Let's Cool It On The Outdoor Hockey
all these people would have fit in Yost [Patrick Barron]
After a near-fiasco with the ice at Soldier Field that caused Michigan and Michigan State to drop the puck at 9:40 PM Eastern, scattered pockets of people and eighty thousand empty seats took in an ugly hockey game marred by ice closer to a dirt road than a smooth sheet.
And with that Michigan's participation in outdoor college hockey should be over, with a single exception.
Yeah, there's no much you can do if your opponent decides to move one of their home games, as Ohio State did a couple years back for a slightly better-attended outing in Cleveland's baseball stadium. There's no much you can do if the GLI is outside in conjunction with the Winter Classic. But Michigan can look at this fiasco of an event and choose to never do it again.
The lone exception should be occasional reprises of The Cold War and Big Chill*. Both were great events featuring packed houses, and will be again if they are sufficiently rare. What's sufficiently rare? I'd say one game at Spartan Stadium or Michigan Stadium every four years. You can tell each recruiting class that if you stay for four years you will play a packed outdoor game, and you are doing it rarely enough that the "packed" part of that proposition is likely to remain true.
Other than that, let's drop it. Outdoor hockey is
- COLD. Obviously.
- BAD HOCKEY. Strange lighting and bad ice make these games hard to watch. Pucks bounce over sticks. Skill's importance is muted in favor of luck.
- LITERALLY HARD TO WATCH. You're far away and the sightlines make no sense. (Any modern NHL building goes up as vertically as possible; most football stadiums are much less steeply pitched.)
Those are not fixable. Taking two teams from Michigan and having them play in Illinois is, but I'm just over it. I would rather watch an outdoor game on TV these days because the environment is the definition of antiseptic and I'll have a much better grasp on what's going on if I don't have to squint from a half-mile away.
I mean, it was cool. It will remain cool if it's rare enough. Remember when the television people were trying to expand the NCAA tournament to 128 teams because they're willing to wreck anything if they can point to a bigger number in the spreadsheet they're responsible for? College hockey is in the process of doing this to outdoor games. Outdoor games should be magnificent events. These days they're too often ghost towns full of monuments to hubris instead of people.
Meanwhile, even the watered-down modern-day Yost is one of the best environments college sports has to offer. Taking a game out of there to play in front of approximately as many people outdoors is the definition of madness. We can be done with that; we fired that guy.
*[they should drop the Big Chill nomenclature and just go with Cold War [roman numeral], in my opinion]
February 10th, 2015 at 11:27 AM ^
They are not hard to watch when our team is doing the ass kicking, especially against Sparty.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:57 AM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 12:49 PM ^
Well, no one forced you to go. You could have just decided to watch on TV like most other people. I had a blast watching it in my theatre room.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:55 PM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 1:13 PM ^
that a game at Yost would have started at its actual scheduled starting time, rather than nearly two hours later.
February 10th, 2015 at 3:09 PM ^
Especially with the BTN announcers overcompensating for the lack of spectacle with superlative after superlative about the "awesome venue and spectacular view" - gag.
February 10th, 2015 at 4:01 PM ^
1) I don't think they know much about the game or maybe they're playing dumb bc they think their audience doesn't know the game. It just seems that I am constantly left questioning their intelligence.
2) at least once a game they think they are going to commercial but they are ready to play. They have a habit of actually coming back from commercials with the puck in play already.
3 The 6:30 starts are a pain in the ass. I live 40 mins outside of Windsor (where I work) and get done work at 3:30. I have to rush around if I go home after work which leaves me skipping dinner and picking up garbage before the game (remember that 20% discount season ticket holders were supposed to get???). This is why I've had to give away tix multiple times this year (and get stuck watching the terrible coverage)
February 10th, 2015 at 8:55 PM ^
Hey man, I'm happy I got to watch the Wolverines kill the Spartans. I love seeing B1G hockey get more exposure on BTN and this game may not have been on BTN if it were at Yost. So it was a win win for me. I agree that neutral sites are a terrible draw. Not too many people at Progressive Field, Comerica Park or Soldier Field. I think Notre Dame was a bigger draw last year because that may have been their first outdoor game.
