I just had an idea, with respect to the Stanley Cup Finals.

[Mickey Marner]

This is a poor solution to problem that doesn't exist.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

-the superbowl is one game, an NHL playoff series is 7 games.

-moving it to a football stadium would completely sever the feeling of being connected to the game and being right up on the ice. pass.

 

[Daisy Ridley]

The intimacy of a hockey arena is awesome, especially in the playoffs. Who wants to sit in nose bleeds in a 80k stadium not built to have hockey played there? You'd ruin the viewing experience of people who attend, which in turn would create an atmosphere that isn't as exciting to view on TV.

 

[Sheppy]

nope.

 

[Kcb12345]

Wouldn't even have the same playoff like feel and atmosphere. I have no problem with the way it is done right now

 

[Tim Vezina Thomas]

Better idea...

Instead of actually playing hockey in the football stadiums, both teams lose their skates, throw on some cleats and play football!

On a serious note, the viewing experience would be awful so I can't see this happening.

 

[sparxx87]

Nah, I like it how it is.

One of the best things about playoff hockey is the atmosphere and hostile crowd. You’d be dialing that back and that’s a huge negative.

 

[tarheelhockey]

all season ticket holders from both franchises involved would get to attend each game in both stadiums, with their airfares/trainfares, hotels, and meals paid for.

This alone.

You’re going to fly, house, and feed 20,000-30,000 people for multiple weeks?

Even if it weren’t ludicrously expensive, where would you find that many plane tickets and hotel rooms?

 

[John Matthews]

(A bit of a warning for length here...I want to do this post right.)

For a little while, I've been doing some thinking on how to make the Stanley Cup Final Championship Series a bit better, and after a bit of refining, I think I've happened on something.

As we know, that series is always played in the usual 18,000+ seat venues where each team involved plays their standard games. However, I also know that such demand for tix for that series is intensely high.

Well, what if there were a way to have more of them available? I think that's possible, but there's only one way I see it happening that way.

The way to do it, would be to turn that series into, in terms of size and scope, into the NHL's version of WWE's WrestleMania event. That is, to host the Cup Final in closed-roof football stadiums, with the ice in the middle of the building.

My idea would see an entry ramp for all the players to walk down attached to a large stage at one end of the building, where on the stage, during the 2nd intermission, a live band would play some songs for the crowd from Games 1 to 4, with those performances airing live on both CBC/Sportsnet and NBC.

The stadiums that would be used would be ones with either fixed roofs, or ones that could close. For Canada, they would be B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver, Rogers Centre in Toronto, and, yes, Olympic Stadium in Montreal. For the U.S., they would be venues like Safeco Field, the Superdome, Ford Field, U.S. Bank Stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, Tropicana Field, AT&T Stadium, University of Phoenix Stadium, and whatever others exist in that fashion.

The venues would be assigned based on geographic distance(i.e. Montreal and Ottawa would be at Olympic Stadium, the Leafs at Rogers Centre, and the 4 West Conf. teams at B.C. Place, and the U.S. teams playing wherever they're closest to).

The ticket rules I'd use for this type of super-sized Cup Final series would be that all season ticket holders from both franchises involved would get to attend each game in both stadiums, with their airfares/trainfares, hotels, and meals paid for. The rest of the tickets would be split between more fans for each team and neutral fans, with all celebs and family members sitting in private boxes.

This type of Cup Final would, for lack of a better term, make the NHL a LOT of cash, and allow for the event to become a bit bigger in prominence. However, I'd also put the normal rinks the teams play in to work, setting up viewing parties for all games, and having regular activities for those places continue as normal, while the fans in those places would watch the games on the scoreboard screens, and also have some intermission entertainment for those arenas.

Would this sound like a good idea to anyone here?

=P

This sounds like a terrible with zero background pertaining to hockey. This is literally the worst idea ive ever seen proposed on HF.

 

[cbcwpg]

There hasn't been a hockey game held in a football stadium or baseball stadium, or any other venue than a normal hockey rink that was worth spending a dime on to watch.

 

[Pongs21]

Maybe stick to wrestlemania there champ

 

[RaginRonic]

This alone.

You’re going to fly, house, and feed 20,000-30,000 people for multiple weeks?

Even if it weren’t ludicrously expensive, where would you find that many plane tickets and hotel rooms?

It could be only the span of just over 1 week, if the Cup Finals returned to a schedule where the series was no longer played as it is now(with that stupid 3-day break between Games 2 and 3, which seems to force a team up 2 games to 0 to lose Game 3 to stop a 4-0 Cup Final sweep from ever happening again). As in, maybe scheduling the Cup Final the same way that MLB schedules the World Series(G1-G2-Travel-G3-G4-G5-Travel-G6-G7).

That way, the Cup Final wouldn't lag, and would be completed in an expedient fashion.

=P

 

[tarheelhockey]

It could be only the span of just over 1 week, if the Cup Finals returned to a schedule where the series was no longer played as it is now(with that stupid 3-day break between Games 2 and 3, which seems to force a team up 2 games to 0 to lose Game 3 to stop a 4-0 Cup Final sweep from ever happening again). As in, maybe scheduling the Cup Final the same way that MLB schedules the World Series(G1-G2-Travel-G3-G4-G5-Travel-G6-G7).

That way, the Cup Final wouldn't lag, and would be completed in an expedient fashion.

=P

I think you kind of missed the point here.

Even if you held the whole thing within one week, you’re still offering week-long, all-expenses-paid vacations to roughly 30,000 people. At a VERY conservative $2000/person, you’re spending $60,000,000 just getting season ticket holders to the arena (instead of THEM paying YOU to be there, which is the point of holding this event).

 

[gertbfrobe16]

no but it might be a good idea for the all star game

 

[WingsMJN2965]

All honesty, I saw, "NHL's version of WWE Wrestlemania" and immediately skipped the OP.

I did, however, read all the replies mocking it!

 

[RaginRonic]

All honesty, I saw, "NHL's version of WWE Wrestlemania" and immediately skipped the OP.

I did, however, read all the replies mocking it!

I meant in terms of attendance and scope, not WWE's planned out nature of their programming.

Though, given I've been a fan of that for 27 years, and the fact that someone from the U.S., and not Canada, runs the NHL, I sometimes wonder if there's anything that could be like what WWE is in terms of why Canada's Stanley Cup drought's gone on this frickin' long(and I'm tired of it existing in any form now...that's a whole other conversation with a lot of rage in me about it).

=P

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

This sounds like a terrible with zero background pertaining to hockey. This is literally the worst idea ive ever seen proposed on HF.

You must be new here!

 

[Jumptheshark]

fatal flaw in the OPS idea is how long it takes to set up games in the stadium

it aint an over night thing and many of the stadiums mentioned are booked for other things

 

[MartyOwns]

it's cute that OP had a scenario where a canada team was in the finals

 

[Ceremony]

"Hey, non-hockey venue, optimise your location for a hockey game in the middle of June with an unspecified crowd because we don't know what teams will be there and in fact since you're getting game 6 we don't know if it will even take place, thanks"

I don't think this would work, somehow.

 

[Georgetown Al]

Better luck next time OP...

Cheers...

 

[RaginRonic]

it's cute that OP had a scenario where a canada team was in the finals

*spears Marty in the back with a metal hockey stick*

Sing, oh Hockey Gods, thy vengance is Ragin'.

> = )

 

[garnetpalmetto]

And I think we've pretty much covered in depth why this is a bad idea that won't happen - all the rest is just piling on at this point. Closed.