The NHL and the Appeal of the Outdoor Games
Have outdoor games, such as the Winter Classic, lost their appeal for NHL fans?
Last Tuesday, the Chicago Blackhawks hosted the NHL Winter Classic, losing to the Boston Bruins 4-2 at Notre Dame Stadium in front of 76,126 screaming hockey fans. The latest installment of the Winter Classic, which has been a yearly fixture in the season schedule since 2008, has become quite the spectacle for fans.
But do hockey fans want to see more of these outdoor spectacles? Or has the outdoor games of the Winter Classic, Heritage Classic, and the Stadium Series gotten stale to the average fan?
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The NHL had previously experimented with outdoor games in the form of exhibition games with the most famous game being played in the parking lot of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas during the 1991-92 preseason between the Los Angeles Kings and the New York Rangers.
This game featured the likes of Tony Amonte, Mark Messier, and Wayne Gretzky. The Kings would win the exhibition 5-2 in front of a crowd of 13,007. Then came the first NHL regular season game to be held outdoors.
The 2003 Heritage Classic played at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta in front of 57,167 the Montreal Canadiens beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3. It was deemed a success and in 2008 the NHL began holding outdoor games on a yearly basis.
Since the 2003 Heritage Classic, there have been 11 Winter Classics (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019). In addition, there have been four Heritage Classics (2003, 2011, 2014, and 2016) and seven Stadium Series games (four in 2014, one in 2015, two in 2016, one 2017, and one in 2018). There was also an outdoor game dubbed the Centennial Classic in 2017 and a game dubbed the NHL 100 Classic in 2017. All in all, there have been 26 outdoor regular-season games with four more scheduled.
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The average attendance for these events is 57,902, with the highest being the 2014 Winter Classic between Toronto and Detroit held at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. That game saw an NHL record of 105,491.
Meanwhile, the lowest attended outdoor game thus far was the 2018 Stadium Series game between the Washington Capitals and the Toronto Maple Leafs at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis which was attended by 29,516. The low attendance for this game was mostly attributed to extremely high winds that had impacted the area days leading up to the event. In fact, the game itself saw a 15-minute delay due to a power outage caused by the remaining winds.
While viewership ratings have seen a decline year to year, there is no denying attendance at these events is steady, with no drastic decline since the installation of outdoor games in the regular season schedule. The NHL had six games outdoors in the 2013-14 season and the lowest attendance of those six games was the second of two games played at Yankee Stadium in a three day period. The appeal is still there. While some may argue that the nostalgia has worn off, the attendance figures show that that’s just not the case.
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The NHL has three outdoor games scheduled for next season with the Heritage Classic in Saskatchewan, the Winter Classic in Dallas, and the Stadium Series in Colorado. If the attendance numbers stay steady, then it would not be surprising to see the NHL institute more outdoor games into the regular season schedule.