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Posted on 02/09/2012 1:36:12 PM PST by shove_it
Next year's Winter Classic could set an attendance record.
The Detroit Red Wings will face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 1 at Michigan Stadium, a matchup of two Original Six teams at the iconic college football facility that drew more than 104,000 fans for a college hockey game in 2010.
[...]
The centerpiece will be the Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, 45 miles west of Detroit, and it will include a Canadian team for the first time.
"It's Hockeytown versus the center of the hockey universe," said Brian Burke, the Toronto general manger who was at the news conference with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Red Wings officials and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, among others.
The University of Michigan Board of Regents this week gave the OK to seek a contract with the NHL that would allow the league to hold the showcase game at Michigan Stadium. The NHL has offered to pay up to $3 million, according to the recommendation approved by the board.
The recommendation also said the Winter Classic would be scheduled for Jan. 1, 2013, with an alternate date of Jan. 2. A liquor license would be obtained so alcohol could be served at the event, and the NHL would bring its "advertising and other sponsorship arrangements" into the stadium.
Buffalo, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have all hosted the Winter Classic, but a game at Michigan Stadium could draw the league's largest crowd. The Wolverines and rival Michigan State attracted a Guinness World Record 104,173 people for a hockey game on Dec. 11, 2010.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hockey ping
Might as well hold a few college hockey games there too, once the rink is constructed.
Am I the only one who saw that headline and thought of San Quentin, or maybe Alcatraz???
oops. See reply #5.
I guess NBC has given up on ratings by including the Maple Laughs.
Can’t go wrong with an Original Six match up.
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Sidney Crosby’s initial concussion notwithstanding, the Winter Classic is awesome marketing and promotion of the game.
NOPE :-)
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
BRILLIANT!
A good decision by Bettman.
I know when they had it in Fenway, they did that. Men’s and Women’s college hockey as well as high school.
Last year they AHL Whale had an outdoor game at the UConn stadium in E. Hartford CT and they also had college and high school teams playing on the rink. Great fun.
This should be a great match up with lots of Leaves (heh heh) fans coming across the border. They will probably easily top 100K. Detroit and Toronto probably have the two biggest fan bases in the NHL.
All over Canada there are (were? - I traveled all over Ontario in the 70's) outside rinks in the small towns. Even my college rink was outside (in the 60's-70's).
Yup. My college (UConn) had an outdoor rink till after I graduated in 1992. Some bitterly cold nights watching games there, as the school is on a bit of a high point, so the wind would whip across the soccer field and freeze us all. They’d also have snow blowing over the glass and collecting in the corners.
I loved playing pond hockey as a kid, even if we were never very good.
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