September 19, 2007
The NHL Outdoor Game Sizzle
The NHL officially announced the Penguins and Sabres would play each other on January 1st, 2008, outdoors at Ralph Wilson Stadium (home of the Bills).
The event will be covered by both the CBC in Canadia and NBC in America. NBC hockey producer Sam Flood is excited about the event.
According to weather underground's trip planner/historical data for Buffalo, there is a 3% chance of the temperature being over 60 degrees (16 celsius). 10 days, out of the 385 they have as historical record, have been over that 60 degree mark. And that's probably what the execs are looking at here.
The average high temperature is listed at 34F, but if you only factor in the average highs from a week before New Year's and a week after, for the last three winters, the average high temperature was 40F. That's quite a difference, Al Gore. And a number of those highs, while they do not hit the 60 degree mark, consistently hit in the 50s.
I'd also like to point out that the average wind is 12 mph and there's a 54% chance of the average wind for that day reaching or exceeding 10mph. As someone who used to play roller hockey outside at Chelsea Piers in new york city during the dead of winter, it ain't easy skating against that kind of wind.
There's plenty more comment going on about this outdoor game, and the questions surrounding the tickets sales for it, here in the swamp.
The event will be covered by both the CBC in Canadia and NBC in America. NBC hockey producer Sam Flood is excited about the event.
"There's much more of an opportunity now to stand out on New Year's Day," Flood said.From the American perspective, I guess this is a glass half empty, glass half full thing. There will be lots of people on the couch that day working off hangovers in front of the tv. Half full - There'll be a lot of football on, so anyone flipping channels and such could catch part of the hockey game. Half empty - There will be a lot of football on.
"We're going to have an airplane in the air for aerial shots, much the way we do at a Sunday night football game," Flood said. "We'll be taking high and wide shots to show the 70-plus thousand people surrounding this sheet of ice.As the seasons seem to start later and later each year (I got my science degree from the UF School of Journalism), I think everyone involved is taking a pretty big chance that this airplane they're using to take overhead shots isn't filming 70-plus thousand people surrounding a kiddie puddle pool over painted cement.
According to weather underground's trip planner/historical data for Buffalo, there is a 3% chance of the temperature being over 60 degrees (16 celsius). 10 days, out of the 385 they have as historical record, have been over that 60 degree mark. And that's probably what the execs are looking at here.
The average high temperature is listed at 34F, but if you only factor in the average highs from a week before New Year's and a week after, for the last three winters, the average high temperature was 40F. That's quite a difference, Al Gore. And a number of those highs, while they do not hit the 60 degree mark, consistently hit in the 50s.
I'd also like to point out that the average wind is 12 mph and there's a 54% chance of the average wind for that day reaching or exceeding 10mph. As someone who used to play roller hockey outside at Chelsea Piers in new york city during the dead of winter, it ain't easy skating against that kind of wind.
There's plenty more comment going on about this outdoor game, and the questions surrounding the tickets sales for it, here in the swamp.
