Update: 9:56AM:
I think we have a winner. It is a multi-day event with the young stars game, the skills competition and then the game. It would give the league a great chance to showcase it’s players to a wide audience in a unique setting. The Rangers can hold Alumni games or fan skates there. It would take place about a month after the Pinstripe Bowl and still be a few months before the baseball season.
Maybe they take a year off from the Winter Classic and go with this to try it out, thus keeping the outdoor game as a once a year thing.
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In Newsday, Neil Best spoke with John Collins of the NHL who said that the Winter Classic won’t likely come to New York until 2014 at the earliest.
He says that Met Life stadium is an option, but with both the Jets and the Giants playing there, it is doubtful that the stadium will have enough time to accommodate building a rink.
Best says that Yankee Stadium is the preferred venue to hold the Winter Classic which will become available after 2013.
The 2014 Winter Classic will be the Rangers and the Bruins at Yankee Stadium and if I could put some money on that I would. Best notes that NBC wanted Rangers and Bruins at the old Stadium and that match up makes the most sense, especially at Yankee Stadium. It will be two years for the Rangers and four for the Bruins. I bet Detroit and Washington hold the ones in between and the Rangers return, with brown pants, for the 2014 game and more 24/7.
Can the Rangers just play a game at Yankee Stadium if they foot the bill for building the rink and such? What I mean is, do the Rangers NEED the Winter Classic to play an outdoor game at Yankee Stadium. Do they need permission from the NHL to play a home game outside of Madison Square Garden? The earliest Winter Classic to be held at the Stadium would be in 2014, if they don’t renew the Pinstripe Bowl, and I just wonder if there have been any talks of the Rangers just playing one of their home games there in the next couple of years.
Update: 11:26AM: 2/23/11
Darren Dreger passes along a rumor saying that the Flyers are in contention for the Winter Classic. He also mentions a rumor suggesting the game could take place, against the Rangers, on January 2nd in Philly.
Original Post:
At CBC, Elliotte Friedman writes that the Philadelphia Flyers has a shot at hosting next years winter classic at either Beaver Stadium, where Penn State plays, or Lincoln Financial Field, where the Eagles play.
It was written in January that the Flyers were front runners for the Winter Classic next year. I wrote in December that I think it will be Rangers-Flyers at Lincoln Financial field next season.
Chris Botta wrote in December that it should be Rangers and Red Wings in Detroit.
It isn’t likely that a Winter Classic will be held at Citi Field and there are Pro’s and Con’s to Central Park.
…If it’s at the Linc I think it’s Rangers Flyers. Beaver Stadium, it has to be Flyers-Pens. I don’t think the league cares about putting the Pens in it as much as we do.
Also, and this is a little speculation right now, but I have heard a couple of rumblings that Yankee Stadium is still in the mix for the next Winter Classic and the opponent is likely to the Flyers or Bruins. From what I’ve heard the NHL will move the game to Monday January 2nd, so they don’t compete with the NFL on Sunday. The bowl game at the stadium will be re-scheduled to work with Winter Classic. This may not happen, like all rumors, but I felt good enough with the info I was told to post it. Gary Bettman has also said that he thinks football stadiums work better for the Winter Classic.
Larry Brooks of The New York Post wrote about Central Park being a possible site for a Winter Classic in NYC. It’s been discussed, and would really be something else. The costs would be enormous, the profits less than the NHL is used to receiving from this event, but the exposure would be incredible. I’d love to see it.
Elliotte Friedman
Brooks wrote about Central Park here.
…I think the trade off of profits for massive exposure would be a good deal for the NHL to take. Every single media outlet would cover a central park winter classic and it would be promoted like crazy.
They may just wait for the Rangers to host one until they can get Yankee Stadium but the Rangers will be the away team in a winter classic before then, most likely in Philadelphia.
Too bad that James Dolan fought so hard to help kill the Jets’ plans to build a stadium on the West Side. It might keep his hockey team from hosting a signature event for years to come.
Jesse Spector
…Yes. Yes it would have.
In the New York Post, Larry Brooks writes that the NHL should look at the idea of using Central Park as the venue for the Rangers to host the Winter Classic.
He suggests building the rink on Sheep’s Meadow with temporary stands of 20,000.
Brooks also writes that Citi Field isn’t “sexy enough” to hold the Winter Classic.
….Central Park is the best but most far fetched idea. This is all an idea from Brooks but it isn’t entirely fair to cut down attendance on this thing to 20,000. I know Rangers attendance is down 1.1% this season, but the Rangers could easily sell out a football stadium if there was one to play in. I still have to think there are a ton of other logistical things that would make Central Park very hard. Plans to use Central Park would already need to have been created before the NHL could ever pick it.
At CBC, Pierre LeBrun talked on Hockey Night In Canada that Philadelphia and Lincoln Financial Field is the leading candidate to host the 2012 Winter Classic.
Glen Healy though says that depending on where the NHL goes with their television contract next season, the game may not be on New Years day.
…I think the NHL wants the game on New Years day to add to it’s mystique, but maybe they make it the week between the Championship games and the Super Bowl. If that is the case, Yankee Stadium will get the game.
But, as I have written this past week, I think Philly will get a game very soon and they will play the Rangers in it.
Update: 9:22AM:
Scott Burnside of ESPN.com hops on the Rangers-Flyers bandwagon.
[tweeted]http://twitter.com/AGrossRecord/status/20949789621358592[/tweeted]
…I think it would be an amazing thing. The question is, would Tortorella let them do a 24/7 show leading up to it. Besides his issues with the media as it is, the coach is a central figure on the show and he would really need to let them in to make it work. But if they do, I want a whole segment on Benoit Allaire and how he is a genius. That and how Jim Schoenfeld manages about 35 different jobs in the organization
…At least 27% of the people who were questioned do. I know that I do as well, but it will be a while if it happens.
In his Sunday Column for the New York Post, Larry Brooks writes:
The Mets have a better chance of Oliver Perez throwing a three-hit shutout to win the World Series than they do of getting the NHL to award the Winter Classic to Citi Field.
…He doesn’t elaborate, but I agree with the statement.
Brooks isn’t Rangers specific here, but with the Islanders where they are, they certainly aren’t contenders to hold a Winter Classic now. Something about Citi Field just doesn’t sell for the NHL. I am a Mets fan, I like Citi Field, but even I can’t see the game there.
