Wings & Blackhawks to play at Wrigley Field Jan 1, 2009

07/16/2008 4:35 PM ET
Wrigley Field to host NHL game
Chicago Blackhawks will play Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 1
By Nick Zaccardi / MLB.com

CHICAGO -- Hockey is coming to Wrigley Field on New Year's Day.

The oldest National League ballpark will play host to an outdoor regular-season NHL game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 1, the league announced on Wednesday.

The Cubs have not commented on the game, which is slated for a noon CT start on NBC. It would mark the third outdoor NHL contest, the second in the United States and the first on a baseball field. Cubs weather in April seems quite comfortable in comparison.

"We have said from the start we are going to do everything possible to bring the Chicago Blackhawks back to the forefront of sports for our fans and the city of Chicago," Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz said in a release on Wednesday. "This is indeed an historic announcement for the Wirtz Corporation, the Chicago Blackhawks, for our players, fans and for Chicago.

"I am deeply appreciative to [former Cubs team president and current Blackhawks president] John McDonough and his team, to [NHL] commissioner Gary Bettman and the National Hockey League, the Chicago Cubs organization and of course to Mayor Richard M. Daley and the city of Chicago for working together to make this game happen. We expect interest to be on an international level for this once in a lifetime event."

In the first regular-season game to be played outdoors, the Oilers topped the Canadiens, 4-3, in the NHL Heritage Classic in front of 57,167 people at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium on Nov. 22, 2003. A crowd of 71,217 attended the outdoor game at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo on Jan. 1, 2008. The Penguins beat the Sabres, 2-1.

Apparently, Wrigley wasn't the only Major League ballpark in the running.

"We also acknowledge the interest and efforts of the New York Yankees and the city of New York throughout the NHL Winter Classic 2009 site selection process," Bettman said in a release. "We look forward to continuing discussions regarding the possibility of playing a future Winter Classic game at the new Yankee Stadium."

The Friendly Confines is no stranger to accommodating other acts. The Bears played football there before moving to Soldier Field. Two concerts by The Police in July 2007 resulted in burned outfield grass and forced the grounds crew to bring in new sod and touch up patches with paint.

Nick Zaccardi is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Go

This is kind of an interesting concept but I'm not really for it. I mean hockey is supposed to be indoors and the weather might be bad and it might cost a team a win and at the end of the season that game might have mattered (not so much for Detroit who'll easily make the playoffs, but rather for Chicago who will be close one way or the other).

Why can't Comerica Park host it?


or Ford Field?

Or Tiger Stadium! Oh wait...