Quote:
Originally Posted by MattyC
I thought the Stadium series was a one-time thing as a "lock-out apology".
If they had just stuck to one Winter Classic per year, it would still be interesting and there would be less repetition with the teams. This is just ridiculous.
And I agree you want to talk about growing the game in southern markets? How about actually including them in these things? Have a winter-destination host a south team, how is that so hard?
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The problem the NHL has is that the Winter Classic is NBC driven, and NBC only cares about the seven or eight teams that drive TV viewers. That leaves 22-23 in the lurch.
The Flames campaigned for years to host an outdoor game, and it was through the debt the league felt it owed Harley Hotchkiss that it agreed to revive the Heritage Classic name. When Calgary crushed Pittsburgh's WC for revenue and sponsorship (despite nearly 30,000 fewer seats capacity), that pretty much cemented the ability to host more than one outdoor game.
The Stadium Series is the American version of the Heritage Classic - games meant to appeal more to the local markets, and designed for the teams NBC doesn't care about so much. They did four last year to generate revenue out of the lockout. The league seems to think that two a year is a good number. There was only one this year because of concerns over legal problems caused when Philly cheated its season ticket holders at their WC.