February 10th, 2015 at 9:16 PM ^
February 11th, 2015 at 11:17 PM ^
FS Detroit isn't national. I don't live in Michigan. By playing an outdoor game in Chicago the game got better national exposure, at least that's what it looks like from here.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:31 AM ^
Meanwhile, even the watered-down modern-day Yost is one of the best environments college sports has to offer.While it's true that the atmosphere of Yost has atrophied a bit the past few years, the MSU game is one of the few instances where fan passion amps up to levels one remembers from days of old. Which makes the decision to move that particular game from Yost to a neutral site in Chicago that was sparsely attended all the more infuriating. F#*k you Dave Brandon. Looking forward to the keyword "dave brandon creates the future" being retired forever.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:36 PM ^
unbelievably fun. It still is, but it lacks a feeling that shit may start falling from the ceiling as the crowd becomes more and more wired to the action. Meanwhile the guy next to you offers a pull of CC or Beam from his flask while they retrieve the puck after an icing and a couple coeds in the first row are getting the attention of a player as he circles the zone before the faceoff. It was really good.
As for outdoor games I figure I must be on this blog too much. I read the headline and immediately thought "NO... the Big Chill was one of the best times I've ever had at a sporting event...They should go against Sparty every 4 years or so. Keeping it rare keeps it good." so yeah... prolly too much MGoBlog.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:34 AM ^
No much.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:35 AM ^
Chicago resident, so I was there. But not too many others were. Announced attendance of 22K, but a lot of the WMU/Miami crowd left after the first game. I doubt that there were 15K when the puck dropped at 8:45 and no more than 10K at the end,
Fun for me any my nine-year old; his hockey was cancelled Saturday, so we grabbed cheap tickets late, got to sit wherever we wanted, and hid out in the club level in between periods. Fun, but by no means special. Once every four years sounds about right to me.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:35 AM ^
I'll preface this by saying the Winter Classic at the Big House was one of the best sporting events I have been to and probably the best event the last 3 years period unless you want to say UTL2.
The things that are unfixable per Brian I tend to agree with, although cold and bad hockey don't bother me as much if I am going to just one of these per year or however long. It's part of the spectacle.
The atmosphere doesn't have to be antiseptic and hasn't been. The Winter Classic was amazing. Can you imagine moving the "home" game Michigan has at the Joe now to Comerica every year and splitting up tickets equally? That game would be a blast. Even the GLI at Comerica, despite maybe what, 8000 people being there, was pretty fun. The bands are right on top of the action. You cpuld pretty much sit where you want.
I am definitely over them on TV, and I don't like this randomly being played in Chicago. But I think Comerica is a pretty good place to hold them and have a good atmosphere maybe once a year.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 12:26 PM ^
Agree 100% on the Big House Winter Classic, it was an awesome event. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was great (probably as close to a 50/50 split as you'll get). The competing "Let's Go Red Wings" and "Go Leafs Go" chants were really fun. It certainly didn't hurt that you could have a Molson at the BIg House, even if the head did freeze almost immediately!
I agree with Brian that everything about this Chicago game seemed really poorly thought out. Having Michigan and MSU play in Illinois was bad enough, but to call it the "hockeycity classic" seemed like a thinly veiled shot at Detroit's well established Hockeytown nickname. Which I found ironic considering there is no college hockey in the entire state of Illinois, a fact even more embarassing when you realize the UP has 3 teams. I don't know if anyone else has brought this up, but the pucks used in the game said "Michigan University." I mean, cumong man. I really hope these gimmicky outdoor games become more limited, like 1 every four years as others have mentioned.
