The "Ice Bowl"

[C Darwin]

Saturday, August 25, 2007
SABRES, PENS WILL GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY
http://www.thehockeynews.com/en/news/news.asp?idNews=25638

It's on.

According to various sources, the NHL will go ahead with a second outdoor game on Jan. 1, 2007-08.

The game, tentatively call the "Ice Bowl," will feature the Penguins and the Sabres dueling at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo and will be broadcast nationally in the U.S. by NBC.

After the remarkably successful 2003 Heritage Classic in Edmonton, the league is hoping another alfresco will create similar a buzz.

The sold-out game at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton had record audience of 60,000 watch the hometown Oilers drop a 4-3 decision to the Montreal Canadiens.

The New Year's Day game could surpass the Heritage Classic as the largest audience to ever watch an NHL hockey game as Ralph Wilson Stadium seats 73,967 for a football game and would likely seat more for hockey.

The NHL is expected to make an official announcement Sept. 10 in Buffalo.

 

[Realgeorge]

The Edmonton-Montreal game from a few years back was carefully un-televised by the Bettmann regime. It didn't fit the agenda to have an all-White NHL game with Sixty Thousand paid attendees on the tube, especially with the Lockout looming and the chance to kill the NHL forever still a possibility.

Now there's a prospect for a televised, outdoor NHL game with seventy-thousand spectators. The NHL is definitely the league on the upswing, with the NBA fizzling into oblivion. As it should be. The "NHL is dead" articles are nowhere to be seen; now ESPN cries in its porridge as competing networks command the dedicated White viewing audience of the powerful NHL fan-base. Serves them right. To Hades with ESPN! Mouthpiece of the Zionist sports conspiracy.

The Pens and Sabres are among the best five teams in the NHL. The previous Canadians-Oilers game featured teams in the middle of the pack, at the time. The new matchup could indeed pack the stadium. Bring it on!

 

[Don Wassall]

The Sabres made 40,000 tickets for this game available today. They were all sold in 40 minutes!

 

[sunshine]

Two obvious covers that SI let slide this year. Sidney Crosby--a no brainer since he is the best young athlete--sorry Lebron--in USA pro team sports today. Another missed oppurtunity is a cover story on the love affair between the city of Buffalo and the Sabres. Hockey is dead right? Try telling that to the good people of Buffalo.

 

[cslewis1]

THis is going to be awesome! Way to actually think outside the box NHL! for once at least

 

[Realgeorge]

The "NHL is Dead" crowd certainly must be displeased with the amazing one-day sellout of this year's Ice Bowl. Outdoor NHL hockey is a proven winner.

Makes me wonder: Why don't ALL (or at least many of) the teams provide an outdoor game? I bet the NHL could support 4 or 5 such games in a season. The lure of 60 or 70 thousand (White) fans at an outdoor hockey game should have the teams begging for more. And with TWO halftimes! Think of all the extra beer that will be sold.

Realgeorge's novel idea: Put the usually boring NHL All-star game in an outdoor arena.

 

[Lance Alworth]

see post belowEdited by: Lance Alworth

 

[Lance Alworth]

Now there's a prospect for a televised, outdoor NHL game with seventy-thousand spectators. The NHL is definitely the league on the upswing, with the NBA fizzling into oblivion. As it should be. The "NHL is dead" articles are nowhere to be seen; now ESPN cries in its porridge as competing networks command the dedicated White viewing audience of the powerful NHL fan-base. Serves them right. To Hades with ESPN! Mouthpiece of the Zionist sports conspiracy.

This is still my favorite SI cover of all time. Lets hope we'll see a part two to this issue

 

[Realgeorge]

Buffalo prepares the stadium for ice hockey. Bring on the Ice Bowl!

[url]http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2007/12/24/outdoor-nhl .html[/url]

Edited by: Realgeorge

 

[Don Wassall]

I'm getting psyched for this game. NBC has been giving it a fair amount of publicity, hopefully it won't be another of those ridiculously low TV ratings for an NHL game on amajor U.S. network.


I think the idea of outdoor games has lots of potential. Each NHL team could stage one or more annually, especially with arch-rivals competing; almost all of them would draw very large crowds and create lots of local interest. It couldn't help but increase the popularity of theleague in the U.S. given the near-blackout of it by the corporate media.

