Outdoor game is on
55,000 could attend Edmonton-Montreal game
http://www.faceoff.com/home/news/story.html?f=/news/20030603/030603News212046.html
Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON, Alta.
The Edmonton Oilers are building an ice field of dreams and many will come.
For the first time in the NHL's 86 years, a hockey game will be held outdoors in front of as many as 59,000 fans at Commonwealth Stadium, the Oilers announced Tuesday.
Before the puck drops for the regular season game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Oilers on Nov. 22, Wayne Gretzky will lace up the skates and don an Oilers uniform to play a 60-minute game against hockey legend Guy Lafleur and other former Canadiens players.
"I don't think you could ask for more," said Patrick LaForge, president of the Oilers. "It makes a guy weep."
Gretzky, who led the Oilers to four Stanley Cups in five years in the 1980s, called Commonwealth, where last year's Grey Cup was held, the "perfect stadium" for the game.
"This will be just like the movie - if they build it, they will come," he said in a videotaped statement played at Tuesday's news conference.
Gretzky, who had promised never to play in an old-timers' game, said he can't wait to play.
"I'll tell you why, my wife and kids will finally get to see me play in an Oilers uniform in Edmonton."
Oilers season ticket-holders get first crack at extra tickets, while the general public has to wait until Sept. 15 to buy tickets costing $35 to $135.
CBC-TV's Hockey Night in Canada will broadcast the game live. It's not known if CBC will also broadcast the alumni game.
Kevin Lowe, general manager of the Oilers, said he'd better hit the weight room if Bob Gainey, former Canadiens captain who rejoined the club this week as executive vice-president, plays in the alumni game.
"I do remember hating playing against him, he was 6-2 or 6-3 and tough on his skates and a little bit dirty. This could be interesting," he said, chuckling.
Commonwealth's gridiron will be completely revamped for what organizers are dubbing the Heritage Classic. An NHL-regulation size rink, boards, glass, benches - with heaters - and penalty boxes will be constructed where turf normally is. The whole package is owned by the NHL and will be trucked to Edmonton in the next few weeks and will be stored here until fall.
An ice walkway will lead from the rink to the stadium so players can skate to the indoor dressing rooms between periods.
Cost to put on the event will be nearly $2 million, LaForge said.
It won't be the first outdoor hockey game to attract a crowd.
On Oct. 6, 2001, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan drew 74,554 spectators to Spartan Stadium to watch college hockey.
The lighting was not very good for that game, but LaForge said the Commonwealth Stadium lighting was fine when it was tested last fall during the Grey Cup game. Just for good measure, more lights will be brought in.
The temperatures in Edmonton for Nov. 22 for the last 32 years range from a low of -31 C in 1996 to a high of 11 C in 1979. Both general managers of the teams will agree to a wind chill temperature at which the game won't be played, but LaForge wasn't saying what that number is.
"It will be fairly aggressive, people want to play the game and if there's a little bit of a bite in the air, we're going to play it ... it's a winter sport ... We're not just going in because the sun's blocked by a cloud."
If it can't be played, the game will go the next day for sure, LaForge said. The tight NHL schedule doesn't allow for any more days open than that, he added.
Even if it's cold, players won't care, Lowe said, because it's a first.
"There's things you look forward to in your career, your first game, your first goal, your first Stanley Cup, your first all-star game ... there have been 85 years prior to this that any of the players that played in the NHL never had the opportunity to say what these guys are going to have this year, that they were the first ever to play outdoors."
Lafleur said he's looking forward to playing again on an outdoor rink, since that's what he did when he was a child growing up in Thurso, Que.
"The only problem is that Wayne Gretzky and most of the Oilers alumni could still play in the NHL today," he said in a videotaped statement.
Edmonton captain Jason Smith, the only current Oiler player at the news conference, said he and his teammates are excited to play outdoors.
"It will be exciting, it will be similar to when you were a little kid outdoors playing with your buddies or with your tyke or tiny mite team wheeling around, the atmosphere in Commonwealth Stadium will be special.
"From the day we heard about it the guys were thinking that it would be a lot of fun and be special to be a part of."
LaForge said the National Hockey League Players' Association has no problem with the game. A spokesman for the association did not immediately return calls Tuesday.
He said NHLPA director Bob Goodenow have talked about it and he thinks it's a great idea.
"We didn't regurgitate history but he wants it to happen and we will make his dream come true."
The idea for an outdoor game in Edmonton began more than a year ago during a flight to Edmonton from the NHL all-star game in Los Angeles, LaForge said.
"We said there must be a way to display hockey in Edmonton with more of hockey heritage point of view. Not to knock what went on in Los Angeles, but if the palm trees and neon was one way to look at hockey, then certainly northern Canada was another way to look at hockey."