Datsyuk never ceases to amaze me the way he handles the puck. That shootout goal was so sweet.
Datsyuk never ceases to amaze me the way he handles the puck. That shootout goal was so sweet.
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Originally Posted by SteveSly
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...ickets-ratings
The National Hockey League announced its 2014 Winter Classic set a hockey attendance record on Wednesday and matched its best television ratings.
An NHL-record 105,491 tickets were sold for the Detroit Red Wings' 3-2 shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor in the NHL's sixth Winter Classic, its signature annual outdoor game that airs on Jan. 1 nationally.
There was steady snow and temperatures in the lower teens for the game, so the tickets sold may not match the number of fans through the turnstiles. It's not known if the NHL will release a reconciled gate attendance versus tickets-sold total.
The Guinness Books of Records will have to certify the attendance mark for the 2014 Winter Classic to be declared the most-attended hockey game. The current Guinness record is 104,173 for the 2010 "Big Chill at the Big House" between Michigan State and the University of Michigan.
Wednesday's game did break the Winter Classic attendance record of 71,217 set in 2008 for the inaugural event, which pitted the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Buffalo Sabres at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y.
The 2014 Winter Classic, airing at 1 p.m. on New Year's Day, drew a 2.9 rating nationally and an 18 on Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV-Ch. 4, according to Nielsen Co. audience data distributed by the NHL this morning.
The national telecast rating matched the Red Wings' 6-4 Winter Classic victory over host Chicago Blackhawks at Wrigley Field in the 2009 game.
The NHL said this morning that it didn't have revenue data available for the game.
Face value of tickets ranged from $89 to $279, with the majority priced $129 to $189. The average face value of seven price levels of Winter Classic tickets was $186, so that translates to $19.6 million in gate revenue.
It's unclear if the NHL received a cut of the resale fee on the online secondary ticket markets, such as StubHub.
The league also earned an undisclosed sum from the sale of Winter Classic merchandise and concessions at Michigan Stadium and some parking fees.
The NHL rented Michigan Stadium for a month for $3 million, and said it used 16 area companies to build the ice rink on the football field and prepare the facility for a hockey game. The league also paid nearly $1 million to Kitty Hawk, N.C.-based Rink Specialists Inc. to build one of the company's temporary ice rinks at Comerica Park for the Hockeytown Winter Festival.
The rink used at Michigan Stadium is owned by the NHL.
More than 120,000 fans attended the five hockey events at Comerica Park, a series of college, minor league and Wings-Maple Leafs alumni games in the days prior to the Winter Classic.
The Winter Classic was estimated to inject $30 million in spending into the region, NHL COO John Collins has said. The league did not differentiate how much of that was new spending in the market, such as from visiting Toronto fans, versus local spending shifted from one part of the region to another — something economists call the substitution effect.
The NHL is relying on the national exposure from the Winter Classic as part of its three-year plan developed this year to boost gross national league-wide revenue by $1 billion, Collins said.
The league posted $2.4 billion in total revenue during the 48-game, lockout-shortened 2013 season. In the full 82-game 2011-12 season, the NHL had $3.2 billion in total revenue.
The NHL took a major step toward that revenue goal on Nov. 26 when it unveiled a 12-year, $4.9 billion TV broadcast rights deal in Canada with Toronto-based Rogers Communications. It begins next season, and pays the league $300 million in the first year and escalating yearly amounts thereafter.
Seriously, how does that guy keep his job? Everybody hates him.every time this guy interviews someone with that giddy smile of his, it always looks like he's gonna lean in for a make-out.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
After the slow ice of the Winter Classic, watching the Blackhawks/Islanders game last night looked like both teams skating at warp speed. The Islanders could have easily scored 7 or 8 goals, they were so quick. I gave up counting the number of icings waived off due their getting to the puck first. They sure did not look or play like a sub-500 team.
Has any information been released as to how they're going to play outdoor hockey in LA in a couple weeks?
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
The NHL learned its lesson: You want a highly attended, highly watched event? Involve a Canadian team! Half that crowd was from Canada! I'm convinced there were more TVs in Canada tuned to that game than all other shows being broadcast in that time slot combined.
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
I agree. Keeping it near the border probably helped too. There are a lot of Red Wings fans in Windsor and the neighbouring towns. I'd bet that a lot of those Red jerseys were Canadians too.The NHL learned its lesson: You want a highly attended, highly watched event? Involve a Canadian team! Half that crowd was from Canada! I'm convinced there were more TVs in Canada tuned to that game than all other shows being broadcast in that time slot combined.
Here's an interesting breakthrough in how hockey players can communicate:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/sci...unicate,34825/
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
LMAO! Thanks for that. I just posted it on my FB page.
From a marketing strategy it really was a perfect pairing. Toronto is only about a 3 hour drive to Ann Arbor (not counting the border crossing), and the Canadian border only a little over 30 minutes away, so it was pretty convenient for those fans to attend. In Michigan, Ann Arbor is less than a 2 hour drive from the cities of Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Lansing, Flint, Saginaw, and Toledo so was able to draw from all of those cities. All of those cities either currently have or have had minor league hockey franchises, so there is a hockey fan base in all of them. In addition all of the hockey related activities in Detroit over the weekend also was a draw. They had over 30,000 people for the 2 alumni games in Comerica Park on Tuesday. The Winter Classic did not quite sell out (capacity is 107,000), but came damn close.The NHL learned its lesson: You want a highly attended, highly watched event? Involve a Canadian team! Half that crowd was from Canada! I'm convinced there were more TVs in Canada tuned to that game than all other shows being broadcast in that time slot combined.
