Frozen ivy? Blackhawks-Wings to tangle at Wrigley

Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Second Winter Classic to play out at Wrigley on New Year's Day

<HR width="100%" noShade SIZE=1>Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Wrigley Field is going to be the frozen confines on New Year's Day 2009 when the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings meet the Chicago Blackhawks outdoors in the home park of the Chicago Cubs.

It will be the NHL's second Winter Classic. Last year in Buffalo, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 before a crowd of 71,217. Snow fell during the game.

"We expect interest to be on an international level for this once-in-a-lifetime event," Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz said.

The game will be televised nationally on NBC.

The matchup will be the 701st meeting between the Red Wings and Blackhawks -- no two NHL opponents have played more regular-season games against one another than the two fierce rivals.

It will mark the third regular-season outdoor game in NHL history. The Edmonton Oilers hosted the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 22, 2003.

"The NHL is delighted to bring its most historic rivalry to one of the most historic venues in sports," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said.

Wrigley Field is the second-oldest baseball park in the major leagues behind Boston's Fenway Park. Wrigley Field opened in 1914. The park hosted two Sting concerts during the All-Star break of 2007 and patches of the outfield grass were torn and roughed up. The game could also be competing with college football bowl games for viewers.

"We've been a candidate to play in this for a long time and everybody in our organization is excited about being a part of what is becoming an annual outdoor classic," Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. "It's a tremendous opportunity to promote our game, our league and our team and have a one-in-a-lifetime experience at the same time."

Bettman also said the league will continue discussions with the New York Yankees and the city of New York to perhaps bring an outdoor game to the new Yankee Stadium that opens next year.

This is going to be a tremendous game to watch, but I just wish it wasn't on New Years Day. Now I'll have to choose between this game or the college bowl games.

Should be a good matchup
Young talent at home vs the hated Champs

Im def going

OTK said:

This is going to be a tremendous game to watch, but I just wish it wasn't on New Years Day. Now I'll have to choose between this game or the college bowl games.

Click to expand...

Exactly. Why couldn't they have it the weekend before the Superbowl, when there's no football?

I only live a couple blocks away its gonna be fucking crazy....i wonder how much seats will go for though

The Frozen Confines: Hawks at Wrigley a dream




<!-- Article Publsih Date -->July 17, 2008
<!-- Article By Line -->BY JAY MARIOTTI Sun-Times Columnist
<!-- Article's First Paragraph -->Hang some ivy. Rent the rooftops. Use the center-field scoreboard. Play the organ. Open the Cubby Bear and Harry Caray's. Let the bleacher creatures mate and throw back flying pucks. Have players dress in the clubhouses. Tell Ronnie Woo Woo to stay at home. Ask the singer to do winter jingles between periods as the Zambrano -- I mean, the Zamboni -- cleans the ice.
And, please, ban all goat references.
<!-- start sidebar -->» Click to enlarge image
Move over Geovany Soto and Kosuke Fukudome, here comes Patrick Kane and the Blackhawks. The Blackhawks will play at Wrigley Field Jan. 1.

(Sun-Times/AP)
Sun-Times Columnist Jay Mariotti

<!-- begin poll --><!-- end poll -->
RELATED STORIES
Hawks open season against New York Rangers Hawks acquire Brent from Pittsburgh A New Year's resolution for Hawks fans Fan convention next up for McDonough <!-- Fact box starts here -->
Then again, maybe the Cubs are destined to win a World Series this autumn, considering Wrigley Field is about to freeze over. At high noon on New Year's Day, in a month that once gave this city a wind-chill temperature of minus-93 and a two-day snowfall of 20.6 inches, the Blackhawks will play their heated rivals, Chris Chelios and the Detroit Red Wings, in the NHL's first outdoor game at a baseball stadium. If this culture clash prompts instant questions -- (a) How damned cold might it be in the Frozen Confines? and (b) What's the smart way to configure the rink for the best overall sightlines? -- it also inspires the shivering poet in any fan. What we have is the meshing of vintage Americana with a sport more socially linked to Canada and the world, an event that will gain international attention because it's so innovative. Locally, it's a creative chance to celebrate the survivalist bite of a Chicago winter amid some good, old, hungover fun, all in the name of hockey's dramatic recovery and meteoric popularity rise on the West Side.
"The NHL is delighted to bring its most historic rivalry to one of the most historic venues in sports," said commissioner Gary Bettman, who does much wrong but got this one right.