February 10th, 2015 at 2:03 PM ^
Hope UM is done with this forever. Went to Winter Classic and will never voluntarily attend another outdoor hockey game. Aside from the novelty ( oh look 100,000 people in Michigan Stadium in a blizzard) it was cold, concessions and rest rooms were impossible to access, and I couldn't see much through the snow in the air and on the ice. On the other hand 2 of my top 3 all time most exciting sporting events were in Yost - NCAA games v Denver and N Dakota. I know we won't do it, but I think we should be done forever with outdoor games. Many people I've talked to feel the same way so I don't think we could count on good crowds at Michigan Stadium even if its every 4 or 8 years. Imagine 20K people at the Stadium on a December afternoon. Doesn't sound very rewarding for anyone.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:39 AM ^
at the Joe trumps outdoor hockey.
Unless you do outdoor hockey every 4 years.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:48 AM ^
but only for the GLI.
February 10th, 2015 at 1:02 PM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 11:40 AM ^
I love football, baseball, college basketball and even some USMNT soccer. But Im a hockey guy. Pro, college, junior, HS and youth, I cant get enough. As a kid I played the bulk of my games on outdoor rinks. There is definately a nostalgia factor in outdoor games for me.
But I have to emphatically agree with Brian here and this game and the NHLs Winter Classic in Washington are the exclamation point on how I feel. Both games were dull and listless. Neither should have been contemplated let alone played.
Outdoor games between MSU and Michigan can absolutely work but only on a periodic basis and then only in Michigan. An occasional GLI in conjunction with a Winter Classic event and other various OHL and even HS games is very cool. I was in heaven last season and went to the OHL event at Comerica as well as the Wings Leafs game at the Big House.
It is time to say enough is enough though. Quit watering down the spectacle that is outdoor hockey. Lets keep it special and engaging.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:42 AM ^
...as long as it's played on a frozen pond or lake in front of nobody, except maybe a couple kids in snow pants. When the two teams come back inside to get hot chocolate, they can argue in front of everybody about who won.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:45 AM ^
I agree. Sadly, leadership is not leading; they're not looking at the bigger picture. You should not do everything to saturation. Leave some stuff on the table to keep the hunger alive and you'll have better success over the long run. It's as if ADs (like everyone else) is paid only on this year's revenue.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:48 AM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 11:49 AM ^
Red said in the postgame that as long as people keep coming they'll do things like this. I think an event like this won't be on Michigan's radar for some time.
February 10th, 2015 at 11:54 AM ^
I think a UM vs. MSU hockey game should be played in the state of Michigan.
February 10th, 2015 at 1:05 PM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 12:02 PM ^
LITERALLY HARD TO WATCH. You're far away and the sightlines make no sense. (Any modern NHL building goes up as vertically as possible; most football stadiums are much less steeply pitched.)
This why the new Red Wings arena should have a retractable roof.
/s
February 10th, 2015 at 1:06 PM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^
1 outdoor game at the Big House every 4 years has been what I've wanted from the beginning. Rare enough that it continues to be an "Event", but common enough that every student will get to see it once in their 4 years. Also, that means it can be used in recruiting pitches - guaranteed Big House game for all 4 year players.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:10 PM ^
was made because? Having a hockey game featuring 2 michigan teams in another state makes no sense really. If $ isn't the sole reason for doing these games outdoors then why not increase the fan experience and allow fans near the ice surface? A couple of years ago when the NHL all-star game was in Detroit they held the games outdoors and fans could stand near the glass to watch the action. The old timer games were really fun to see some of the legends up close. But as Brian said it was cold and I had to treat my wife to a 5 star dinner to get her to go. Lol.
February 10th, 2015 at 1:17 PM ^
I think the concep was to tap into the alumni base into Chicago. Michigan has done this successfully in New York with basketball and I think they wanted to try it out with football as well. Obviously, a huge miscalculation and something that may push Michigan and MSU hockey fans off on these events for the near future.
