Tag: Gary Bettman

ICYMI the Bruins Are Playing Outdoors at Lake Tahoe This Weekend

By on • ( Leave a comment )

NBC Sports – We’re just a few days away from the Boston Bruins’ most aesthetically-pleasing game of the season. The Bruins will travel to Lake Tahoe on Sunday to take on the Philadelphia Flyers as part of the NHL Outdoors series. Bruins-Flyers will follow Colorado Avalanche vs. Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, which means outdoor hockey is right around the corner.

The rink is being constructed a stone’s throw from Lake Tahoe on the 18th green of the Edgewood Tahoe Resort golf course, and it’s a sight to behold.

The NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe is going to be a spectacular made-for-TV event. I’ve been to a Winter Classic and no matter where they play the sight lines as a fan in attendance are anywhere from awful to mediocre. The TV experience is usually pretty cool with some highlights being the Penguins playing under the snow in the first WC

The Bruins playing at Fenway was an awesome TV experience as well. I’ve been to Frozen Fenway where I saw some college hockey games there so I know the sight lines are terrible, but I remember the whole neighborhood was bumping for the Winter Classic as I walked around hung over as all hell on New Years Day.

But after a while the outdoor games at football and baseball stadiums became kind of overdone. I completely blame the NHL for this because they took something they created out of thin air that became hockey royalty in the Winter Classic and bastardized it by then playing like 5 outdoor games every season. The Stadium Series? FOH.

So the pandemic presented an opportunity for the NHL as teams playing in front of empty football stadiums didn’t seem like a prime aesthetic. The solution?

Lake Tahoe.

A legitimately awesome idea from a league that isn’t exactly known for marketing their sport all that well. With little to no fans allowed in the stands, why not just double down on the TV experience and put a rink in front of the picture perfect pond hockey back drop?

AND the Bruins will finally be breaking out their brand new reverse retro yellow jerseys, which are going to look absolutely money outdoors.

This must be a logistical nightmare because it’s not like they’re just pulling a couple nets out onto the lake and playing some puck. The NHL is constructing a full fledged hockey rink in the middle of nowhere and as Billy Jaffe pointed out on Toucher and Rich this AM, most Winter Classics are hosted at massive professional sports arenas that are in major cities with ya know, electrical power grids.

So major props to the NHL for thinking outside of the box because I can’t wait to watch this on Sunday and that’s something hockey needs people to be saying more of these days.

The Yet to Exist Seattle NHL Team Just Sold 25K Season Tickets. In an Hour

By on • ( Leave a comment )

ESPN – Seattle fans have spoken: They want hockey. The Oak View Group, the prospective owners of a potential NHL franchise in Seattle, say they reached 25,000 deposits within the first hour of their season-ticket drive Thursday. That exceeds the goal of 10,000 deposits — which was reached in the first 12 minutes. The group says its website has slowed down because of the influx in traffic, though deposits are still being accepted. The OVG reached a deal with the city of Seattle for $600 million to renovate KeyArena downtown. As a hockey venue, it is expected to seat about 17,000. In February, the OVG submitted paperwork, including a $10 million down payment, to the NHL to be its 32nd franchise. The league is likely to accept the bid pending the results of the season-ticket drive. The Vegas Golden Knights ran a season-ticket drive in 2015; that campaign received 5,000 deposits in the first two days.

What a genius marketing ploy by the NHL. Oh you want an NHL team, Seattle? Well we’re gonna need you to sell all of your season tickets for a team that doesn’t technically exist yet. Its a win-win move for both sides. The NHL gets a resounding Yes to the question “does this city really want an NHL team?” Seattle gets to actually justify the renovations to KeyArena in the HOPE a professional sports league blesses them with a team.

This should be the way expansion cities are selected in every major sport moving forward. Why would you go through all the work of putting an expansion team (or relocating a team) to a city if you’re not 100% sure its going to work? Thats how we got stuck with the Arizona Coyotes for the past 20 years.

I know oftentimes these deals are wink wink behind closed doors, but now cities don’t have to build an entire arena with a surrounding complex and pray a pro team wants to move there. Thats how it worked in Ballers on HBO anyway and thats all the research I intend to do on the matter.

But holy shit does Seattle want a hockey team. Or I guess any team really. You’d be the same way too if the best young player in the game and his entire team up and moved to OKLAHOMA CITY on you.

But 25K tix in an HOUR?! Thats bananas. It took the Las Vegas Golden Knights two days to reach 5K. So this is a done deal now. The NHL is going to Seattle. I for one and fired up because I’ve always wanted to go to Seattle and eat sushi in the bleachers at Safeco, but this gives me one more reason to fly out there. Package it with a Seahawks game to see the 12s to see Russell Wilson by day and the TBD Seattle NHL team by night.
Plus you just know this team’s jersey will be bright as fuck obnoxious lime green and I am here for it. Love the neon colorway, need more of it in my life.