Hockeytown vs the Centre of the Hockey Universe in 2013. God help us all.

Winter Classic will be at The Big House in Michigan between the Wings and the Leafs on New Year's Day 2013

US and Canadian customs may want to put on a few more officers on New Year's Eve/Day.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/brian-burke-believes-maple-leaf-nation-conquer-big-190439817.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I hate it already.

The hype coming out of Toronto will be godawful.

Four dailies, three all sports TV stations, two all sports radio stations and CBC will make it freakin' unbearable

I'm with Damien Cox on this one

http://thestar.blogs.com/thespin/2012/02/if-ya-gotta-ya-gotta-i-guess.html

The league wants you to believe in this thing like the Easter Bunny. It wants you to believe this is an homage to a purer, simpler time when the game was played outdoors on rivers and lakes with cow patties and frostbitten fingers. It wants you believe in the mythology, and there are lots and lots of people in my business more than willing to spread the myth, to get the public to ingest this along with motherhood, apple pie and hockey in June.

 

I'll be watching.

 

Supposedly ticket prices will START at $100 and ramp up rapidly for anything within 60 yards of the ice.

Hopefully they have some creative ways figured out to camouflage the 60,000 empty seats.

 

You're kidding, right? Leaf fans alone will sell this out.

 

I'm going to try and get tickets.

It's definitely going to be packed house.

 

Wait until the actual ticket prices come out.

 

I don't believe ticket prices will be a problem for "Leafs Nation"

 

You really are out of touch with these things. Check out what fans pay to go watch the Leafs play. This will be cheaper than that.

 

The two times they've played this thing in a football stadium (Heinz Field and Rich Stadium in Buffalo) I don't recall there being a problem with finding people to attend.

 

No doubt. A meaningless late-season game last year between the Leafs and Habs saw top tickets being scalped for $1,000 each.

Leaf fans - who can't always get tickets at the ACC, no matter how much they are prepared to pay - will flock to this, as well those loads of Wings fans in southwestern Ontario.

Wouldn't want to be anywhere near the Windsor or Sarnia borders that day.

 

This could rake in near-Super Bowl-level ticket revenue. The league KNOWS it will be able to set its prices sky-high because at least 100,000 fans in Michigan and the southern part of Ontario will be interested.

And bet on the ticket counterfeiters having a field day ...

 

I loved Dave Brandon's (Michigan AD) statement on the game, saying the NHL is "hell-bent" on breaking the record set by the "Big Chill" between U-M and MSU. Yeah, I'm sure that's it pizza boy...