Column | The NHL Needs To Take The Winter Classic Seriously Again

When Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby snuck his shootout winner past Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller at Ralph Wilson Stadium in 2008, he capped off a historic day in the National Hockey League. 

For just the second time in league history — and the first time in the United States — the NHL hosted a hockey game outdoors, played on a rink constructed in the middle of a football field that was dubbed the inaugural “Winter Classic.” 

It was a smashing success for the NHL. Over 70,000 people packed into the stadium on New Year’s Day to watch their hometown Sabres take on the upstart Penguins, and 3.75 million people watched on NBC’s airwaves. 

The NHL had created a spectacle unmatched by any other league, and its new annual tradition set records the following year when Detroit and Chicago faced off at Wrigley Field in front of a TV audience of 4.40 million. 

Fast forward to the present day, and the annual outdoor event has lost its shine, glamor and, most importantly, its audience. The ratings have declined steadily since 2014, and this year, the Winter Classic suffered a historically low TV audience, fetching just 920,000 viewers. It was the first time in the event’s history that the game had under a million people tune in. 

It was the worst-case scenario for the NHL, which moved the game up a day from its traditional New Year’s Day slot to avoid going up against three College Football Playoff games slated for the first of the year. Despite showing cowardice in the schedule, the NHL publicly sang a very different tune. 

“The proof will be afterwards in terms of the ratings, the numbers and the feedback we hear,” NHL President of Content and Events Steve Mayer said. “But we feel like this has been a very good move, and now we just have to execute it.” 

The proof is now here. This year’s Winter Classic was a disaster. It showed everything wrong with the NHL’s planning. 

The NHL failed to properly promote the New Year’s Eve game, leading to a sizable chunk of the NHL’s fan base not even knowing that the Winter Classic had changed days. New Year’s Eve is also not a federal holiday, costing the NHL viewers during the game’s 5 p.m. start time. 

Even with their switch in day, the NHL couldn’t fully avoid competition. The game wrapped up around 8:30 and ran up against the highly anticipated Fiesta Bowl between Penn State and Boise State. The Winter Classic also faced competition from a Citrus Bowl game that featured Illinois, eating into the Chicago market. 

The NHL scored a 2.5 rating in the Windy City, a massive drop from the 5.8 rating it received during the Blackhawks’ 2019 appearance in the Winter Classic. 

But even if you strip away the football component for a minute, the NHL was still sabotaged — by itself. The league had 12 other games scheduled on the same day as the Winter Classic, many of which partially overlapped with the event in Chicago. There was only one game scheduled on New Year’s Day. 

The NHL wants you to believe the game is still a spectacle, but its actions this year sent the exact opposite message. It was just another game this season. 

The NHL and their broadcasters, TNT and TruTV, had no faith that the league’s marquee midseason tradition would successfully draw viewers when going head-to-head against another sport. They buried the game within their own schedule and haphazardly promoted it. They didn’t believe in their product, and as a result, neither did the audience. 

With the novelty having worn off since 2008, getting back to four million viewers is unrealistic. However, the NHL can try to turn around this rapid downhill trajectory its treasured game is on. 

The game has to stand alone on whatever day the Winter Classic is on next season. For the event to succeed, the Classic needs every single fan base stuck with it as the only NHL hockey game to watch. 

The NHL also needs to prioritize better matchups. The Winter Classic used to feature a heavyweight bout. 

The first-ever Winter Classic featured Buffalo, who were the defending Presidents Trophy winners, and Pittsburgh, with the biggest star in the game then, a kid named Crosby. The following year pitted the defending Stanley Cup Champions in Detroit against an exciting Chicago team with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. 

This year was a complete dud. 

While it’s next to impossible to pair the two best teams together at the turn of the calendar, the NHL was taking a bad risk when it picked two teams that missed the playoffs last year to play in this game. It wasn’t an exciting matchup. 

The NHL might also want to consider not oversaturating the appetite for outdoor hockey. Between the Heritage Classic in Canada and the Stadium Series, the Winter Classic is now far from the only outdoor game in any given season. It makes the Winter Classic far less of a novelty, especially to the more casual viewer. 

The Winter Classic is still a big hit within hardcore hockey circles, and the league experiences no problems drawing attendance to these venues, but the TV numbers need serious help. The NHL needs to take planning the event seriously again. 

Because if they don’t take it seriously, why should anyone else?