Reebok Hockey

N.H.L. Ties Its Brand to the Great Outdoor Sport.

The N.H.L.learned two simple lessons from it's debut of its Winter Classic game last. First: Repeat it again. Secondly: Make it bigger. What began in the snow and sleet at Ralph Wilson Stadium outside Buffalo continues Thursday at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Chicago Blackhawks, a team in second place in the Central Division, and the defending champions Detroit Red Wings, who are in first place in the Central. They'll play at 1 p.m. on NBC. The stadium maybe smaller this time around but the market will certainly surpass the last event. And there will certainly be alot more corporate involvement such as; Bridgestone and Honda just to name a few.The tickets will bemuch more expensive as wel; seats that cost $10 to $203 last time are now up to $25 to $335. A some seats are being offered on StubHub for as much as $10,000. Reebok has opened two stores near Wrigley to sell merchandise through Jan. 5. Also, Chicago sports legends — among will also be there, such as; the Blackhawks’ Bobby Hull and the Cubs’ Ferguson Jenkins — will be honored, and the Red Wings legend Ted Lindsay is expected to drop the ceremonial first puck.
It should be a ver spectacular event as fighter jets fly over during the national anthem. This isn’t quaint anymore and I'm sure it never will be again. The league believes the Classic — a regular-season game played outdoors every New Year’s Day — will be a long-term annual event that separates hockey from other sports; it projects the game as a midseason ritual for its fans to root nationally, not for their local teams. Already, there is demand for future games in Philadelphia, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal and Boston. Before the league got its rental at Wrigley, which is in the midst of being sold along with the Cubs, unoccupied old Yankee Stadium was seriously considered to be the site. “This is part of our new business model and gives people a sense of what we can do,” said John Collins, the league’s chief operating officer. “We introduced our Broadband player, we reintroduced NHL.com. We have 53 million fans who love the game, 22 million in the arenas and a $2.6 billion business. But it doesn’t feel as big as it should.” What happened last season in Orchard Park, N.Y., before 71,217 fans in a football stadium on a hastily built rink.This year will be a totally differernt senario.

This Winter Classic is destined to be an annual event for many years to come.Last year, Sidney Crosby’s shootout goal won the game and between the awesome hockey and the down pour of snow a new classic was born. The ice was a little iffy as several breaks in the ice and to be repaired, but the snow created a magnificent special effect. An average of 3.75 million viewers watched on NBC, more than four times what the league’s All-Star Game drew and close to the average of the Stanley Cup finals. .

The apparrel that is necessary for an outdoor game is obvious: it reminds hockey lovers, of a bygone era, especially those who learned or appreciate the sport in very cold climates. How awesome it used to be, playing on frozen ponds and lakes. “Pond Hockey: Many suggest it's the way mother nature intended hockey to be played.Here's hoping that this "new" phenomena will cotinue to grow and give us years of nesalgetic hockey.