For me, I would like to see them do it every 2 years. I know a lot of people are in support of the every 4 years principle, but I like the idea of every player at least getting a home game. Having said that, the every 4 years plan would be fine by me, just would prefer 2 years.
February 10th, 2015 at 1:36 PM ^
Honest question: What proportion of the crowds at the Cold War and Big Chill saw their first and last live college hockey game that day? It's not for lack of product--the sustained interest in the college game just isn't there for that many people.
February 10th, 2015 at 4:06 PM ^
February 11th, 2015 at 12:15 AM ^
I don't really think it has anything to do with the NHL, which, coincidentally, happens to probably be the least popular of the four major professional sports in North America. College hockey hasn't had the kind of development football and basketball have had over the years, and for specific reasons. Think about it--college football blossomed nationally in the 1930s and 1940s, and basketball in the 1950s and 1960s, if not the 1970s. College hockey essentially folded during the Depression and WW2. Essentially no one with professional ambitions played college hockey until the 1990s. Wasn't Red was the first guy to jump from the NCAA to the NHL in 1961?
College hockey is what it is. And you're definitely in the minority.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:13 PM ^
I thought - with the amount of alumnus from both schools in Chicago - that turn out would be better. But it appears events in Ann Arbor and East Lansing and Detroit, which are far away but not that far away, have dampened the enthusiasm for outdoor hockey to the point that even locals aren't turning out. Even when the "Puck Preview" popped up on here, to me, it was more of a "oh yeah, that's happening", outdoor hockey has been saturated by being a yearly thing, and the turnout here drives that nail home.
Likewise, I have to think playing in crap conditions, in front of a mostly empty stadium with as many fans as you typically play in front of, cheapens the whole experience for players and recruits as well. Sure, when it's huge experience it has to be awesome. When you fill out the Big House or Spartan Stadium, that would be exciting to play in front of that many fans compared to the typical venue. But that ain't happenin', and it ain't happenin' at any point soon as these remain yearly activities.
So I was absolutely wrong about this initially, and agree with Brian's claim that this should be a once every four year type thing (so a player basically can play outdoors once in a career; and I mean having it at Spartan stadium every 8 years and Michigan Stadium every 8 years, notevery 4). With so many outdoor events happening now, I find it hard to believe turnout would be anything resembling the Cold War (which was still exceptional at the time) of the Big Chill (which was widely promoted and had a goal of being the most people to watch a hockey game live), but at least it wouldn't be embarrassing and could still be used as a recruiting tool and be something the players would at least enjoy. I get the feeling that event in Chicago was something very few people enjoyed.
February 10th, 2015 at 10:07 PM ^
There are lots of alumni of Michigan and MSU and every other B1G school in Chicago. But I don't think anyone local who wasn't already following Michigan or Michigan State Hockey on social media even knew about this game at all. There was absolutely no advertising or promotion of this game in Chicago, at least none that I saw.
The other thing is that, as much as Chicago is a great pro sports town (though I'm a Boston kid myself - Go Pats!), it's kind of a crappy town for college sports. There's Northwestern, I guess, and DePaul, but those are small schools with not really great athletic traditions. Illinois might as well be in Iowa. Notre Dame gets a lot of press, but South Bend is 90 miles away, and they think they're an East Coast school anyway. Obviously there's no college hockey anywhere nearby. (I used to think that Robert Morris had a hockey team, but that's the *other* Robert Morris University, in Pennsylvania.)
Oh, yeah, there's UIC, that vast expanse of concrete, which dropped their CCHA hockey team back in 1996 to hire a basketball coach who was supposed to bring them to the big time. Uh, yeah, great job there.
For me, it was nice to finally be able to see Michigan Hockey here in Chicago. I'm pretty sure it was their first game here since the very last game at the UIC Pavilion in '96 (which I was also at, even though I was still living in Ann Arbor at the time, because Chicago is always a great road trip, and I followed the team to almost every road game in the 96/97 and 97/98 seasons in the Hockeymobile).
