Tag: Golden Knights

ICYMI the Bruins Are Playing Outdoors at Lake Tahoe This Weekend

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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

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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.

 

Las Vegas Golden Knights Introduce Themselves to the World With A+ #VegasStrong Tribute

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Its always difficult getting back to every day life after a heartbreaking tragedy. I remember in 2013 after the Boston Marathon bombing the whole city was put on lockdown for nearly a week. Literally — there were curfews in the city as police hunted down the terrorist cowards. Now, just a few short days after the senseless shooting on the Las Vegas strip, the Golden Knights were set to play their first home game ever. Not exactly an ideal scenario for a franchise to have its coming out party. But sports are a funny thing. When the last thing you want to do is laugh, have fun, and cheer on a meaningless game; sometimes its the best thing to start the healing process. In Boston the Bruins were the first team to play again and it was fucking electric.

In the face of terrorism, and call it whatever you want but that Vegas shooting was terrorism, Americans are downright defiant. As a wise designated hitter once put it, This is our fucking city.

So the Golden Knights had their first home game ever and after an absolutely awesome pre-game ceremony…they. blew. doors. I do not envy the Coyotes having to go into that environment. The Knights scored just 2:31 into the first period. Then they scored again less than four minutes later. Then they scored AGAIN less than two minutes after that. Then AGAIN a few minutes after that. 4-0 before the first period was even over. I said it a lot last night, but sports are incredible.

Not to mention…

Las Vegas Golden Knights Inscribe Season Ticket Member Names Under the Ice

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NHL – It will be the first time the Golden Knights ever take the ice for a game at T-Mobile Arena…To represent a city that’s never had a major league franchise of its own to cheer for, to be a rallying point for people in this area who recognize this place as home more than a place to visit on vacation….Just inside the blue line on the end of the ice the Golden Knights defends twice will be inscribed the names of all the team’s season ticket members. So as much as visiting teams will have to defeat Vegas, the team, they’ll also have to defeat Vegas, the people… “That it was feasible, if we wanted to do something special on the ice, that we had the ability to put texture to something on the ice, before the laid the last round of it.”

This idea is so fire that it might actually melt the Golden Knight’s ice. Being a season ticket holder for any team usually means having the opportunity to fork over thousands of dollars and buy $10 dollar beers while maybe getting access to a couple extra events and press conferences.

But this? Getting your name permanently inscribed under the ice as one of the inaugural season ticket members? That is some badass legacy right there. Props to Vegas for having some new ideas of how to entice and engage fans rather than the same old bullshit everyone else does. Take a look at the process below and check out the video here.

The Stars Are Aligning to Make Las Vegas the Greatest Sports Town in America

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CBS Sports – “The Oakland Raiders are going to move to Las Vegas. I am finally convinced of it. After being a skeptic throughout this process and especially in the aftermath of owner Mark Davis’ deal with casino magnate Sheldon Adelson falling apart around the Super Bowl, there are too many people I trust telling me this has become basically a fait accompli for me to deny it any longer. By Monday night, Davis will be cracking open the bubbly and toasting to his future on the Strip, because with the NFL including a formal vote on Vegas on its official agenda for the annual spring meeting, there is almost no time for this to fall apart now.”

First there was the NHL, which sacked up with the Golden Knights who will be making their Las Vegas debut in the 2017-18 season. Now after all the rumors and speculation it seems like the Las Vegas Raiders might finally become a reality. We all know that the Raiders have basically been trying to get out of Oakland because their stadium is a shit hole. They play on a baseball field for christ’s sake.

And it seems like Oakland is all set on footing the $750 million bill for a brand new stadium. So lifelong fans and tradition be damned, Mark Davis is taking his ball and moving to Las Vegas.

Obviously this could go off the rails for any number of reasons, as it almost did recently when Goldman Sachs dropped out of the funding. But it seems like this is about as close to a done deal as you can get.

“This is going to happen,” said one well-connected league source who has been in close contact with many influential owners on this matter. “Enough people will hold their noses and pray for the best and vote this through. Oakland — and by Oakland I mean the government officials there — hasn’t stepped up nearly enough, and the league is ready to put this to a vote. And while there is some trepidation about this market, it is going to pass.”

So Vegas is obviously already the most debaucherous city in the world but now add in TWO professional sports teams? My god, the stars are aligning for this to be the greatest sports town in America. Picture this, flying in for a weekend gambling your balls off, then heading over to watch the Golden Knights, maybe place a (legal) bet 90 seconds before walking into the rink, then getting bombed at a hockey game in the desert and hitting the “casino” til 4 am afterwards. Sleep, wake up, grab some bloody Mary’s, head down the strip to see DA RAIDERRRRSS and day drink until you can’t feel feelings anymore. All after placing a few (legal) prop bets of course.

I heard someone mention this on 98.5 this morning and its 100% true. The Raiders are going to have the greatest home field advantage in the league. Just think about it, half of these guys can’t control themselves in shit holes like Atlanta and Jacksonville. Now you’re going to drop them in downtown Las Vegas? The ones who don’t get arrested for prostitution and cocaine are going to be hungover as balls on Sunday.

I demand a hockey/football/casino weekend the likes of a degenerate has never seen before.

Make it happen, NFL.