Chicago Wants Hockey At Soldier Field

The Chicago Blackhawks, like a lot of NHL teams and the cities that call those teams home, really, really want to host an outdoor hockey in Soldier Field next year. Why wouldn't they? The Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins packed 71,000 fans into Ralph Wilson Stadium on Jan. 1 and attracted a decent TV rating on a day that's long been reserved for college football bowl games. According to this story, those involved, and those who could potentially be involved, would also like to include a college hockey game on the docket and a way to allow the public to skate on the outdoor rink during the week leading up to those games. The NHL has not yet announced whether an outdoor game will be played next season.

Instant (Winter) Classic

Winter is not a good time to take holiday from a sports weather blog. So much happened while I was away, but hey, you can't spend all you precious time blogging, right? Right? By far the coolest sports weather event over the holidays was the NHL's Winter Classic outdoor game in Buffalo. By now you've all read and seen highlights of what was a hugely successful show for a league in deep need of some positive publicity. So, I'm not going to bore you with any of my asinine observations. But, isn't that what blogs are for? Anyway, as you know, the Winter Classic visuals, on television and in photographs, were and are spectacular. The snow element kicked the drama into overdrive. Let's hope the NHL decides to stage the event annually – at least do it every two years – and spread it around to different cities. I hear NBC had originally wanted the game to be in Yankees Stadium with the Rangers playing the Bruins. That would have been great, too, but Buffalo turned out to be a majestic venue for the inaugural outdoor game. Maybe next year the game can be played in either the old or new Yankees Stadium. Oh, and wouldn't you love to see the Blackhawks host the Red Wings in Soldier Field? Lambeau Field already has hosted a college outdoor game, so the folks there know the logistics of staging such an event. The question is: What two teams would play there? Minnesota Wild versus…who?

One more thing: I didn't realize until reading the Uniwatch Blog yesterday that snow now has fallen on NHL, NFL and Major League Baseball games in the past nine months. Remember Jacobs Field in April? Now, how can we cause a snow storm inside an NBA arena? I bet some Chinese meteorologists would know how.

Sabres Say Let It Snow

Hey, ya know the NHL's version of the Ice Bowl is just weeks away, and some of the Buffalo Sabres are in the mood for snow for that game after watching the Bills and Browns play in a blizzard in Cleveland on Sunday. “We talked about that a little bit,” Sabres center Paul Gaustad told Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. “If it was like [Sunday], would we play it? All of us are like, ‘Yeah, let’s play it. Let’s not cancel it. Let’s play.’ I’d rather it be colder than warmer for the Ice Bowl. That’s why they call it the Ice Bowl.” The Sabres play the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1 at Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium. The NHL could postpone the league's first ever outdoor game a day if bad weather arises.

NHL Takes On Bowling

The NHL announced a little more than a month ago that it will stage an outdoor hockey game January 1 in Buffalo between the Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The game will be called the NHL Winter Classic, and will be played at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills. Good timing NHL – holding a special event such as an outdoor game on New Year’s Day when most sports fans in the U.S. are focused on college football bowl games. Poor NHL executives, they just can’t seem to get it right no matter how hard they try. (But I wish they would get it right because I love hockey.)

And one more thing: These outdoor hockey games in big stadiums, to me, just aren’t what they’re cracked up to be. The games may be great if you’re watching live at the stadium, but the weird camera placements create strange sightlines that often are obstructed by the outside of the boards. It’s a novel idea, but it’s tough to watch on the tube. NBC, TV home of the Penguins (Read that with sarcasm), will broadcast the game.

Anyway, Ralph Wilson Stadium seats more than 70,000 fans, and the game is expected to eclipse the old NHL attendance record set a few years back in 2003 by the Oilers and Montreal Canadiens at the Heritage Classic held in Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium. That game attracted a little more than 57,000 spectators in minus 22-degree wind-chilled temeratures. Brrrrrrrrrr!