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Short-Lived Spectacle:
The Winter Classic Adversely Affects the NHL
by Zach Bigalke

There are one-thousand two-hundred thirty games in an NHL season. But the way the hockey press thinned after the 2004-05 lockout, one would be forgiven for thinking that there is only one NHL game played per season...

Attempting to capitalize on the public-relations success of the Winter Classic in Buffalo last New Year’s Day, the NHL has already announced plans to hold another outdoor contest this season. To be held at 1060 West Addison in Chicago on New Year’s Day 2009, the second incarnation is an attempt to maintain the frosty momentum which was allowed to face following the Heritage Classic.

Wait, what was that? But this is only the second Winter Classic? That sure is news to Edmonton. The Winter Classic ran four years on the heels of the first modern-era outdoor NHL game, the 2003 Heritage Classic held in Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium. Back then, it was heralded as a great publicity draw for the new league as 57,167 braved sub-zero temperatures as the hometown Oilers lost 4-3 to toque-adorned Jose Theodore and the visiting Montreal Canadiens. Images of Theodore, rivulets of steam rising from within his goalie mask, holding off the Oilers for the victory, were reprinted around the world. But the enthusiasm didn’t last. This year’s game in Chicago is an effort to prevent the Winter Classic from becoming a short-term publicity stunt. But it takes more than merely declaring that a game will occur for it to happen. There are three main things that are holding the Winter Classic back from becoming a premier sporting event in the United States:

The 2008 Winter Classic, the first outdoor NHL game to be held in the United States and second outdoor game in modern NHL history, was hosted by the Buffalo Sabres at Ralph J. Wilson Stadium, the home of the Buffalo Bills... on New Year’s Day.

The game competed directly with the epic Michigan-Florida thriller in the Capital One Bowl, and was planted in the thick of a bloated sports schedule traditionally reserved for college football. Hockey, a niche sport trying to regain the footing it lost after an entire season was lost to lockout in 2005, simply does not have the cachet to battle directly, and the numbers showed the fact. While hockey drew a 2.4 rating, these were the best numbers the sport had experienced since the short-lived novelty of a glowing puck graced Fox broadcasts of NHL games. Indeed this year looks no more promising. Once again the NHL has decided that the only appropriate day for its nascent Winter Classic is a day already claimed for the past century by a much more heavily established American sport. With this 2008 college football season already ripe with suspense, it will be difficult for Chicago and Detroit to compete with the traditional bowl slate yet again. That is, if the game is even capable of being played -- which brings us to...

The reality is that, by playing an outdoor game, two NHL teams are placing greater risk on their players as they contend with the exterior and uncontrollable factor of climate as well as the regular rigors of their profession. While the ice crew in Buffalo last year did a valiant job in getting the rink serviceable in one week, there were still holes regularly forming by the third period which required near-constant patching. The risk of scheduling these outdoor games is simple: There is no guarantee that the weather will cooperate to produce ice conditions suitable for professional hockey. Last year Buffalo managed not to disappoint. The 2003 Heritage Classic worked so well despite -- or, more likely, precisely because of -- the cold. The ice then was able to harden better with an air temperature forty-five degrees lower than the temperatures encountered in Buffalo four years later. Further, the snow provided high cinematic drama on the television... and next to no sight lines for the players. Anyone who has ever played hockey in swirling snow before can vouch that the NHL starts made it look far easier on camera than it is in real life...

The NHL plays a game of Russian roulette every time they stage one of these contests. The first two have gone off without a hitch, but weather doesn’t always cooperate well enough. A player could easily have snapped a leg in the holes created by an ice surface which is not at a proper temperature or density to survive the rigors of NHL action...

As for the action last year, the game itself was a spirited contest, with Pittsburgh defeating Buffalo on a Sidney Crosby goal in the shootout. Yet, beyond the niche reporting, the game got relatively little play in most media markets. With Michigan’s upset of Florida, USC’s pasting of Illinois, Hawaii’s mauling by the Bulldogs, Missouri’s slaughter of the Razorbacks, Tennessee’s narrow victory over Wisconsin, Texas Tech’s come-from-behind victory over Virginia... by the time all the football was digested most papers had the Classic, if at all, buried in the latter half of the sports section.

The NHL did nothing significant to push its image into mainstream media markets, and NBC didn’t have the onus to build momentum from the game because Versus resumed broadcasting rights. Ultimately last season there was no long-term data demonstrating that such a made-for-television game actually drew in new regular viewers of NHL contests.

The Winter Classic is a fun game to watch whether live or on television. But while these games afford ample photo opportunities for the NHL, to say that these games are doing any long-term good for the league is ludicrous. The risk inherent in such ventures is far greater than the rewards we have witnessed.

Submitted 2008

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