Some, depending on who they are and where they’re from, would answer yes to the above question.
They say that after a season where the National Hockey League played a Winter Classic, four Stadium Series games – two in Yankee Stadium, one at Chicago’s Soldier Field and one in Dodger Stadium – as well as a Heritage Classic game in a covered stadium in Vancouver (that still counts, right?) the usual magic just isn’t there ahead of the Washington Capitals clash with the Chicago Blackhawks at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on New Year’s Day.
Maybe they’re right, and only television ratings will tell the true story about those non-diehard fans who tune in often only once a year, at midday (or thereabouts) on New Year’s Day for the spectacle of outdoor hockey.
Let’s for a moment say I agree with those who say the concept is tired – I don’t, not completely – and so turn my attention to a handful of reasons why, maybe, possibly, in 2014/15, the NHL’s premiere product has lost a little of it’s gimmicky spectacular.
Here are just a few possibilities as we wait to see what the game and what NBC’s ratings will deliver:
Road to the Winter Classic Documentary
Yes, it’s on and it’s as good as ever, but the problem is that the warts-and-all documentary annually featuring the two teams in the Winter Classic for a few weeks before and during the game is on EPIX this year, rather than it’s regular home, HBO, and most hockey fans I’ve surveyed don’t even know that the channel existed, let alone have it in their cable package. Disappointingly, FOX Sports in Australia isn’t broadcasting the excellent documentary series this year.
Ever since it’s debut year in 2010, Road to the Winter Classic has always been a big part of the lead-up to the game itself, and there’s no doubt that the series doesn’t have as many eyeballs this year as it has in previous years. That’s a shame, because the series is as strong as ever, despite the absence – so far, anyway – of quirky guys, the likes of Ilya Bryzgalov, who stole the show ahead of the 2012 game.
Aside from being great television for hockey fans, the documentary series also ropes in fresh sets of eyes on HBO each week and at least helps make them aware that there’s an outdoor game on New Year’s Day, with a cast of players and coaches that the average fan, through watching the show, know pretty well. The NHL needs to get the series back on a more accessible channel.
College Football
Ever since the first Winter Classic was played in a blizzard in Buffalo, the monopoly that college football once had on New Year’s Day disappeared. The thing is, college football roars back into prominence this year with two semi-finals ahead of the sport’s National Championship Game on New Year’s Day. It may not have been a deliberate move to squash the Winter Classic momentum, but it’ll have that affect regardless.
There’s saturation coverage of the four teams and two Bowl games they’ll contest on the first of the year, and, of course, that’s taken away some eyes and ears from the Winter Classic. After all, football is king in America.
Venue
Last year, the NHL could trumpet the arrival of hockey at Michigan Stadium. Of course, the Big House is one of those great sporting arenas, and the challenge was to pack more than 100,000 hockey fans into the venue. The Maple Leafs and the Red Wings took to the ice in front of a mammoth crowd in a snowstorm and the pictures, beamed around the world, were spectacular.
Sad to say, this year’s Winter Classic will be played at a venue with far less tradition. In fact, there’s very little history to speak of in Nationals Park, which was opened only in. It’s not just the same, and you can’t create tradition. It just doesn’t work like that.
There’s always been loose talk of a game on the National Mall in downtown Washington D.C. – a great spectacle, for sure, but how many people could you realistically get into a venue there? – and at FedEx Field, where the Washington NFL franchise is based, but neither of those came to fruition, and given the NHL clearly wanted a Winter Classic in the nation’s capital, Nationals Park was the next best solution.
They have to play it somewhere, right? The thing is, going from the Big House to Nationals Park isn’t like going from Wrigley Field in ‘09 to Fenway Park a year later. I’ve written previously about sending the Winter Classic to new markets and featuring new teams and new venues.
As an aside, Minnesota deserves an outdoor game, such is the great hockey history up there. Target Field in Minnesota could work, and the Gophers successfully staged an outdoor NCAA game last year in their football stadium. There are choices aplenty. Truly, though, the League needs to look for a venue with history and plant the Winter Classic there next year. The concept’s always worked best when it’s held in a place like Wrigley or Fenway or the Big House.
Teams
Given that NBC came up with the idea of the Winter Classic, it’s not a huge surprise that they dictate who gets to play, and we’ve seen a string of teams who bring with them huge ratings – Washington with Ovechkin, Pittsburgh with Crosby, Chicago with Toews and Boston with Chara – taking the game outdoors. The thing is, people are starting to tire of seeing the same faces. In fact, after the Capitals/Blackhawks game, we’ll have seen the Caps, Hawks, Penguins, and Red Wings twice.
It’s way past time to bring in new players and teams to the spectacle. Toews, Chara, Ovechkin and Crosby became stars by way of television coverage of their early exploits, and the same could happen to regional superstars like, say, Zach Parise or Ryan Suter of Minnesota, Tyler Seguin of Dallas or, hell, even the raft of young talent on the New York Islanders roster.
The way to make the entire League stronger is to include smaller teams in the sport’s biggest spectacle. It’s a sure-fire way to make an inclusive event even more so.
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