Let It Snow: NHL Teams Lobby For Next Outdoor Event

Several Teams Expressing Interest To NHL About Hosting Outdoor Game

OUTDOORSMAN: On his XM Satellite Radio Show Thursday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said, “You wouldn't believe how much it cost to [stage the Winter Classic], and it was all at risk because if the precipitation had reached the point where we couldn’t play, it all might have been for naught. … My guess is in the next week to ten days we’ll have a big sit down internally and go over everything that went right and everything that we can improve on in the future. I have received a fair amount of expressions of interest from clubs saying they'd like to talk to us about [hosting an outdoor game]. It was a great event. Clearly, logistically, we can do it. My guess is if we do it a lot and do it too many times, at some point the weather will not cooperate. I think we’ll do it again at some point.” When a caller from San Jose asked if the league would ever consider hosting a Winter Classic game in a warm-weather market, Bettman said, “Unless technology changes or one of the non-traditional markets can give us predictable weather that’s cold enough for the ice, it's pretty hard to do other than in the northern climates” (XM Radio, 1/3).

PLAYING IN THE SNOW: NHLPA Exec Dir Paul Kelly in an e-mail wrote of the Amp Energy Winter Classic, “Our guys loved it, and we’d do it again, for sure.” In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont notes Bruins VP Cam Neely was “impressed with the show in the snow.” Neely believed that “an essential part of making the event such a success … was having enough surrounding acreage for fans to tailgate prior to the game.” Neely: “Having all that room is key -- just for the street hockey, all that atmosphere. I thought it was great” (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/6).  In Pittsburgh, Dave Molinari noted a “decidedly unscientific survey showed that a clear majority of [Penguins] players enjoyed” the game. RW Peter Sykora said, “I would love to do it (again). And it would be pretty good to play in a home stadium” (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 1/6).

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