Excitement builds for Outdoor Games
By Aaron Bell
For the first time in history, the Ontario Hockey League is about to takes its game outdoors.
A pair of OHL Western Conference rivalry games will be part of the warm up before the National Hockey League’s Winter Classic on New Year’s Day between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs in Ann Arbor, MI.
The OHL games are on Sunday December 29 and will see the Windsor Spitfires and Saginaw Spirit at 1:30 p.m. followed by the London Knights and Plymouth Whalers at 5:00 p.m. The OHL games will be held at Comerica Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers.
“This is a great opportunity for us to showcase our game in front of so many of our existing, passionate fans as well as many that may be exposed to our brand of hockey for the very first time,” said OHL Commissioner David Branch. “It’s a great way to celebrate the game and will be an exciting and memorable experience for the teams and players involved.”
It’s the first time that the OHL has been invited to participate in what has become one of the NHL’s most anticipated events each season.
“The first time only happens once and this is the first-ever OHL outdoor game,” said Saginaw Spirit President Craig Goslin. “We’re hoping to pack this place and we knew there’s going to a lot of Maple Leafs fans here, a lot of fans coming from London and Windsor and Southwestern Ontario, as well as fans from the Saginaw Spirit and Plymouth Whalers.
“All the action going on our here is going to be really, really good for our league.”
The event also includes a Fan Zone with live music and interactive hockey games throughout the week, an AHL game between the Toronto Marlies and Grand Rapids Griffins on December 30, and a pair of Red Wings-Maple Leafs Alumni games on December 31.
The NHL game is expected to draw 107,000 people while the OHL games could surpass the league’s attendance record of 20,081 set December 20, 2004, in Ottawa when the 67’s hosted the Kingston Frontenacs at the Corel Centre. Detroit was also the site of the league’s second highest crowd of 19,875 on February 5, 1995, at Joe Louis Arena where the Jr. Red Wings hosted the Spitfires.
“It’s not just the game itself that will make the Winter festival so special, it’s all the events,” NHL Chief Operating Officer John Collins told The Toronto Sun last week. “It’s unprecedented that an entire downtown core will be dedicated to the celebration of an entire sport like will be in the case of Detroit.”
Crews started preparing the ice surface at Comerica Park four weeks ago.
“Right now we’re sitting at probably about 30-to-40,000 gallons of water,” Rich Cubin of Rink Specialists told the Detroit News. “That’s our base layer. It’s on a grated surface with two inches of insulation and what we call a rink liner. It basically turns into a very shallow swimming pool. We started the process Friday afternoon and then just had continuous flooding to get to the three-inch thick surface. We went three days, about 10,000 gallons a day.”
More than 120,000 tickets have already been sold for the events at Comerica Park.
“We have a lot going on,” said Craig Turnbull, senior VP of marketing and communications for the Red Wings. “A dozen open-skate blocks for an hour each, nine high school games, a dozen youth games, and it all starts Monday.”
Tickets are still available for this historic event, click here for more information.
For more information about the Hockeytown Winter Festival please visit redwings.com.
