The AHL Rochester Americans on Thursday announced that Frontier Field will host an outdoor hockey event this year from Dec. 13-22. The festival will kick off with a regular-season AHL game featuring the Amerks, and will include a college hockey double-header for the Rochester Institute of Technology's men's and women's teams, several high school hockey games and an alumni game featuring former Amerks and Sabres players (Amerks). In Rochester, Kevin Oklobzija notes between events there will be "rental times in 75-minute blocks allotted for youth teams, adult leagues, groups and corporate holiday parties on the rink that will sit in the middle of the baseball diamond." Sabres President Ted Black said, "It will be very exciting for hockey families and the family of hockey in western New York." The Sabres, as owners of the Amerks, will "underwrite most costs of the event." The teams want to "make this venture a community focal point at the downtown baseball stadium." Maine-based Rink Specialists, which built the rinks for the '11 Winter Classic and the '12 Frozen Fenway event, has "agreed to be a partner in the Amerks project and will share in the profits." Black said that any losses "would be absorbed by the Sabres." Having the Sabres brand attached to the Amerks and Rochester "will also help sell corporate packages and perhaps naming rights" (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 3/22).
