Winter Classic

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mnboiler

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I'm sitting here being lazy watch the NHL Winter Classic. By the way this is an amazing sports cay overall Bowl Game a plenty, Winter Classic, add in a little NCAA basketball for a bonus, and who could miss the Rose Bowl Parade.

Anyway I was thinking how cool would it be to have TCF host the Winter Classic with the Wild and a rival of them. Then for some extra bonus fun you could have the Gopher's men and women hockey teams play Wisconsin or some other rival. That could be really fun for every one involved. I wouldn't think it would have much affect on the field because it's going to be FieldTurf. I would be a great way to bring attention to the "U".

Any ideas?
 

The Wild will host this game in the next 3-4 years. Count on it......Hopefully we'll be playing in the Rose Bowl on the same day!
 

I say

Wild-Avalanche
High School Game
Gophers-Denver (keeping on the Minnesota vs Denver theme)
 

mnboiler said:
I'm sitting here being lazy watch the NHL Winter Classic. By the way this is an amazing sports cay overall Bowl Game a plenty, Winter Classic, add in a little NCAA basketball for a bonus, and who could miss the Rose Bowl Parade.

Anyway I was thinking how cool would it be to have TCF host the Winter Classic with the Wild and a rival of them. Then for some extra bonus fun you could have the Gopher's men and women hockey teams play Wisconsin or some other rival. That could be really fun for every one involved. I wouldn't think it would have much affect on the field because it's going to be FieldTurf. I would be a great way to bring attention to the "U".

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
i live like 4 blocks from wrigley and when the jets flew over my wife and i seriously thought that there was an airliner crashing into the building, we looked out the window and there was fireworks and the lights were/are on for some reason.

but yesterday i was thinking exactly the same thing about having a hockey game at TCF (or the future twins stadium), maybe the wild and vancouver or chicago (because it would be a bigger draw). also i really like the idea of U of M versus U W.
 

I think the NHL would be nuts to NOT bring the Winter Classic to the Twin Cities in the next year or two. There's a reason why Minnesota is the state of hockey (this coming from a basketball man).

IMHO, they would do much better to get off of New Years Day. Schedule it for the second or third Saturday in January, then do a bona fide Minnesota hockey day. High school game at 11 AM, Gophers at 3:00, then the Wild at 6 or 7.

I believe the first Winter Classic in Edmonton followed a similar format to this.
 


I would say it is 100% certain that this game goes to Boston and NYC next. If they went to Buffalo, I suppose it could go anywhere, so TCF is a possibility. I'd say the Wings getting a game at the Big House would also be on that list.

New Year's day is probably going to stick. It's hockey outdoors, or the Outback and Gator Bowl's.... while this may be a difficult choice to the people on this message board, most people don't care about 98% of the bowl games.
 

Agreed that Boston and NYC have priority. But also think that Det, Philly, Tor, Mont and LI (among a few others as well) will be ahead of the Wild in the queue. The twin cities do not have the best relationship with the NHL. So, I think we're a ways away, but when we do, the best game we could throw on top to make it a killer double header would be a rematch of the prior year's State High School Championship game.
 

The initial plan this year was for Yankee Stadium, but George wanted the closing on his terms.

In order of NHL hierarchy

Boston
New York
Detroit
Toronto
Montreal

think orginal 6 and you have a start.

Make it a firm date, New Years Day, and award it in advance. Where will it be next year. Oh, and the Commiss needs to get the other games back to ESPN. Who gets Vs.
 

bigtenchamps1899 said:
i live like 4 blocks from wrigley and when the jets flew over my wife and i seriously thought that there was an airliner crashing into the building, we looked out the window and there was fireworks and the lights were/are on for some reason.
Click to expand...

Where do you live? I'm also 4 blocks from Wrigley.

I just happened to be looking out the window when the jets flew over, definitely reminded me of air show weekend.
 



Minnesota won't host or be in a key marketing game anytime soon. Bettman and the marketing execs will keep us locked in the basement until Jacques and his system are gone and someone more electrifying than Mikko Koivu is our best player. The outdoor game is about celebrating the good players and excitement of the game.

