Jan. 3, 2012
The Winter Classic is the NHL’s best American marketing tool.
Better than points leader Claude Giroux, who might as well be Claude Gir-who outside the Northeast and the Midwest.
Better than the RedWings-Blackhawks, Rangers-Flyers or Bruins-Canadiens rivalries.
Better even than the Stanley Cup playoffs.
That
admission may sting, but it’s the truth. Nothing captures the American
imagination quite like the spectacle of an outdoor game that recalls
childhood skating on frozen ponds.
The 2009 Winter Classic
between the Red Wings and Blackhawks at Wrigley Field had the highest
American television ratings of any hockey game in 33 years. The Rangers’
3-2 victory over the Flyers on Monday at Citizens Bank Park in
Philadelphia beat out ABC, CBS and FOX in the 18-49 category.
Imagine
how much better those ratings would have been had the NHL not chosen to
go head-to-head with a marquee day of college football bowl games.
That’s
why the NHL must make its signature event a traveling show. It’s not
enough to play the game in Buffalo, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh or
Philadelphia. Those markets already love hockey.
The NHL has to take its best act to less avid hockey markets like Dallas, Denver, San Jose, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Miami.
-- Craig Morgan
