How the Winter Classic has changed from a great television event to a better live event
By Mike Majeski
The 2015 Winter Classic was a bomb in the ratings, but was arguably one of the best live events the NHL has put together so far.
There was a relative lack of buzz surrounding this year’s Winter Classic between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Washington Capitals and as expected it reflected in the television numbers. The game earned a 2.3 overnight rating according to NBC Sports, which is the lowest performance for a Winter Classic so far. The lack of a rivalry between the Blackhawks and Capitals, the fact they were both repeat teams, the absence of HBO’s 24/7 (let’s face it, Epix’s offering just wasn’t the same), and a vanilla choice of venue (tough to put Nationals Park up against the likes of Wrigley Field and Fenway Park) could all be valid reasons for viewers not tuning in this year.
Last year’s game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs earned a 2.9 rating, but that featured two Original Six teams and the attendance gimmick provided by the Big House. Prior to this year’s Winter Classic, the 2012 Winter Classic between the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers was the previous low (a 2.4 rating) – again that one featured a non-iconic location (Citizen’s Bank Park) and a regional rival.
NBC quickly noted that this year’s 2.3 rating is a 77 percent increase from the 1.3 average rating conventional NHL games earn on the network. Perhaps that is a good way to sum up the Winter Classic on television these days: it’s 77 percent more interesting than a normal NHL game.
After seven Winter Classics and a slew of Stadium Series games, the NHL and NBC have done all they can when it comes to the lead up to the game and the actual presentation itself. This is the main reason why HBO opted to not air their usual Road to the Winter Classic series this season – could they really ever top Ilya Bryzgalov’s universe speech, or Bruce Boudreau’s infamous F-bomb laced rant? Now the most entertaining aspect of the Winter Classic is to poke fun at the B-Rate musicians the NHL has hired, how many times the announcers mention players returning to their roots and playing on the pond, and all the clichés that come with a nationally televised outdoor game.
While the quality of play in this year’s game was about as close as you will ever get to an outdoor game looking like a conventional indoor game, I think this is the first Winter Classic where we have seen it transition from a great television event to a great local live event. The purpose of the Winter Classic has always been to serve as a marquee event to get casual fans to tune in to see an outdoor hockey spectacle. While the numbers suggest that 77% more fans tuned into the Winter Classic, than say a standard Pittsburgh / Boston showdown, the bigger buzz was in Washington D.C. itself.
Much like the Stadium Series and the All-Star Game, the Winter Classic has quickly become a major event for the local fans. Those attending the game remarked that this was the first time that the host club actually had a clear home-field advantage when it came to fans. In previous years the stands were usually a 50-50 split, something the NHL highlighted last year at the Big House with the sea of blue and red of the Maple Leafs and Red Wings.
Perhaps playing into the local crowd, versus going for the best television ratings would be a good thing for the NHL. There are already rumors that the Boston Bruins are going to get next year’s Winter Classic – another repeat team for the sake of ratings. Why not give the Winter Classic to Colorado or Minnesota – markets that might not make sense for ratings, but will sure put together an unforgettable event for the local fans. That was always the purpose of the Stadium Series, but perhaps the line between the Winter Classic as a marquee event and the Stadium Series has been blurred. Rather than give us the same re-treads for the sake of television ratings, why not give the hardcore hockey fans and the deserving markets the Winter Classic they truly want to see.