BUFFALO, N.Y. – NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman revealed that there is a high probability that the league will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of its annual winter classic in 2028 in Orchard Park, New York, the place where this outdoor event originated.
Bettman, while attending the Sabres’ season opener in Buffalo on Thursday night, added: “We’ve already had conversations about the possibility of an outdoor game at Highmark, and that’s something we think would be great.” Bettman’s mention of Highmark refers to the current stadium of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, which will also be the name of the new $2.1 billion facility being built across the street and set to open in July. It was at the old facility, then called Ralph Wilson Stadium, where the first Winter Classic was held on January 1, 2008, immediately capturing the imagination of the NHL and its fans. The combination of falling snow and a stadium filled with 71,217 fans created a snow globe effect for an international television audience. The then-rising NHL star, Sidney Crosby, secured the victory for the Pittsburgh Penguins over Buffalo with a score of 2-1 by scoring the decisive goal in the penalty shootout. Since then, the NHL has hosted 16 Winter Classics in various prominent US stadiums, including Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Boston’s Fenway Park, and Dallas’s Cotton Bowl, in a game typically played on New Year’s Day. The league has added other outdoor games to its schedule, totaling 41 since the first Winter Classic, with this year’s game scheduled for the Miami Marlins’ LoanDepot Park on January 2. Bettman joked that the NHL imagined how the Winter Classic would be an instant success, before adding that he was joking about what began as a unique proposal that the Sabres and NBC presented to the league.I’m not making an announcement or committing, but we are focused on whether we can do it around the twentieth anniversary of the original Winter Classic.
Gary Bettman
Logistically, it helps that the Sabres and the Bills are owned by Terry Pegula. Highmark Stadium also hosted an international hockey game between the United States and Canada in December 2017, when Buffalo hosted the World Junior Championships.We are grateful to have done it here first. And we will be back, I promise.
Gary Bettman
