Hockey at Wrigley = A Dream come true!

Already talked to my cousin last night... we'll be heading out there. Just gotta wait and see when tickets are going to go on sale.

blackredyellow wrote:

Good to see... good matchup two with the SC Champion Wings and the young and up and coming Blackhawks.

I'm not sure that I like it in a baseball park though... It will just looks strange with the shape of the rink vs the sake of the ballpark.

I agree. I think the baseball stadium setting is not the right type of venue for a hocky game. A football stadium is a much better set up for a hockey game.

Another winter classic? Awesome! the first one ruled.
Go hawks! and i agree, best uni in pro sports.

I talked with the STH representatives. Here is the plan they are offering although not official yet

If you buy season tickets, they will give you tickets to the NY game. At least the amount of seats you bought. They might allow you to purchase 1-2 extras as well. The other tickets will be sold via lottery style. Season tickets start at 675 a seat. Which isn't all that bad. Anyone want to split a season with me?

Hey

theres nothing better then 2 original 6 teams out there in one of if not the oldest ballpark out there.

rich in history and tradition.

nice get on this new new years day highlight.

us over here in nyc will have to wait until the 2010 season and the New Yankee Stadium .

Hockey At The New Yankee Stadium

Rangers now hoping to play game at new Yankee Stadium
BY JOHN DELLAPINA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Monday, July 7th 2008, 11:55 PM


Franklin/AP

Though playing a game at the House That Ruth Built is fading, the Yankees' new ballpark could be an option for the Rangers.
The Yankees were on board. The city was on board. And the NHL wanted to do it.

But myriad logistical problems made it too costly and too difficult for the NHL to stage the next Winter Classic as the closing act at Yankee Stadium. Still, if the NHL won't be making history by closing the old ballpark, it could well wind up staging the first non-baseball sporting event in the new one.

The Daily News has learned that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Yankees COO Lonn Trost and mayor Mike Bloomberg concluded their discussions on the topic recently with each pledging their interest in playing a Winter Classic in the new Yankee Stadium - perhaps on New Year's Day 2010.

Wrigley Field will do the honors six months from now, serving as the site for a game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 1, 2009. An official announcement from the NHL should come a few days before the league releases its entire 2008-09 schedule on Monday.

While it is certain that the Rangers would play in any Yankee Stadium game, choosing their opponent was one of the many thorny issues that complicated matters. The Islanders began investigating the possibility and meeting with Yankees officials a few years ago and understandably wanted to be included. The Devils, who wield considerable power at the Board of Governors level, wanted in as well.

But NBC, which scored big ratings with the 2008 Winter Classic between Buffalo and Pittsburgh at Ralph Wilson Stadium, views a game between two teams in the same metropolitan area as a ratings minimizer. The network wants a Rangers-Boston Bruins matchup that both has the cachet of an Original Six matchup - like Blackhawks-Red Wings - and brings the eyeballs of two major television markets to the sets.

But there were even more significant obstacles that kept the 2009 Winter Classic from closing Yankee Stadium. Delaying demolition of the ballpark for two months would have hiked construction costs on the new Yankee Stadium, as certain areas common to both stadiums need to be transitioned. Also, since the current Stadium hasn't been used for a winter event since the Giants moved out in 1973, winterizing of pipes would have been necessary to guarantee that 60,000 people wouldn't show up to find that none of the bathrooms worked.

And that would have been on top of the already heightened costs of staging a hockey game in the current Stadium, which has no point of entry large enough to accommodate the huge refrigeration trucks necessary to make and maintain the ice surface.

Understandably, neither the city nor the Yankees had any interest in paying for such things. And when the numbers began to add up, the NHL judged them too high even for such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.