While today teams and venue operators lobby Bettman for the chance to host an outdoor game, there weren’t a ton of suitors for the first go-round. Nobody ever canceled their Super Bowl party because they didn’t like the two teams that were in the game.”Ĭollins and Miller brought the idea back to Bettman, who encouraged them to investigate which teams and venues would be interested. If you’re a Ranger fan and the Rangers are out of the playoffs, the hockey light goes off and you become a Yankee fan. “But when you really looked at their behavior for a big moment like the Stanley Cup, they didn’t necessarily perform in the same way. “One of the big insights that came out of a lot of the work that was done was that hockey fans are as passionate, if not more so, than fans of any of the other sports,” Collins said. Sidney Crosby’s shootout goal amid the snowflakes won the 2008 game for the Penguins and gave the NHL an indelible moment to savor. Collins saw it as an opportunity to create a tentpole event that would help snap hockey fans out of their tribal tendencies. Reporting to Bettman, Miller resurfaced the outdoor game idea to his old NFL on NBC colleague. Shortly after Collins started in his role as senior executive vice president for business and media, The commissioner offered Collins a job that day. With the NHL’s new economic model in place and a more exciting product on the ice following the lockout, Bettman believed it was time for the league to pursue an aggressive growth strategy. The discussion then turned to Collins’ experience at the NFL and how he had helped the country’s most lucrative sports property unlock new value at the league level. “That was like two minutes into the conversation.” “He kind of quickly said, ‘You don’t want to do that,’” Collins recalled with a chuckle. That year, former NFL marketing executive and Cleveland Browns CEO John Collins paid Bettman, merely an acquaintance at that point, a visit to ask his advice about a job opportunity at a sports media agency. Miller first brought the idea to Bettman shortly after the end of the NHL’s 2004-05 lockout, but it wasn’t until the commissioner made a key hire in 2006 that the concept of an outdoor game on New Year’s Day gained momentum. Miller had seen the Heritage Classic, conceived as a one-off, and “felt that there’s no reason why we couldn’t try to do something similar here in the U.S.” He had also seen firsthand how NBC worked with the NBA to carve out Christmas Day as an annual basketball showcase. “My idea was to maybe have the Bruins play the Rangers in Yankee Stadium on New Year’s Day,” Miller recalled.ĭeputy Commissioner Bill Daly and COO John Collins were among the key players who helped Bettman and the league launch the Winter Classic with a game in Buffalo on Jan. NBC was preparing to purge its portfolio of college football bowl games, leaving the network with an impending programming vacancy on New Year’s Day following the Jan. That May, NBC and the NHL had inked a new broadcast deal. But the idea to make it a regular part of the calendar didn’t arrive until almost a year later, when longtime NBC Sports executive Jon Miller was watching a different classic: the 2004 ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The NHL first ventured outdoors for the 2003 Heritage Classic in Edmonton, when the Canadiens beat the Oilers that November. Both of those numbers will increase next year when the Seattle Kraken host the Vegas Golden Knights in the Winter Classic. Twenty-eight of the league’s teams have taken part.
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Twenty-one metropolitan areas have hosted at least one game from among the Winter Classic (the New Year’s Day staple), the Heritage Classic (an edition played in Canada) and the Stadium Series (a late-season edition that gives more markets the chance to host an outdoor game). ■ Only venue to host twice: Fenway Park (20)įifteen years later, almost all of the league’s teams have gotten their wish, and Bettman has gotten one of the hallmarks of his three decades as commissioner, a literal manifestation of his willingness to think outside the box.
1, 2011 Capitals-Penguins at Heinz Field 4.5 million viewers on NBC 1, 2008, at Ralph Wilson Stadium Penguins beat Sabres in shootout
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