"We've said from the start we are going to do everything possible to bring the Blackhawks back to the forefront of sports," said team chairman Rocky Wirtz, who has done nothing wrong and everything right since inheriting the power seat from his late father. "We expect interest to be on an international level for this once-in-a-lifetime event."
The intermingling of the Hawks and Cubdom, with Wirtz right-hand-man John McDonough as the proactive common denominator, is a must-attend spectacle for the ages. If it isn't an original concept -- the NHL has played in football venues, including last Jan. 1 in Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium -- the twist is clever enough to silence cries that Bettman is wrecking the outdoor novelty with annual games. Wrigley is where Babe Ruth called his shot, where Ryne Sandberg had his famous game, where Gabby20Hartnett hit his "Homer in the Gloamin'," where Billy Sianis' goat wasn't allowed inside during the 1945 World Series. Wrigley is where Papa Bear Halas relocated from Decatur, where Bronko Nagurski cracked his skull on the bricks, where the Bears won NFL titles, where Mike Ditka walked across Clark Street and drank, where Gale Sayers ran for six touchdowns and blew out his knee. Wrigley is where Elwood Blues listed his home address as 1060 W. Addison, where Ferris Bueller took his day off, where Madonna made a sports movie long before she knew Alex Rodriguez. Wrigley is where baseball first was televised overseas via satellite. Wrigley is where lights finally beamed in 1988, three years after Pete Rose tied Ty Cobb with his 4,191st hit -- my first assignment ever in the place. Wrigley is where a National Register of Historic Places plaque hangs, where Jimmy Buffett wasted away and the Police trashed the outfield grass and left Lou Piniella driven to tears. Wrigley is where Steve Bartman reached for a foul ball and Sammy Sosa corked his bat. Wrigley is a shrine, a museum or, to hear some envious White Sox fans, a urine-soaked dump.
Now, Wrigley will host a hockey rink. "I think NBC-TV is going to make this a five-week holiday card for our city," said McDonough, referring to network promotion. "This game embodies everything that is great about our city."
Great ... and frigid. It's cold enough watching the Cubs on spring and fall nights. Can20you imagine, if Chicago experiences a winter anything like the last one, what we might be dealing with? The pictures were memorable in Buffalo, with the Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins beginning their game in a snowstorm before alternating between sleet and more snow. That makes for great TV, as NBC will tell us, pointing to ratings that were the league's best in 10 years for a regular-season game. But the hockey purists couldn't stand the numerous play stoppages so workers could fix the ice, causing cantanerous commentator Don Cherry to gripe, "Stop showing them fixing the ice!" I need not remind you that Wrigley is, um, exposed to heavy winds and ever-changing weather.
Let's just hope Hawks star Patrick Kane, a wispy 5-9 and 170 pounds, doesn't blow away. That wouldn't be good for the future.
"I've been there on some cold days to watch the Cubs, especially in the early '70s, and remember wondering what we were still doing sitting there," Hawks general manager Dale Tallon told NHL.com. "We never really thought about hockey when we were there. We will now."

CONT:

