BROWNNOSE
BOOTLICKER
It has brought a whole new meaning to the over/under in sports betting.
Above zero? Or below? Will it be cold enough for ice – or warm enough for slush?
Though temperatures have ducked below freezing for weeks now in Pittsburgh – cold enough even for outdoor rinks that don’t have the advantage of cooling pipes running beneath – there is now a 70-per-cent to 80-per-cent probability that temperatures on New Year’s Day will reach 10 C.
They are also calling for up to 1.25 centimetres of rain to fall – the big question being exactly when the heavens might open. With the NHL’s Winter Classic scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. (EST) Saturday, there is now some possibility of the game being pushed back as far as 8 p.m.
If that proves impossible, then the game would go at noon the following day, though the NHL would be loathe to go up against the Sunday afternoon traditions of the NFL – or, for that matter, play in Pittsburgh on the Steelers’ Heinz Field at roughly the same time as the football team goes up against the Browns in Cleveland.
(In a bizarre coincidence, the main television ad for the game has featured Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin at one end of a football field and Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby at the other end while a vicious storm builds between them, wind tossing hair, rain pounding into faces, thunder and lightning building. “The Rivalry Continues,” the ad boasts … but does not add “… on Sunday, if necessary.”)
The game is not a championship-decider. It is merely game No. 566 of the regular season, worth two points to a team surely headed for the playoffs anyway.
It has, however, evolved into something quite unique: the pivotal marketing tool of a professional sport.
This may well be because hockey is the one sport where interest is in decline when the supposed climax of the season comes – a game deciding the Stanley Cup in June – whereas baseball’s climax is the World Series and NFL’s the Super Bowl, when both casual and fringe fans tune in by the millions.
The NHL, somewhat by accident, has lucked into this Winter Classic, now in its fourth incarnation – following outdoor extravaganzas in Buffalo, Chicago and Boston – and has turned it into a promotional gimmick that makes the Stanley Cup look like a Rotary Club auction.
This weekend’s meeting in Pittsburgh is not merely about Ovechkin v. Crosby, but is even being billed as “a faceoff” between two “signature sandwiches” – Pittsburgh’s kielbasa “Grinder” facing off against a pulled-pork concoction from Washington called “The Fury.”
Tire maker Bridgestone Corp., the game sponsor, has just signed on for five more years. The game is being broadcast world-wide in 3D. NBC has sold out its 37 commercial spots, up from 26 a year ago. Insurance company Geico’s Caveman spokesman will even make an appearance at the fan fest in “Spectator Plaza,” just outside the massive football stadium that is expecting 68,000 fans to watch a regular-season hockey game.
The event is expected to be worth $22-million (U.S.) in economic activity to Pittsburgh, a welcome infusion given that city finances are said to be in a perilous state. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has even been blistered in editorials for appearing to be paying more attention to the outdoor rink than to council meetings regarding the health of the city’s pension fund.
The growth of this event, says Brian Jennings, NHL executive vice-president in charge of marketing, has been “nothing short of extraordinary.”
Some credit, of course, must go to the rivalry Ovechkin and Crosby have established. As Jennings says: “We have our two best players in the league, in the world, going to head to head.”
While fans in places like Vancouver (Henrik Sedin) and Tampa Bay (Steven Stamkos) might dispute that, at least this season as Crosby is indisputably outperforming Ovechkin, the two remain the dominant personalities in the game – and, more significantly, the two dominant marketing names in the game.
The fan recognition of the two, and the fans embrace of the Winter Classic, Jennings says, has allowed hockey to “create incremental behavioural patterns” among fans – meaning, for those who prefer English, jersey sales have gone through the roof.
There is, however, no roof to be found over Heinz Field.
And given that reality, and the early weather forecasts, no statistics available, as yet, on potential sales of rainwear and umbrellas.
Above zero? Or below? Will it be cold enough for ice – or warm enough for slush?
Though temperatures have ducked below freezing for weeks now in Pittsburgh – cold enough even for outdoor rinks that don’t have the advantage of cooling pipes running beneath – there is now a 70-per-cent to 80-per-cent probability that temperatures on New Year’s Day will reach 10 C.
They are also calling for up to 1.25 centimetres of rain to fall – the big question being exactly when the heavens might open. With the NHL’s Winter Classic scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. (EST) Saturday, there is now some possibility of the game being pushed back as far as 8 p.m.
If that proves impossible, then the game would go at noon the following day, though the NHL would be loathe to go up against the Sunday afternoon traditions of the NFL – or, for that matter, play in Pittsburgh on the Steelers’ Heinz Field at roughly the same time as the football team goes up against the Browns in Cleveland.
(In a bizarre coincidence, the main television ad for the game has featured Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin at one end of a football field and Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby at the other end while a vicious storm builds between them, wind tossing hair, rain pounding into faces, thunder and lightning building. “The Rivalry Continues,” the ad boasts … but does not add “… on Sunday, if necessary.”)
The game is not a championship-decider. It is merely game No. 566 of the regular season, worth two points to a team surely headed for the playoffs anyway.
It has, however, evolved into something quite unique: the pivotal marketing tool of a professional sport.
This may well be because hockey is the one sport where interest is in decline when the supposed climax of the season comes – a game deciding the Stanley Cup in June – whereas baseball’s climax is the World Series and NFL’s the Super Bowl, when both casual and fringe fans tune in by the millions.
The NHL, somewhat by accident, has lucked into this Winter Classic, now in its fourth incarnation – following outdoor extravaganzas in Buffalo, Chicago and Boston – and has turned it into a promotional gimmick that makes the Stanley Cup look like a Rotary Club auction.
This weekend’s meeting in Pittsburgh is not merely about Ovechkin v. Crosby, but is even being billed as “a faceoff” between two “signature sandwiches” – Pittsburgh’s kielbasa “Grinder” facing off against a pulled-pork concoction from Washington called “The Fury.”
Tire maker Bridgestone Corp., the game sponsor, has just signed on for five more years. The game is being broadcast world-wide in 3D. NBC has sold out its 37 commercial spots, up from 26 a year ago. Insurance company Geico’s Caveman spokesman will even make an appearance at the fan fest in “Spectator Plaza,” just outside the massive football stadium that is expecting 68,000 fans to watch a regular-season hockey game.
The event is expected to be worth $22-million (U.S.) in economic activity to Pittsburgh, a welcome infusion given that city finances are said to be in a perilous state. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has even been blistered in editorials for appearing to be paying more attention to the outdoor rink than to council meetings regarding the health of the city’s pension fund.
The growth of this event, says Brian Jennings, NHL executive vice-president in charge of marketing, has been “nothing short of extraordinary.”
Some credit, of course, must go to the rivalry Ovechkin and Crosby have established. As Jennings says: “We have our two best players in the league, in the world, going to head to head.”
While fans in places like Vancouver (Henrik Sedin) and Tampa Bay (Steven Stamkos) might dispute that, at least this season as Crosby is indisputably outperforming Ovechkin, the two remain the dominant personalities in the game – and, more significantly, the two dominant marketing names in the game.
The fan recognition of the two, and the fans embrace of the Winter Classic, Jennings says, has allowed hockey to “create incremental behavioural patterns” among fans – meaning, for those who prefer English, jersey sales have gone through the roof.
There is, however, no roof to be found over Heinz Field.
And given that reality, and the early weather forecasts, no statistics available, as yet, on potential sales of rainwear and umbrellas.