But I can't say it was a great atmosphere. They wouldn't even let the bands play more than once in a period, except for after goals. That alone annoyed me so much that it took a lot away from my enjoyment of the game. At least we won.
Hopefully we'll see the boys back here in Chicago at the Frozen Four in a couple years!
February 10th, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^
I was at the game in Cleveland, the Big Chill, The Winter Classic at the Big House, The coldest game EVER in Madison, and there this weekend. There was no one there. Soldier field only had 50,000 empty seats, but only because it's the smallest NFL stadium.
I agree. 1 at the big house every 4 years, leave tickets at $15 (!!!!) like they were for the Big Chill and you'll fill the place.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
Keeping the ticket prices low and filling the place was key. I'd guess that 90% of those attending the Big Chill would go only to Detroit or Ann Arbor to see an outdoor hockey game. They are not worn out on outdoor hockey because they have only attended 1 or 2 of the games. They will be up for it again in a few years.
February 10th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^
I don't remember how much those tix cost but man was it great.
I spent big money on the Winter Classic and had great seats (50 rows up in the end zone, which provided a great view of the ice and the scoreboard). I also went to both days of the GLI and had a good time and the Alumni game which was FANTASTIC at Comerica. If Michigan were to announce that they are going to play in a venue I want to see I would go if it wasn't an every year ordeal.
I say have a Home game at Michigan Stadium every 4 years (play MSU every other time and mix in Wisconsin Minnesota and even Penn State if the fans are willing to travel).
February 10th, 2015 at 12:23 PM ^
I'd also like sports in general cooling it on the "let's play on aircraft carriers" games. I'm sure it is fun for about 10 minutes, but it's another cool idea in theory that always seems to be terrible in practice.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:47 PM ^
it's always a non-conference game and why not give our troops/navy a cool event to remember.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:25 PM ^
I'd agree with most of your commetst about keeping the outdoor hockey games as "special events' and your recommendation of one every four years sounds about right. Interestingly enough, that would be something that David Brandon would probably agree upon, particularly after seeing what the attendance was in Chicago (and yes, I realize he signed off on this, but so did three other athletic directors as well). He wanted these sorts of events to be entertaining to the fans and relatively rare to sustain interest in the event and I suspect he'd agree with your sentiment.
But I would definitely keep the term "Big Chill" as part of the branding of the event. Again, I realize that Brian thinks everything associated with Brandon is "bad" and should be rejected outright. That said, "Big Chill" also has an unique association with Michigan through the movie with the same title. The "Cold War" is fine, but it's also pretty generic.
Beyond this discussion, I'd like to see Michigan Stadium continue to be used for non-football events as much as possible. The Big Chill, the Winter Classic and the soccer friendly last August (which Brian pooh-poohed, despite the presence of over 100,000 people to watch it) were all very well received events by the general public and the fans of those sports.
An NFL exhibition game at Michigan Stadium would be relatively easy in terms of logistics. Perhaps Brian could give us more suggestions that he would approve of and forward them to the athletic department.
February 10th, 2015 at 4:15 PM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 12:31 PM ^
I have no intention to sit outdoors in winter weather for a few hours to watch a hockey game. Period. But that's me.
Additionally, I think a Michigan - Michigan State regular season athletic contest, in any sport, should be played somewhere in the State of Michigan.
Yet, the coaches and players seem to like outdoor hockey. So, while I may like to see these outdoor games to be rare events, I would hope that the AD take into account the views of the coaches and players prior to future venue scheduling.
February 10th, 2015 at 4:18 PM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^
to fire David Brandon if he wasn't gone already. In fact, Michigan should hire him again just so they can fire him for this.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:45 PM ^
i didn't even go. if they would have played in the united center i would have gone for sure.
February 10th, 2015 at 4:19 PM ^
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