HENDERSON, Nev. -- After years of dreaming, exploring and planning, it's finally going to happen: The NHL will play in Australia for the first time.
The Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings depart for Melbourne on Friday. They will play two preseason games at Rod Laver Arena in the 2023 NHL Global Series -- Melbourne on Sept. 23 and 24.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Tuesday both games are sold out.
"It's exciting that it's going to come to fruition," Daly said at the NHL North American Media Player Tour at America First Center. "They've wanted to bring NHL teams there for a while now. We look at it as a great opportunity for the sport in Australia but also for our business in Australia.
"Grateful to the two teams, Arizona and Los Angeles, for agreeing to do it. Some clubs may have viewed it as a little disruptive to their training camp period. These guys embraced it as an opportunity, and hopefully everybody has a good time and the fans enjoy the games."
Kings captain Anze Kopitar called it surreal.
"We're leaving in, what, four days?" Kopitar said. "What is it, a 15-hour flight? We'll be spending some time together, which is great just to build the chemistry and ultimately to get down there and try to figure out everything on the ice and come back to be ready for the season."
Kopitar has never been to Australia.
"I think it's going to be exciting," Kopitar said. "I feel like the Aussie fans, sports fans, are great in general, so I feel like hockey's going to leave a good mark down there."
The NHL has played in several locations around the world, for different reasons. Sometimes it caters to established markets for NHL hockey, like Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Sometimes it tries to stoke emerging markets, like Germany and Switzerland. Sometimes it tries to plant a seed in a new market, like China and Japan.
Australia is an emerging market, or at least it's between an emerging market and a new market. Hockey has been played there since the early 1900s. The country has been a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation since 1938. It has a semi-pro league, the Australian Ice Hockey League. But it has only 6,150 players and 20 indoor rinks, according to the IIHF.
Melbourne considers itself one of the best sports cities in the world, if not the best. It hosts the Australian Open tennis tournament and the Australian Grand Prix Formula One race each year. Fans love rugby and Australian rules football.
"We've been told, and we've known this for a long time, that Australians have a passion for sports and competitive sports and contact sports, and certainly hockey fits all those, checks all those boxes," Daly said. "I think our decision ultimately to bring two teams there and play two preseason games there really relates to the fact that we know that there's a fan base in Australia and a fan base maybe we can grow."
Fans outside North America can follow the NHL like never before thanks to television and the Internet, another reason to bring live games to them.
"It's great that we can communicate with our fans kind of directly," Daly said. "I think it fuels hockey development directly. That people in Finland or Sweden or Germany or the Czech Republic care about what's going on in the NHL and can actually access that content just kind of builds the popularity of hockey, and I would say it leads to better player development as well."
Australia accounted for 7.7 million visits to NHL digital platforms in 2022, seventh among countries outside of Canada and the United States. It ranked fourth among countries overseas in visits to the NHL App. It has ranked fifth among countries overseas in purchasing NHL gear from Fanatics International since 2015, and Victoria ranks first among Australian states.
All that was before the NHL Global Series -- Melbourne was announced.
What would the NHL consider a success in Melbourne? What does it want to see?
"I think in some respects, we've already seen what we wanted to see, which was the response -- the fan response we got when we announced the games, the ticket-buying response when we announced the games, some of the buzz that exists around the tour and the players and teams coming to Australia," Daly said. "All those are kind of positive reinforcers of the decision we already made.
"But obviously once you see it happen for real, you can see the enthusiasm around it."
Daly said the NHL hopes "it rises to the level where you say, 'Maybe we can make this a regular part of our schedule, certainly not on an every-year basis but on a multiyear basis.' I think that would be success."
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