Red Wings vs. Blackhawks at Wrigley Field in January

Heck, the weather on Tuesday night at Wrigley would have been perfect hockey weather. A little windy, but what do you expect in Chicago?

 

New York City is probably too warm to pull it off. Avg. temp on New Year's Day is 39 degrees (vs. 30 for Chicago and 32 for Buffalo).

http://nowdata.rcc-acis.org/OKX/pubACIS_results

 

Ah, I see. I keep hearing those rumors cropping up for a game at Yankee Stadium, but I haven't seen anything set in stone. Too bad, though. It would have been fun to watch.

 

During the outdoor game in Buffalo this year, there was a lot of wind and snowy conditions. So much that the teams switched sides again halfway through the third period to make sure both sides had even conditions.

I think the NHL wants to avoid a situation like that again. At least that's what Bettman said a couple weeks ago. Of course, Bettman doesn't know shit, so take that for what it's worth.

 

I am so over this spectacle.

 

I think I'd kill to catch Wings-'Hawks at Wrigley.

The reason the Rangers game at Yankee Stadium has hit the bricks is because of the winterization issue, which ondeadline pointed out, and bitching by the Devils and Islanders.

The league was pushing for Rangers-Boston or Rangers-Red Wings matchups, betting that those teams would draw a decent rating. The Devils and Islanders felt as if they were being treated as second class citizens and complained to anyone that would listen.

 

Everything else being equal, I would think you'd go with the football stadium instead of a baseball park (20-25,000 more seats). Assuming of course you can sell those seats.

If I'm Bettman, and we're staging an outdoor game, I WANT there to be wind and gusting snow during the game. I want Lambeau Field and the frozen tundra. Otherwise, what the hell's the point in doing it???

Of course, as you note, Bettman's an idiot.

 

Part of the appeal may be that all of the outdoor games have been at football stadiums and that this will be a different sort of venue.

The snow as great in Buffalo, but it did cause lots of delays. I'm a hockey nut, so I wasn't even considering switching to the football games. But casual fans may have grown tired of the delays.

 

Wrigley Field was a football stadium, once upon a time.

 

There's been considerable talk around Detroit the last couple of years of doing an outdoor game at Comerica Park (controlled by Ilitch and the Red Wings), but since they aren't consistently selling out 20,000 seats at Joe Louis, the idea of selling 45-50,000 seats at an outdoor game might be a little iffy. (Of course dropping their astronomical ticket prices might help, but that possibility is rarely even put on the table.)

A few years ago, when the Red Wings had a string of 9,000 straight sellouts or whatever it was, there was some talk about trying a game at Michigan Stadium and going for a crowd of 100,000+. They'd have to price tickets at $3.00 a shot to sell that kind of number now.

And the weather's a problem too. Last winter was fairly cold, but it's still too warm to make outdoor ice most of the time in the winter. They don't want to take a chance it'll be 50 degrees and raining.

 

Wrong. Chicago was a hockey town for DECADES. As recently as the early '90s they compared the sound of going to a game at Chicago Stadium to standing near a jet engine (think 100+ db). Bill Wirtz tried and almost succeeded in killing hockey in Chicago, but if you look at last year's attendance figures, they were up dramatically over recent years. There is a hockey buzz in the city with Kane and Toews and the rest of the youngsters. Plus, the Hawks, even during their down years, drew well for games against the Wings.

Lastly, Wrigley holds more than 40,000 just in the current seats, if no additional seats are added on the field for the game.