The AMP Energy Winter Classic was played before a record National Hockey League crowd of 71,217 on Jan. 1 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY. Despite the number of New Year's Day college bowl games competing in the same time slot, it drew the NHL's best ratings for a regular season game in nearly 12 years.
But will the appearance of a successful professional outdoor ice hockey game played by the Buffalo Sabers and Pittsburgh Penguins put the NHL back on the casual sports fan's map? Probably not.
I tuned into NBC-TV for a few minutes last Tuesday. The curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to see if the rink was going to be placed in the middle of the football stadium (or in a corner), how the sightlines were, and if there were any stoppages of play because of falling snow on the ice.
I didn't go online to find out what game sponsor AMP Energy is (though I just Googled it and remembered it's a PepsiCo energy drink, and NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s new sponsor). And I'm not inclined to go out and buy one.
And for that matter, with three NHL teams in driving distance from my house in Bridgeport, CT, I didn't rush out to get tickets to a New York Rangers, New York Islanders, or New Jersey Devils game. For that matter, it didn't even compel me to go down the street to see the Islanders farm team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Will another NHL game played in the outdoor elements in front of a sold-out crowd make me do that? Maybe… if I was there. Does it mean the NHL should try to schedule a few games a year at outdoor venues? Maybe not.
One blogger at FoxSports.com saw it the same way as I did – a gimmick, and a mistake to be played on a day when most of the nation is watching a college bowl game. But another blogger at USA Today suggests it should be played until the novelty wears off.
A few things need to be taken into mind before the NHL considers another outdoor regular season game:
- What is your audience? Are you trying to grab the casual sports fan, or are you trying to make ice hockey an action sport? When you grab AMP, the evil twin of Mountain Dew, as the game's title sponsor, you're sending a message that a team sport like ice hockey is on the same page as skateboarding, BMX and snowboarding, which are all individual sports.
- Does what works outside of Buffalo translate into success in Nashville? Buffalo is a hockey town. Edmonton, where the league played its first outdoor hockey game in 2003, is a hockey town. But if you try to play the game in a city like Nashville to boost awareness for a team with struggling attendance figures, then you're not thinking. Hockey fans can be made, but even at the $10 ticket price for nosebleed seats at Ralph Wilson Stadium, a casual fan is not going to experience the excitement and passion of the game.
- Will sponsors pony up to make it a regular event? Some writers are suggesting this pipe dream, that the NHL should play one game a week in an NFL stadium to put itself on the map. According to an article in Sports Illustrated, it cost the league $250,000 to rent and service the stadium just for that one game. Did the buzz generate enough exposure for the sponsors, and create new fans of the game? Or did it leave 70,000 fans frustrated and cold?
- How deceiving are the overnight ratings? Host Buffalo had a 38.2 rating and a 58 share, while Pittsburgh saw a 17.7 rating and a 30 share. But outside those two markets, the ratings dipped right down to normal NHL numbers. A hockey town like Detroit didn't crack the top 10 metered markets, most likely because the University of Michigan played its bowl game at the same time. And top ten markets such as Providence, Sacramento, Richmond, and Hartford show that the sport is not exactly the real deal.
The circus comes to town once a year, and that's the approach the NHL should take with the game. Even if once a year is closer to once a decade.
Does it mean the league should look at the feasibility of playing one Saturday a season at Gillette Stadium outside Boston, Giants Stadium outside New York, or break an outdoor attendance record and filling Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor for a Detroit Red Wings game? Maybe it should wait a year or two instead of building on the excitement.
Or maybe they can boost the sponsorship fees in play in a bunch of outdoor venues at the same time, maybe some Saturday in February. Keep it as an event, but make it something that can spread from coast to coast.
No matter what they do, the NHL can't make its reaction to the AMP Energy Winter Classic a knee jerk one.