Then there's the matter of rink placement. Back when the Bears played at Wrigley, the football field was positioned from left field to the area between home plate and first base, creating a tight squeeze for a tall slab of portable bleachers stretching across center and right fields. A hockey rink, of course, is considerably smaller. To allow optimum viewing from t he most possible seats, the Hawks and NHL may have to place it in the baseball infield, which would make it tougher to see from the outfield bleachers. In Buffalo, with more than 71,000 seats in a football configuration, the Sabres simply built the rink in the center of the field and let the masses wrap around it.
But, hey, this isn't about seeing the nuances of a hockey game. You can do that any time in the climate-controlled comfort of the United Center. This is a communal love-in, a coronation for Wirtz and McDonough and the new vision of the Hawks. For years -- shoot, decades -- this was among the worst-run franchises in sports. Today, I'd say Hawks management already is the most progressive in town, marketing with pride and verve and dropping big money on players this offseason. With all due respect to Bill Wirtz, it took his passing for the Hawks to enter the 21st century. Who knew Rocky would step on the gas like Bobby Hull on a breakaway? Who knew McDonough, who expertly honed the Wrigley mystique during his Cubs years, would tackle his new presidency as if he has something to prove when, in fact, he has nothing to prove in this town? It should surprise no one that the minute he laid eyes on the Ralph Wilson Stadium ice, he wanted it for his old stomping grounds.
"As soon as I saw that game on television, I said this is something I'd love to see in Chicago, the greatest city in the world, as soon as possible," McDonough said. "I was so impressed with how the game was presented, the creativity of the NHL, what it could do for a franchise in bringing the game back to its roots. Everything was right about it."
The usual 41,160 tickets go on sale soon. It's just a guess, but the wise buyer will opt for the first few rows of the upper deck. You want the panoramaic view for this day, Hawkdom, an overhang for the hangover.

<!-- Start Bottom Story --><!-- google code -->

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript> <!-- // This function displays the ad results. // It must be defined above the script that calls show_ads.js // to guarantee that it is defined when show_ads.js makes the call-back. function google_ad_request_done(google_ads) { // Proceed only if we have ads to display! if (google_ads.length < 1 ) return; // Display ads in a table document.write("<table cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"2\" width=\"500\" align=\"left\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">"); // Print "Ads By Google" -- include link to Google feedback page if available document.write("<tr><td align=\"left\" class=\"smtext\">"); if (google_info.feedback_url) { document.write("Ads by Google"); } else { document.write("Ads By Google"); } document.write("</td></tr><tr width=\"440\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\"><td>"); // For text ads, display each ad in turn. // In this example, each ad goes in a new row in the table. if (google_ads[0].type == 'text') { for(i = 0; i < google_ads.length; ++i) { document.write("" + "" + google_ads.line1 + "
" + google_ads.line2 + google_ads.line3 + "
" + "" + google_ads.visible_url + "
"); } } // For an image ad, display the image; there will be only one . // if (google_ads[0].type == 'image') { // document.write("" + // "<tr><td align=\"center\">" + // "

</td></tr>"); // } // Finish up anything that needs finishing up document.write ("</td></tr></table>"); } --> </SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript> <!-- // This script sets the attributes for requesting ads. google_ad_client = "ca-chicagosuntimes_js"; google_ad_output = "js"; google_max_num_ads = 5; google_safe = "high"; google_feedback = "on"; google_adtest = "off"; google_ad_type = "text_image"; google_color_line = "ff0000"; // Note: The following line is for testing purposes only. // Remove this line to have ads targeted correctly for your pages. //google_page_url = 'www.suntimes.com/index/index.html'; // Note: The following lines are for testing purposes only. // Uncomment them to test image ads. // google_kw = "googletestadimage"; // google_kw_type = "exact"; //google_image_size = "420x600"; --> </SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.1 src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/ads?client=ca-chicagosuntimes_js&dt=1216321189702&adsafe=high&lmt=1216320666&num_ads=5&output=js&adtest=off&correlator=1216321189702&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suntimes.com%2Fsports%2Fmariotti%2F1060628%2Cmariotti071708.article&color_line=ff0000&ad_type=text_image&feedback_link=on&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suntimes.com%2Fsports%2Findex.html&frm=0&cc=1347&ga_vid=287180267251529250.1216321190&ga_sid=1216321190&ga_hid=769442385&flash=9.0.28.0&u_h=768&u_w=1024&u_ah=738&u_aw=1024&u_cd=32&u_tz=-300&u_his=14&u_java=true"></SCRIPT><TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width=500 align=left bgColor=#dddddd><TBODY><TR><TD class=smtext align=left></TD></TR><TR bgColor=#ffffff width="440"><TD>




</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

djmatt said:

Im def going

Click to expand...

you better get tickets now (if you can)

Scalpers will be getting major coin for this event.