New Towns for NBA and NHL Conference Championships

As previous champions age, the 2011 playoffs are giving new markets and teams a chance to shine at these traditional games

By Rick Horrow and Karla Swatek

For two U.S. cities, right now is the best of sports times—and the worst. For several others, pro sports playoffs are causing their civic plots to thicken.

In Chicago last year, the National Hockey League Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, a feat largely credited to the energy surrounding new owner Rocky Wirtz and an invigorated franchise. This year, the Blackhawks are out of it and the city's playoff hopes are now pinned on National Basketball Assn. Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls for the first time since Michael Jordan was king of the United Center court.

In Boston, Celtics fans who watched their team ascend to the NBA Playoffs last year have now been beaned into submission by old age and treachery (in the form of the Miami Heat). Accordingly, Bostonians have jumped onto the NHL Bruins bandwagon en masse. It's been 19 years since the Bruins reached the NHL Eastern Conference finals and hockey is now the hottest ticket in town, with prices for the games at TD Garden going for $150 to $500 on the secondary market.

In 1993, civic leaders from Oklahoma City unveiled Metropolitan Area Projects Strategies (MAPS), the largest-ever single-issue referendum in U.S. history, which included plans for an NBA-caliber civic arena. One of the major theme lines in the MAPS referendum was "Mess with Texas," focusing on the intense rivalry with the sister state to the south. Now that the NBA Dallas Mavericks are playing the Oklahoma City Thunder, this is a major theme—economically, culturally, and sportswise.

Like a tornado, the Oklahoma City plot twists further: The franchise just advanced to the NBA Conference Finals for the first time since 1995-1996, when (as the Seattle SuperSonics), they eventually lost to the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals. The Oklahoma City Thunder just beat the Memphis Grizzlies to advance. The Memphis Grizzlies, if you're still with us, used to be the Vancouver Grizzlies—playing in a city whose Canucks are now battling the San Jose Sharks in the NHL Western Conference Finals.

Suds, Stars. and Color

Whether in basketball or hockey—or pretty much any other sport—one story line remains constant: beer. Effective July 1, the NHL has signed Molson Coors (TAP) in Canada and MillerCoors in the U.S. to a broad North American deal that constitutes the most lucrative sponsorship pact in league history. Anheuser-Busch (BUD) had held NHL league-level sponsorship rights since 1994. MillerCoors has committed to spending $375 million through the deal's duration, split almost evenly between rights fees, media buys and club spending obligations, and activation expenditures.