 

[Maple Leaf]

The league scheduled this game in Buffalo because of the almost guaranteed cold stadium and, being close to Ontario, Canadian fans will come accross the border and help fill the venue. I love this concept. The only down side is there is no Canadian team.

 

[Lance Alworth]

Good to see the Pens win in the shootout. Its also good from a league standpoint that it was Sidney Crosby with the winning shootout goal. All in all, a great day for the NHL. What I wouldn't give to see them stick that dagger through the heart of the NBA once and for all. That league is a paper tiger and if there is any time thats right to take them down, its now.

 

[Realgeorge]

Hooray for the Ice Bowl!
An excellent game and a magnificent PR piece for the NHL. It was perfect -- snow, wind, a packed stadium with WHITE people everywhere, having a great time. The Sabres and Penguins battled fortuitously to a 1-1 tie, and the Shootout provided an ever-prolonged game time for the happy fans. The camerawork was great, Costas and Milbury were outstanding at the microphone, and most of all -- Powder Blue uniforms for the Pens! Keep those!

Gosh the NHL can't miss with these outdoor games. There should be two every year -- One in a regular season game, and the other ... the NHL All-Star game should be outdoors to give that boring affair some flair

 

[jaxvid]

It was fun to watch, the opening was stirring and the game was entertaining. I was switching between it and a Bowl game (bad timing on the hockey game IMHO). I played a lot of hockey as a kid in the great outdoors. I loved it. This game brought back memories of that. I hope the players enjoyed it too.

 

[Don Wassall]

The Ice Bowl drew the NHL's highest rating for a regular season game in over a decade, getting a 5 share on NBC despite going up against college bowl games.

 

[Guest]

It got a 2.6 rating which is terrible. UFC gets a higher rating than that. I was surprised the rating was that low, but I was shocked to learn that a 2.6 is the highest an NHL game has gotten in 12 years.

I was still watching hockey in 1996. It boggles my mind the ratings were that low even back then. I stopped watching after the Lemieux/Gretzky era ended, but I would have thought the ratings would have been higher than a 3 in the 90s.

Still, 2.6 is an improvement on the absolutely abysmal 1.0 rating the 07 Stanley Cup received.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Come on now Nevada, you know you never watched Hockey. None of your dark buddies play it.

 

[Don Wassall]

Fox Sports has TV stations in just about all the major U.S. markets. According to Sports Illustrated, the Penguins' ratings on Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh are not only the highest for any NHL team, but higher than those of any NBA team.


Would be interesting to look at all the local and regional numbers for both NHL and NBA teams, but this tells me that the NHL is very competitive with the NBA ratings-wise on a local level. It's the dramatic difference in coverage on a national level between the two leagues that has given the NHL a reputation as a non-major sport, but the NBA has lousy national ratings, too, just not as low as the NHL's yet.


BTW, Sidney Crosby will soon be appearing in a Gatorade ad that will air across the U.S., the first hockey player to have a national ad in America since Wayne Gretzky. How many black basketball players have appeared in commercials since Gretzky?

 

[Guest]

I watched Lemieux play his last game in the 97 playoffs. It was a sad day. He came back in 00 and I watched that game, but nothing since.

 

[Matra1]

A 2.6 rating is decent for the NHL. The bowl game featuring Michigan, which got approximately a 10 rating, probably had an impact in the greater Detroit area as the top ten metropolitan areas in the Neilsen ratings did not include any Michigan cities. Buffalo got a Spuper Bowl-like 38 rating, Pittsburgh a 17 then Minneapolis with a 5. Interestingly, Las Vegas and Richmond were also top ten cities in terms of viewership alongside less surprising places such as Providence, Boston, and Denver. (A clown like Bettman will read into such numbers the need for a team in Vegas or Richmond instead of a Canadian city that deserves a team).

The problem with the NHL is that they think they are a major national sport in the US. The ratings have shown for decades that the NHL is mainly regional with some pockets of support outside the main regions. The morons who run the league think that if only Americans could see the sport they'd fall in love with it. How many decades have we heard such nonsense while NHL and Olympic games were widely available to the American public on TV? Yet the NHL's ratings on NBC are often below Arena Football, bowling, rodeo, and other big time sports. In Detroit (hockeytown!) they can't sell out the building (even during the playoffs) as they play too many expansion teams without a history in the league. Many of their away playoff games last year didn't end until well after 1am due to Detroit being a Western team!

