Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Facilities

NHL Prepping Gillette Stadium For Winter Classic, Will Face Unseasonably Warm Weather

The NHL has begun preparation for the '16 Winter Classic, as dozens of workers on Sunday "began rolling out the rink’s infrastructure on the Gillette Stadium field" just hours after the Patriots' home finale, according to Kevin Paul Dupont of the BOSTON GLOBE. Personnel of both the NHL and Toronto-based BaAM Productions will "produce the main ice surface, along with a much smaller auxiliary surface, and all the accompanying on-field staging inherent in what has turned into an annual marquee event for the NHL." A crowd of "more than 60,000 spectators" will attend the Jan. 1 Canadiens-Bruins game. The ice sheet is "now constructed on a raised platform, the surface of which is some 10 to 12 inches above the field’s artificial turf." NHL Senior Dir of Facilities Operations Dan Craig promised that the ice will be "ready to go Dec. 29, some 48 hours before" the teams practice there Dec. 31 (BOSTON GLOBE, 12/22). NHL Senior VP/Events Don Renzulli said, "We are going to have a lot of fans from Montreal coming down. Over 10,000 people purchased tickets up there (and) they will have a good contingent here." In Boston, Rich Thompson notes tickets for the sold-out game were "distributed to the NHL, the Canadiens, the Bruins and the Patriots." The Bruins’ share was "offered to season ticket-holders." The Bruins first hosted the Winter Classic "on a balmy day" at Fenway Park in '10, and the league has "made logistical advancements in staging and ice preparation" since then. Renzulli: "We are a lot better now than we were in the first few years of this, so I think we are in pretty good shape. This building is very vertical so the people are going to have a very good view of the game." Craig said that it would take 72 hours of "round-the-clock work to complete the staging, erect boards and glass, and put down the first layer of ice." He added that the week of unseasonably warm temperatures leading to New Year’s Day will "have no effect on the ice sheet" (BOSTON HERALD, 12/22).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2015/12/22/Facilities/Winter-Classic.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2015/12/22/Facilities/Winter-Classic.aspx

CLOSE