Day 135

Fresh Start_135: Saving the Winter Classic
With the New Year falling on a Sunday, the rest of the sporting world had to give way to perhaps the biggest nuisance of a sports leagues there is, the NFL. The NFL screw up the regularity of the annual Rose Bowl and Winter Classic outdoor hockey game. The Rose Bowl will always give way to the NFL because the NFL is the parenteral league to college football, but the hockey game was just an odd thing to push off.

The Winter Classic is something that I look forward to every New Year’s Day. Some people like watching the Rose Parade, well I enjoy watching the NHL go outdoors. It adds the nature element that is taken out during the season. It also adds a different level of fun than any other major sporting event. For those who have never seen a Winter Classic, it would be like if the NBA went outside on the blacktop in the middle of the Winter and played a game. The snow, would have to bring back some memories for the players growing up I would imagine, and their fans as well.

It not only brings a different element to the game, but to the city that is hosting the game. Over the years it has been in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, and Minnesota among others. This years’ game was in St. Louis, and I don’t know if the 2nd threw me off or what, but I just missed the game this year. I’m sure it was as entertaining as others in the past, I just missed it this year.

And for me that brings up a question, that was oddly enough asked on the late Sportscenter last night; and that is—what can the NHL do to make the game stand out more? The idea of an outdoor game itself is entertaining and exciting but what could be added to bring even more value? I thought of 3 ideas that could be beneficial and not hard for the league to implement. The first thing would be to scatter a couple of Winter Classic games across the league on New Year’s Day if it doesn’t fall on a Sunday. If it did than work with college football to schedule a couple of games around the playoff games on New Year’s Eve. What this games would be able to do, is bring money in to other cities in the NHL and give the fans something to watch, while also leading up to the best game on the docket on New Year’s Day.

The second reason is a Segway off of the first, and that is expand the Winter Classic into Canada somehow. It is the National Pastime north of the boarder, and from what I have heard, the Canadians would love to have the Winter Classic played up there. It would allow for another game and satisfy the mother country of hockey. The third would be the most difficult, but it could still work. Depending on where the Stanley Cup would be played, have a game outside for the Stanley Cup. It would be tricky to get the ice to corporate but then again, the NHL did pull this off in Los Angeles a couple years back. It would be a couple interesting ideas, and something that could make the NHL stand out more to the major sports market. The NHL has an interesting problem on their hands.
Sources:(espn.com)

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