Winter Classic To Mean Big Business for Detroit, Ann Arbor
The Winter Classic on New Year’s Day has become a National Hockey League tradition. Now, the 2013 game is going to be played at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, with a barrage of accompanying events in Detroit.
The Comerica Park tiger decked out in a Red Wings jersey
The NHL said Thursday it expects 115,000 tickets to be available for the main event, pitting the Detroit Red Wings against the Toronto Maple Leafs. That would break the previous record for attendance at a hockey game, set when The Big House hosted 104,173 fans at The Big Chill in 2010.
The Winter Classic game will be accompanied by the Hockeytown Festival, to be held in Detroit, about 45 miles away. Another rink will be set up at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers, which like, the Red Wings, are owned by Michael Ilitch.
“Where’s my skates? I’m all fired up,” Ilitch said at a news conference.
The Detroit rink will host high school, college, junior and minor league games, involving teams from Detroit, Toronto, Grand Rapids and Saginaw, Mich., as well as the University of Michigan, Michigan State and Michigan Tech. There also will be an alumni game between the two NHL teams.
“It’s been difficult to get up and have a smile on my face,” said Detroit mayor Dave Bing, whose city is facing deep financial problems. On Thursday, however, Bing said the event would be the biggest in sports history for his city, exceeding the 2006 Super Bowl.
Detroit has played in the Winter Classic before, at Chicago’s Wrigley Field in 2009, but this is the first time a Canadian team has been involved in the New Year’s Day game. City officials in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, believe their community will benefit from the festivities, as well.
As we reported last month, outdoor hockey games are turning out to be lucrative opportunities for big city stadiums. Boston estimates it took in $36 million in revenue when it hosted the Winter Classic two years ago.
The most recent such game in our region was on Jan. 15, when Cleveland’s Progressive Field hosted the Frozen Diamond last month, in which Michigan beat Ohio State.