Reports suggest that the NHL is looking to throttle back on their outdoor designs for next season, limiting its Stadium Series to just four games.
This follows a year that will see six outdoor games – Michigan Stadium, Dodger Stadium, two in Yankee Stadium, Chicago’s Soldier Field and BC Place in Vancouver – take advantage of both the outdoor hockey phenomenon and, in the case of the two games at Yankee Stadium, the media spotlight shone on New York City on Super Bowl week.
While the 2015 Winter Classic has already been handed to the Washington Capitals (the venue and opponent are yet to be officially announced) there are still three games to be scheduled and plenty of excellent options.
So I thought I’d take a look at some of the places I’d like to see an outdoor NHL game take place.
Minneapolis-St Paul
I don’t care whether it’s TCF Stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota or Target Field, where the Twins play baseball, just get an outdoor NHL game rolling in the State of Hockey.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter where you put on the game, because Minnesotans love hockey like New Zealanders like rugby and would support it in droves no matter where it’s held.
I wrote last month that the 2016 Winter Classic should be given to the Minnesota Wild, but a Stadium Series game of any sort in 2014-15 would be just reward for their fan-base.
They had their team taken away from them in the 1990s, endured a long spell without an NHL franchise, and are now seeing the Wild rise to become challengers in the Western Conference thanks to the acquisition of high-profile free agents Ryan Suter and American Olympic captain, Zach Parise.
Lambeau Field
Yes, I know there isn’t an NHL franchise in Wisconsin (the closest is probably the Wild in Minneapolis or the Chicago Blackhawks) but the NHL Stadium Series and Winter Classic between them have visited some of the biggest, best and most famous outdoor venues in all of America.
So it makes good sense to add the spiritual home of NFL football to the list.
Outdoor hockey on the Frozen Tundra sounds like a dream come true, and it really wouldn’t matter which two teams played – you could even bring in a Canadian team.
The atmosphere of the game being played in a stadium where legendary names like Lombardi and Favre showcased their brilliance would be more than enough to guarantee both a sell-out and the sort of ticket demand we haven’t seen since Detroit and Chicago played a Winter Classic game at Wrigley Field.
Denver
The Avalanche are one of the early surprises of the 2013-14 season, and the fact that Denver-based Coors sponsor the Stadium Series tends to suggest that the Mile High City will get an outdoor game sooner rather than later.
By way of commercial alliances with Coors, you’d assume it’ll most likely come as part of the Stadium Series rather than a Winter Classic.
Aside from any pressure Coors might put on the league, Denver is a perfect environment for an outdoor game – sitting, as it does, in the shadows of the mountains. It’s one of the few cold-weather franchises that isn’t consistently brought up as a possible outdoor game destination and I’m not really sure why.
I’d love to see the Nathan MacKinnon and the Avs take on their old blood rivals, the Detroit Red Wings, in front of 80,000 inside Sports Authority Field at Mile High.
Nashville
Just for something different. You can’t pull the ‘the game won’t work in a warm-weather environment’ out of the deck anymore, because the Anaheim/Los Angeles game at Dodger Stadium that kicked off the 2014 Stadium Series proved that a rink could survive and even provide a pretty solid surface for a game of pro hockey in the mildly-wintered environs of Southern California.
The atmosphere with Hollywood’s best in Los Angeles was awesome, so the league should try and recreate that big-time star-power, but this time with the best of the country music community instead of the acting fraternity.
Can you imagine the likes of Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw and Carrie Underwood in the stands watching the game and, more importantly, promoting the game?
As far as a venue goes, there’s a perfect one right in the heart of the city, L.P. Field where the Tennessee Titans play football in the fall.
Not only would an outdoor game be a nice nod to the Predators, who do a good job in a market that’s not exactly hockey-crazy, but it would fulfil another purpose – growing the profile of hockey, which Commissioner Bettman and his team at NHL headquarter seem to want to do at every opportunity.
Las Vegas
Yes, it’s been done before, as a pre-season event, but it could be done again and better.
Nothing screams over-the-top entertainment like Sin City, and the city loves nothing more than a big-time event, something to embrace and promote the heck out of. And you’re going to attract plenty of non-hockey eyeballs in the process.
Although there’s no real purpose-built outdoor arena – aside from Sam Boyd Stadium, home to a college football bowl game and UNLV football each fall – you could certainly count on the NHL’s brains trust, in concert with city representatives, to come up with something innovative.
A game on the Strip, for example, would be an epic setting. You could have it right in the middle, with Caesar’s Palace, Bellagio and Paris-Las Vegas all in the frame.
Of all the suggestions above, Las Vegas is probably the least practical in terms of being able to draw a big enough crowd to ensure an outdoor game is profitable for the league.
Impractical, certainly, but can you imagine better visuals than a game on the Strip or somewhere close by the big resort-casinos?
I can’t.
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @akitchener
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