Taking what it learned from its 10-day outdoor fan village at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, the NHL is enhancing and rebranding its outdoor game fan festivals.
The new experience, now called The PreGame, will build upon much of what the NHL has offered at the Winter Classic and Stadium Series with its spectator plaza, a free, pregame festival with hockey-themed attractions from league sponsors, food and live music.
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The NHL is taking a musical cue from the World Cup, where the Killers performed outside.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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The goal now will be to bring outside some of the special events and performances that took place inside the stadium before the game, as well as elevating the partner activations and overall experience for the fans.
“The [World Cup] fan village in Toronto was the biggest and grandest outdoor fan festival we’ve done, and while I don’t think we’ll replicate that from the standpoint of the amount of time and money spent, it opened our eyes up to something that we want to keep building upon — making this unique combination of fun and hockey something that has many levels, and really make this a place that you have to go before you go to the game,” said Steve Mayer, NHL executive vice president and chief content officer for events and entertainment.
While the fan festival for the 2016 Heritage Classic in October was still branded as a spectator plaza, much of what fans will see in both the 2017 Centennial Classic and Winter Classic was on display.
Perhaps the biggest change going forward will involve music. In the past, the league has had a bigger musical act perform just before the game in the stadium, and local acts played a small stage inside the festival.
Mayer said that model will be flipped. Each festival will now have a bigger name act take the stage for a 60- to 90-minute concert that will then be featured during the game broadcast. In Winnipeg, Canadian rock band Sum 41 performed the outside concert.
The league will take on the additional costs that come with the concert, which not only include booking the act but completely producing the concert for broadcast, Mayer said. He declined to specify how much it would cost.