I predict the NHL will make a mess of this opportunity. Another event like the Winter Classic (or whatever they are going to call it) won't have legs at the NATIONAL level - it will just be a curiosity. It could, however, have legs at the local level if they did things right.

I think Chicago (the third largest city) would be a good place to host the next event. No, really, I'm serious. The Blackhawks have (to put it mildly) faded in recent decades but with the death of Wirtz their games are returning to TV. Many people in the Chicago area still go to local hockey and have a history with the sport though they couldn't name a player on the Blackhawks. In Chicago there is a foundation to build on and an event like that on New Years (probably against Detroit) would be remembered for years and I believe would not only help save the Blackhawks but bring them back into the consciousness of the city's average white sports fan. In other words it would help the NHL in the long term. Unfortunately the NHL - always on the lookout for the silver bullet that will turn the NHL into the NFL - will probably fritter away this opportunity. They've almost perfect record of messing hings up (especially under Bettman) so why would they stop now?

Don is right though about the contrast between reporting on the NBA and NHL. The NBA's ratings are falling like a stone - or rather, like NHL ratings over the past decade. I've a feeling the NBA's lack of popularity will not be treated like the NHL's - ie., as a laughing matter. Instead it will be seen as a serious issue that needs to be addressed by everyone involved in the sport. (Prediction: the racial imbalance of the NBA will not be one of the issues that gets addressed).

 

[Maple Leaf]

Matra 1: good insights, you've been paying attention.

 

[Don Wassall]

It got a 2.6 rating which is terrible.

The Gator Bowl's rating was 2.7. The Capital One Bowl's was 9.9. Considering how entrenched the tradition of watching bowl games on New Year's Day is, the NHL did quite well.


http://www.thestar.com/article/290571

 

[Lance Alworth]

It got a 2.6 rating which is terrible. UFC gets a higher rating than that. I was surprised the rating was that low, but I was shocked to learn that a 2.6 is the highest an NHL game has gotten in 12 years.

It probably would have gotten a better rating if it wasn't directly opposed to college football bowl games. Considering what the game was up against, I don't think a 2.6 rating is bad at all. Hockey just isn't going to be as popular as football, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a place amongst the American sports landscape

 

[cslewis1]

It got a 2.6 rating which is terrible.

The Gator Bowl's rating was 2.7.  The Capital One Bowl's was 9.9.  Considering how entrenched the tradition of watching bowl games on New Year's Day is, the NHL did quite well.


http://www.thestar.com/article/290571

And the Cap One bowl pitted Florida vs. Michigan, two big conference, highly visible programs with large populations on New Years Day. The fact the NHL got its biggest rating ever, with small cities like Pittsburgh and Buffalo is fantastic news. THere is NO way anyone can claim this wasn't a great, great success.

I do believe the NHL will screw it up, after all, that's what they do. But like Real George says, the Allstar game and one other game a year should be outside. I agree too, put it next year in Chicago. the Hawks vs. the Rangers, and not on News Years Day, but vs. the NBA allstar game. Let's see the ratings then.

 

[cslewis1]

Now there's a prospect for a televised, outdoor NHL game with seventy-thousand spectators. The NHL is definitely the league on the upswing, with the NBA fizzling into oblivion. As it should be. The "NHL is dead" articles are nowhere to be seen; now ESPN cries in its porridge as competing networks command the dedicated White viewing audience of the powerful NHL fan-base. Serves them right. To Hades with ESPN! Mouthpiece of the Zionist sports conspiracy.

This is still my favorite SI cover of all time. Lets hope we'll see a part two to this issue

Painful to revisit this. I remember very well thinking the NHL was about to sink the NBA and the culture would have changed for the better. Then the strike. The f'ing strike!!! AHHHHHH!!!! And then four straight Cup Final sweeps. The Devils trap. This stupid expansion desperation. Not allowing for more free flow on the ice, ala getting rid of the two line pass, and offsides, etc.

But it seems they might be getting it togehter. Hopefully, the damage isn't too permanent.