Steve Sly
Rangers bouncing back nicely after last nights loss in Pitt. Shelling TO 5-1 after 2.
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
OUCH! That was quite a whooping.
WOW - Rangers Win!
Who was the goalie - yikes, it was Talbot again.
Again.
The Canadian Report:
This is a national day of mourning as our Junior team failed to medal in the World Championships yet again. A Royal Commission (Inquisition?) is likely to be struck to determine who is to blame. Personally, I think it's the Finn's fault for being better than the Canadians, but what do I know.
The Sens still have the Habs number as they were able to beat them in OT. The Habs played well early in the third period to tie the game, but a dubious penalty to Subban at the end of regulation spelled their doom in OT. The Sens have a four game winning streak at the moment are slowly gaining on Toronto and Detroit for the last wild-card spot in the East. The Canes and the Rangers are right behind so in all likelihood, it's going to come down to the final weekend of the season.
The Leafs mid-season doldrums continue. That's hardly news, though.
The Jets are the Jekyll/Hyde team in the league this year. Great one game, terrible the next. Goaltending is definitely a problem there.
The Alberta teams continue to languish.
The Canucks are playing OK, even without Luongo but the window of opportunity may have already closed for them, as the competition in the Western conference is fierce this year.
It was a bit sad that the majority of the media coverage on the naming of the US Olympic Team centred on the disparaging remarks attributed to Brian Burke regarding Bobby Ryan.
The Canadian team will be announced tomorrow. Talk about a media feeding frenzy.
And lastly, I have a solid hold on first place in the office pool at the mid-way point. My lead is 30 points. The guy in second is slipping as he has been missing Stamkos and Crawford for the last month or so. My only injury was Zetterberg but he has returned to the lineup. We have a redraft at the Olympic break, so the later that happens, the better it is for me (being in first place). I will give up Blair Holtby (has lost his confidence), Michael del Zotto (bow-wow in the doghouse) and Jared Cowen (what was I thinking?) and will likely take either Ben Bishop or Josh Harding, and Cody Ceci and Matt Niskannen keeping me under the $64.3M salary cap.
Think of a book as a vase, and a movie as the stained-glass window that the filmmaker has made out of the pieces after he’s smashed it with a hammer.
-- Russell Banks (paraphrased)
SHHHHHHH!!!! (looks around nervously). You could have your beer privileges revoked for speaking such blasphemy out loud!
I'm really looking forward to the olympics. Especially with the disappointingly mediocre play of the Rangers this season. Though Sather, the king of wasting draft picks, dumps another one on Dan fuckin Carcillo...we're going places now!!
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Donald Brashear revisited.I'm really looking forward to the olympics. Especially with the disappointingly mediocre play of the Rangers this season. Though Sather, the king of wasting draft picks, dumps another one on Dan fuckin Carcillo...we're going places now!!
I really can't understand why anyone would give Carcillo another chance. He's what's known in the biz as a "selfish" player - he let's his personal agenda override the team's objectives.
Think of a book as a vase, and a movie as the stained-glass window that the filmmaker has made out of the pieces after he’s smashed it with a hammer.
-- Russell Banks (paraphrased)
Canadian Olympic Hockey team is:
Goal: Roberto Luongo, Carey Price, Mike Smith
Defence: Jay Bouwmeester, Drew Doughty, Dan Hamhuis, Duncan Keith, Alex Pietrango, P.K. Subban, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Shea Webber
Forwards: Jamie Benn, Patrice Bergeron, Jeff Carter, Sidney Crosby, Matt Duchene, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Chris Kunitz, Patrick Marleau, Steven Stamkos, Rick Nash, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and John Tavares.
No surprises in goal or on defence, but I'm a little surprised that Jeff Carter is in and Mike Richards isn't. I thought they would be a pair. I'm not thrilled with Patrick Marleau or Rick Nash. Stamkos will be a last minute decision
Think of a book as a vase, and a movie as the stained-glass window that the filmmaker has made out of the pieces after he’s smashed it with a hammer.
-- Russell Banks (paraphrased)
No matter how you slice it though, that team is STACKED!
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
Are we talking man boobs or hockey?
Think of a book as a vase, and a movie as the stained-glass window that the filmmaker has made out of the pieces after he’s smashed it with a hammer.
-- Russell Banks (paraphrased)
Tonight's game between the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes has been postponed due to the weather conditions in Buffalo.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6...d=nhl:topheads
The Habs will have players on at least 5 teams in the Olympics:
Canada- Subban, Price
USA- Pacioretty
Czech Rep- Plekanec
Russia- Markov
Switzerland- Diaz
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
I am not a fan of the Leafs new goalie Jonathan Bernier. He has been an active participant in far too many goals into his own net this season. I didn't understand the trade of Ben Scrivens for Bernier, and I'm really not very happy with the results.
Brashear was a better player than Carcillo.
Agreed. I dream of a day when NHL teams stop wasting roster spots on goons like Carcillo. It's even more frustrating being a Flyers fan.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks