Winter Classic: Is hockey in PNC Park's future?
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Pirates hitting coach Don Long watches Bobby Crosby take batting practice at a morning workout at Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla. The utility infielder was mentioned by manager John Russell as a right-handed hitting possibility at first base.
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BRADENTON, Fla. -- On a sunny, 74-degree day in Pirates spring training, team president Frank Coonelly paused for a moment to talk ... hockey.
On the North Shore.
On New Year's weekend 2011.
"Caps-Pens. Ovechkin and Crosby. At PNC Park," Coonelly mused Sunday, saying that the Pirates indeed have informed the NHL about their interest in playing host to the next Winter Classic which, they hope, could star Washington and Alex Ovechkin against Sidney and the Penguins.
"To me, it's the next logical venue," he added. "We've talked to the NHL the last couple of years, really after the success at Wrigley [Field] and Fenway [Park]," sites of the past two New Year's Day events pitting Detroit against Chicago and Boston against Philadelphia. He continued that, even more than those iconic ballparks, their 9-year-old venue offers a "picturesque location between the ballpark and the Pittsburgh skyline behind it."
The Penguins won in a shootout in the first Winter Classic in 2008 at Buffalo. N.Y., and soon afterward let NHL officials know they wanted to bring the game -- an instant NBC-television and marketing success -- to Pittsburgh.
"We have two great facilities to hold that -- Heinz Field and PNC Park," Penguins vice president Tom McMillan said, reiterating the Penguins' pitch to NHL administrators. "That's up to the league to make the choice of where they want it."
That inaugural Winter Classic was played in the NFL Buffalo Bills' Ralph Wilson Stadium before 71,217 fans. The ballpark crowds the past two Januarys were almost half that size, representing a significant drop in potential revenue from tickets that ranged from $50 to $350 apiece at Boston.
New York and Yankee Stadium seemed to be a front-runner -- Capitals-Rangers? -- for 2011, but officials signed a contract to hold a college football bowl game there between Christmas and New Year's Day each of the next four years. The NHL prefers a two-week period to construct and tear down the temporary rink and staging, although either the Mets' Citi Field or possibly new Giants Stadium conceivably could be open to the Winter Classic.
This year, New Year's Eve is a Friday, and a Winter Classic with the city's penchant for fireworks exploding over the skyline could make for a scintillating perspective and signature portrait. However, Coonelly talked about making it a weekend extravaganza the same as Boston did: playing host to college games with Robert Morris University one night and scheduling high school hockey games at other times.
First Published February 22, 2010 12:00 am
