Columnists

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Outdoor game gets cold shoulder

Moose GM says it's too pricey -- but Syracuse is doing it

By: Paul Wiecek

25/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 3

MIKE APORIUS/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

An outdoor Moose game would mean fans at Canad Inns Stadium would get to see a winning team.

ROCKFORD, Ill. -- Winnipeg is certainly cold enough. Our hockey fans are unquestionably die-hard enough. And no one -- but no one -- can handle frigid weather quite like a Winnipegger.

And yet we have been left out in the cold, so to speak, when it comes to hosting an outdoor hockey game, a point driven home yet again Tuesday when Syracuse -- that's right, freaking Syracuse -- announced that they will host the first ever outdoor American Hockey League game this coming February.

Related Items

Polls
- Would you attend an outdoor professional hockey game if the Moose decided to host one?
- Snow's finally in the weather forecast. What's your reaction?

The Crunch and high-profile New York Senator Chuck Schumer -- of all people -- announced on Tuesday that the Crunch will play the Binghamton Senators on Feb. 20, 2010 in an afternoon game to be held outside at the New York State Fairgrounds.

"This first-ever outdoor AHL hockey game -- which I hope will become an annual tradition -- will bring the eyes of the sports world to Syracuse," said Schumer.

"Eyes of the sports world" is probably a bit of a stretch -- even for a politician -- given that there is nothing, of course, original about this idea.

The NHL has played outdoor games to huge crowds at football stadiums in Edmonton and Buffalo and baseball parks in Chicago and, this February, at Fenway Park in Boston.

But Schumer does have a point when he says the game "has the potential to bring in serious tourism revenue for Syracuse and be a financial shot in the arm in difficult times."

Precisely. All of which begged the most obvious question -- How come we didn't think of that first?

So I tracked down Manitoba Moose GM Craig Heisinger, who's down here as his club plays the Rockford IceHogs tonight in the first of a three-game Illinois road swing this week.

Heisinger agreed that everything would seem to support the idea of staging an outdoor hockey game in Winnipeg. Except...

"Except the math doesn't work," said Heisinger. "We looked at the idea two years ago and just couldn't make the numbers work."

The biggest problem, said Heisinger, is the one you'd least expect to have in staging an outdoor hockey game in a Winnipeg winter -- the need to install artificial ice.

"You can't just play on outdoor ice," said Heisinger. "There's a certain minimum standard that comes with artificial ice that we would have to maintain.

"So then you're talking about all that refrigeration equipment and laying the pipes underneath the ice and all of that. It's very expensive."

Put it all together and Heisinger said the Moose were told it would cost a half-million dollars just to install the rink outdoors.

And while that might work in the NHL, Heisinger said the Moose operate on thinner margins and the ones for an outdoor game didn't work even if they could have packed 30,000 people into Canad Inns Stadium.

"The football stadium would have been the most likely place to have held it," Heisinger said. "And it's worked good in the NHL games -- but there's a lot more dollars involved there."

Still, it begs the question how Syracuse has come up with a way to make the numbers work for an outdoor game while Winnipeg cannot, particularly considering Manitoba is second only to Hershey in AHL attendance when they just play the regular old-fashioned way -- indoors.

"I have no idea how they're doing it in Syracuse," said Heisinger. "I just know it didn't work for us."

All of which is just fine with Moose head coach Scott Arniel, who still remembers what happened last winter when he supervised an outdoor practice for his team as part of a one-off promotion.

"My whistle froze to my lips, so I don't know it's exactly something I want to do," Arniel said. "And I think right now, it is starting to run its course. We've seen so many of them, I think even the NHL should take a year off in between, or maybe even two.

"I just hate to see a great thing like that overdone."

It's probably too late for that in any event.

And it's also too bad that we appear to have missed what might have been our best opportunity in the past few years to have at least one winning team play in Canad Inns Stadium.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 25, 2009 C4

Rate this
This article has not yet been rated.

We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high. If you thought it was well written, do the same. If it doesn’t meet your standards, mark it accordingly.

You can also register and/or login to the site and join the conversation by leaving a comment.

Rate it yourself by rolling over the stars and clicking when you reach your desired rating. We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high.

3 Comments

Posted by: Gary P.

November 25, 2009 at 10:04 AM

People won't go watch the Moose play indoors....nevermind out in the cold!!

Report abusive comment

Posted by: Magics Johnson

November 25, 2009 at 9:41 AM

It's really quite simple. The reasons the numbers work for us here in Syracuse are:

1. The use of the facility is being provided gratis. One of the nice things about having Schumer on board is that he was able to grease the wheels to secure the use of the NY State Fairgrounds for free.

2. Heavy subsidizing by sponsors. Even though the Crunch are coming up with a six figure total to put this thing on, sponsorship is covering a significant portion of the cost. Ad revenue from the TV broadcast of the game is also a major part of this.

3. Having an opponent only 65 miles away also makes this this work. Binghamton fans have been buying tickets in brisk numbers, to the point where they will be making the one hour drive by the busload. This means that non-Crunch fans will be making up a respectable portion of the crowd.

4. This didn't happen overnight. This is the end product of two years of frustration and effort on the part of Crunch ownership. Believe me when I tell you that local government in Syracuse has done everything possible to run the Crunch out of town. Somehow, this has come together, and it's going to be quite an event. Come on down, we've got plenty of room for our friends north of the border!

[edited]

Report abusive comment

Posted by: Commander

November 25, 2009 at 4:00 AM

1) Canad Inns Stadium is a complete DUMP. It's bad enough spending 3 hours there for a football game or concert.

2) Winnipeg is an NHL city; not an AHL city. It would be much, MUCH more prudent to hold an outdoor once we have the NHL franchise we so richly at David Asper's new Blue Bomber Stadium (if the blasted thing ever gets built that is)

3) Do we really want to show the world that we're a LITTLE LEAGUE HOCKEY CITY, while Nashville, Atlanta, and Carolina get to enjoy the best hockey in the world- better hockey than us? I think not. It's embarrassing enough as it is, having a taxpayer-funded NHL-calibre arena (MTS Centre) with no NHL tenant.