That said, when things change here we should forget the stadiums in the metro and do something to celebrate our unique hockey heritage. I'd like to see a game on a lake outside of Eveleth and the Hall of Fame, or on Lake of the Woods to honor Roseau/Warroad, or around Grand Rapids/International Falls. Wouldn't be great for attendance but the lakes and pine trees would make for great television.
 

akgopher said:
Minnesota won't host or be in a key marketing game anytime soon. Bettman and the marketing execs will keep us locked in the basement until Jacques and his system are gone and someone more electrifying than Mikko Koivu is our best player. The outdoor game is about celebrating the good players and excitement of the game.

That said, when things change here we should forget the stadiums in the metro and do something to celebrate our unique hockey heritage. I'd like to see a game on a lake outside of Eveleth and the Hall of Fame, or on Lake of the Woods to honor Roseau/Warroad, or around Grand Rapids/International Falls. Wouldn't be great for attendance but the lakes and pine trees would make for great television.
Click to expand...

I really like the Hall of Fame idea! Attd would be an issue (solvable to be sure) though. Way different vibe - very rootsy. It is abosolutely consistent with the NHL/NBC marketing meme of the Winter Classic. Excellent thought.
 

akgopher said:
The outdoor game is about celebrating the good players and excitement of the game.
Click to expand...

Which is why I'm buying into the speculation that next year's Winter Classic will be Penguins-Flyers at Penn State's Beaver Stadium. They can get tens of thousands of fans from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to meet halfway at State College, and put the spotlight on Sidney Crosby.
 

I know a while back, they were thinking about a UMD Vs U indoor game at the metrodome. I would think with the new stadium, they would be more likely to hold it now.
 



The Pittsburgh and Philadelphia at Beaver Stadium just makes to much sense for the NHL to pass up next year. You have 100000 plus people threre then you market the hell out of "Sid the Kid" the as good as gold for the NHL. I like the idea of something outside of the Hockey HOF or on a lake up north. The idea of the lake but that would have some safety problems with ice thickness and potentially thousands of people on it. Also you might have problem getting thousands of up to drive 4+ hours to freeze there butts off.
 

Rangers v Bruins at Fenway

the following year will be Montreal v Toronto at skydome with the roof open
 

I wonder if they will ever have the Winter Classic in Canada again, or if they'll just do a separate one. Canadian teams are ratings poison in this country. How often do you see the Canadian teams on NBC, or even Versus?
 

I think Fenway in 2010, then either TCF or Comerica in 2011.

I predict the NHL will keep alternating a Western and Eastern site each year.
 

There's nothing to say we have to have an NHL game to have outdoor hockey at TCF Bank Stadium. If Bettman and the gang don't want to give the Twin Cities an outdoor game, then so be it.

I could easily see the U simply scheduling a Gopher outdoor game at TCF Bank Stadium. Would not shock me to see some sort of Minnesota classic played there on some Saturday in the late fall/early winter. Example:

9am - High School Game (Hill Murray vs. Warroad)
11am - High School Game (Edina vs. Roseau)
2pm - Minnesota women vs. Minnesota-Duluth women
4:30pm - Minnesota-Duluth vs. Mankato State
7pm - Minnesota vs. St. Cloud State

Michigan-Michigan State drew 75,000 to an outdoor game a few years ago.
 

tjgopher said:
9am - High School Game (Hill Murray vs. Warroad)
11am - High School Game (Edina vs. Roseau)
2pm - Minnesota women vs. Minnesota-Duluth women
4:30pm - Minnesota-Duluth vs. Mankato State
7pm - Minnesota vs. St. Cloud State
Click to expand...

If this happens, wake me up at 6:30pm.
 

akgopher said:
That said, when things change here we should forget the stadiums in the metro and do something to celebrate our unique hockey heritage. I'd like to see a game on a lake outside of Eveleth and the Hall of Fame, or on Lake of the Woods to honor Roseau/Warroad, or around Grand Rapids/International Falls. Wouldn't be great for attendance but the lakes and pine trees would make for great television.
Click to expand...


The did this last year, it was on FSN. They will do it again this year. They played on Baudette Bay if I remember right. It was Roseau vs. Blaine and Eveleth-Gilbert vs. Lake of the Woods.

http://www.bbhcmn.com/page.php?page_id=2
 

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