Comments on: Buffalo 1 – Pittsburgh 2 – NBC 2.4

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:43:13 +0000

“There‚Äôs just nowhere on that canal where you could fit more than a few hundred spectators… or maybe at the bend by Landsdowne Park”
Why not IN Landsdowne Park during Winterlude? While the venue is in Canada, it would go over well in the US. Landsdowne is visible from the canal, NBC would like the shots of people skating on the canal (and the canal could have big-screens set up and you could hear the stadium roar from the canal), and lastly February is an “easy” ratings time for American sports tv–football is over, college basketball is not yet to March Madness, there tends to be a dearth of programming to compete with.
The logical opponent of the Senators would be the Capitols.
For Jan 1 2009, Wrigley and an original six game is pretty cool. Its a great celebration of the sport. But why not a game in Feb 2009 or 2010?

By: dmg

dmg — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:50:25 +0000

I don’t recall that, what I recalled was more like:
“i just re-watched the nat. anthems again, and the Irish Ronyn guy makes a whole tribute before he even starts singing about how he just visited the troops in Afghanistan and how “we have the most amazing troops in the world. they give unconditionally to us.” whoever is complaining about his tribute to America is just cracked to the core.
he actually dedicates the song to our soldiers, and asks everyone to sing along as a tribute “to our troops”.”
http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=460398&page=5

By: Chris Green

Chris Green — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:54:36 +0000

How many people turned off the game and went to something else when the tynan the liberal dissed the troops in Iraq, and then ‘God Bless America’? At least Canada got in their national anthem…

By: OrderedChaos

OrderedChaos — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:08:22 +0000

Fantastic input everyone. Pepper, I can’t decide whether annually or alternate years would be better… skipping a year would make the game more of an “event” (like the Olympics’ four-year gap) but I think the NHL will be too excited about the ratings to wait two years.
As for location, having it outside in Phoenix, for example, would be ideal in some respects because a rain-out would be very unlikely. Then again, snow is even less likely, and the snow was a big part of the game’s appealing look.
Playing in Detroit, or Toronto, or another cold-weather city is a greater risk-reward… cold & snow would be great, but the chance of 50 degrees and rain (as Thunderweenie points out is in Buffalo’s near forecast) could create a big letdown, as rescheduling or canceling the game would be a disaster from a marketing perspective.
PenaltyBox, regarding bigger ice surfaces for the NHL, I couldn’t agree more. And while I doubt it will ever happen due to the remodeling expenses and the loss of premium (read: expensive) seats, I have little doubt that the larger sheet to match the larger players would improve the game.

By: Thunderweenie

Thunderweenie — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:49:59 +0000

Speaking as a former Ottawa resident, I can tell you that there is nothing quite like skating on the Rideau Canal in winter. As skeptical as I am about this whole business of outdoor NHL games, that would be a neat place to do it.
You’re right, though, Pepper, you’d have a tough time doing it there, not least because you need several days of temperatures consistently below -10 C (about 10 F) to make the ice even suitable for leisure skaing purposes. Making (and keeping!) it suitable for professional-level hockey would be a nightmare, I’d imagine, especially if the weather doesn’t co-operate.
On top of that, I don’t think the NHL would like it for business reasons. The Canal is very long and very skinny. There’s just nowhere on that canal where you could fit more than a few hundred spectators around an NHL-sized playing area. Maybe you could squeeze some more folks in at Dow’s Lake up by Carleton University, or maybe at the bend by Landsdowne Park where the canal widens a bit, but even there it would be tight. You can forget about this business of 70,000-plus people watching. My guess is that, if the NHL does keep doing these games, they’ll stick to NFL-sized football stadiums.

By: pepper

pepper — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:28:48 +0000

For those of you utterly smitten with the game, what would you say to making it an annual event, with a rotating matchup of teams, as a single outdoor game played on Christmas Day? Better to keep Christmas as an off day? Would the novelty of the game wear off if played every year?
One of the more spectacular (and spectacularly challenging) sites I’ve heard mentioned for a future outdoor game: on the frozen Rideau Canal in Ottawa.

By: PenaltyBox

PenaltyBox — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:36:09 +0000

I was shocked — and thrilled — to see such a high Nielsen rating for the Winter Classic, second only to a Fox broadcast some 12 years ago !
Strikes me that this could make for yet another wakeup call for the NHL. People watched — and kept watching — because of the return to roots (read: the romance and simplicity of pond hockey)
If only the NHL could REALLY clamp down on clutching and grabbing, the Devils-style neutral zone trap, and deliver the kind of romance and simplicity of bigger-ice hockey that we get at the Olympics and the World Championships — instead of the bandbox game in which six-foot-six defenders with sticks just about as long keep their smoother skating colleagues on the sidelines.
Then, and only then — when the NHL introduces international size ice sheets — will be see these kinds of ratings for Stanley Cup playoff games.

By: Thunderweenie

Thunderweenie — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:26:54 +0000

But hey, if all else fails, there’s always Mexico.
Think I’m kidding?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/02/AR2008010202849.html?wpisrc=newsletter

By: Thunderweenie

Thunderweenie — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:11:19 +0000

Good thing they weren’t planning to do the “Winter Classic” week–the forecast for Buffalo next week calls for showers and temps in the mid-50s (around 12-13 C, for my fellow Canooks). Skating in quicksand, anyone?
So never mind Phoenix–an outdoor game is a risky venture anywhere, even in upstate New York!!!

By: b.orr4

b.orr4 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:59:05 +0000

Two things about those TV ratings.
One, of that top ten listing, only one market, Boston, is a legitimate top ten market in terms of TV households. The rest are middle to small markets and, frankly, not that important to the network suits. Secondly, it appears that the only way the NHL will get passable ratings is if they stage a “gimmick” game. Honestly, if that game were played indoors would those ratings haver been anywhere near what they were? So unless the NHL plans on playing the Stanley Cup playoffs outdoors, I’m not quite sure what the overall impact of the Winter Classic will be on the national sports landscape. Actually, I do. There won’t be any impact.