We all know that New Year’s Day has been college football’s biggest day. Bowl games from morning till midnight. But NBC and their partners at the NHL think that they just might have something that might pull you away from college football at least for a while.
At 4 p.m. on New Year’s Day, NBC will present their first NHL telecast of the season when Buffalo hosts Pittsburgh.
“It sounds like just another hockey game — get back to me in March or April,” one might say.
Well the Sabres and the Penguins will face off in front of a sell out crowd of over 74,000 fans in Ralph Wilson Stadium making this game first outdoor game in U.S. NHL history and it will be played in front of the largest crowd ever to see an NHL game. Tickets to the game were so hot they were gone in three hours.
Think about it: Buffalo on New Year’s Day, snow, wind blowing at about 40 miles per hour with temps around — and possibly below — freezing, slap shots whizzing around at over 100 mph. Finally the NHL might just have come up with a way to capture the casual fan on a football crazy day.
During a conference call with the media this week, I asked executive producer Sam Flood if this could be the start of an annual NHL event — much like Christmas Day has been the unofficial start to the NBA season on national TV.
“I think that watching the NHL live outdoors with snow and outdoor elements is compelling TV — for any sports fan. As to whether the NHL makes the outdoor event an annual event, we will have to wait and see but I think it could really be worth consideration,” stated Flood.
NBC color analyst Mike Milbury on playing outdoors: “There’s something about playing the game free form, free flowing when it’s that cold. It feels like in the right moment you’re skating at 40 miles per hour. It’s that kind of passion that I grew up on, and it’s that kind of passion that will be even more on display in an outdoor game like this. I guarantee it. It’s going to be a special event. There will be no passengers on either team. These guys will be especially pumped up to do the game justice on the first of January.”
This is not the first major outdoor hockey game in the U.S. The largest NCAA crowd, 73,450, was for a Michigan-Michigan State game played in East Lansing in 2003.
The only outdoor game in NHL history was played on Nov. 22, 2003, when the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers drew 57,167 to The Heritage Classic at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
The Buffalo-Pittsburgh game is worth a look on New Year’s Day and it should help the NHL get off to a good start on NBC.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.
