yomiuri Giants, etc..) but in retrospect, the commercialization was only skin deep while the NHL is completely and unapologetically corrupted.