Can NASCAR Learn From The NHL?

January 12, 2007

By Larry Cottrill

Larry Cottrill

Where were you this New Years Day? Odds are that you were channel surfing between college bowl games, but at one point or another you more than likely came across an oddity of sorts that at least captured your attention if it didn’t make you forget football altogether.

If you caught this show, you know well of what I speak. If not, I feel for you, for you missed one of the more memorable sporting events of the last decade. On that glorious afternoon, the NHL (National Hockey League, for those of you in Rio Linda) staged its "Winter Classic" in Buffalo, New York.

Though different in format than any other NHL game, the "Winter Classic" was not an exhibition game. This contest was a regular season game which carried for the same amount of points towards making the playoffs for both teams, the Buffalo Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins, as any other in the 84-game season.

In a normal NHL game, which has 3-twenty minute periods in regulation time (prior to an overtime period in case of a tie score), the teams alternate ends each period, meaning that each team defends one end of the rink in periods one and three, and another end in period two. If there is an overtime period, teams switch ends again for five minutes. After that, a single skater from each team takes turns 1-on-1 against the opposing goalie at opposite ends of the rink in what is called a "Shootout" until the tie is broken.

For this particular contest, the NHL saw fit to stop the game at the midway point of the game’s 3rd period and swap ends again. They had already agreed to do so again at the 2-min 30-sec mark of overtime if needed (as the case ended up so). Also, if overtime were not to decide the issue (and in the end it didn’t), then all of the "Shootout" attempts were to take place on the same end of the rink. These extraordinary measures were predetermined to keep the competition on a level playing field, but NOT because the Zamboni (the ice grooming machine, again for those of you in Rio Linda...) driver on one end of the rink was blowing .14 on the Breathalyzer. The reason that the NHL had gone to these great lengths for this one game to keep conditions equal for both teams was because of the fact that this game was actually held O-U-T-S-I-D-E!!!

For this one game, the NHL had converted the playing surface of Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, into a temporary hockey rink.

This was an audacious move by the NHL.

The risks involved were quantum in nature, to say the least. With temporary ice rinks, it’s difficult to get the kind of ice quality required to stand up to the rigors of 60+ minutes of the abuse an NHL contest can dish out, and that’s IF mother nature cooperates perfectly on the day before and the day of the game.

With the size of a rink being so much smaller than that of a football field, fans with "front row" sideline seats would now be an extra 40 feet from the action.

The size of a hockey puck, combined with the incredible speed at which it travels, already make a puck challenging to follow on TV for an indoor game. If it were to snow, a TV telecast might well be a disaster.

Add to that, that hockey is still considered the little known "bastard cousin" of the major sports. It has easily been surpassed by NASCAR in popularity over the last decade, and lags far behind football, baseball, and basketball. Going up against the tradition of major college bowl games on New Years Day seemed near suicidal to many.

With all of these factors combined, the possibility of the embarrassment of tens of thousands of empty seats at the stadium loomed large before the NHL boldly moved ahead with their plans.

As it turned out, anyone who doubted the NHL’s sanity was amazed to see the first 40,000 seats sell within an hour. On eBaY, tickets were going for $500+!!! Attendance ended up an NHL record at more than 71,000, but the question still remained; would the event be a success?

As the game opening face-off approached, anyone watching the event could literally feel the electric atmosphere present. There were numerous reasons for it: the unprecedented crowd (a typical sellout at an indoor rink is around 20,000), the simple novelty of the moment, and the chance to see hockey’s version of a young Jeff Gordon (Pittsburgh’s 20-year-old uber-talent, Sidney Crosby).

Those factors were trivial though to what truly created the buzz of this festival. What moved EVERYONE so much (as every single player interviewed clearly conveyed) was that on this day, the top tier league of this sport returned to its roots - outdoors. Virtually every player in the NHL (or the elite European hockey leagues) learned the sport as a youngster outdoors. It may have been on an outdoor rink, a frozen pond, or some other makeshift surface, but it was probably outdoors.

When I was young there was a blacktop basketball court put in at Valley View Playground at the bottom of Barry Ct. For some incredibly stupid reason, the city of Greensburg,PA’s recreation board decided to put a 10" tall curb the entire way around the court. While each of us had spectacular end-over-end landings after a lay-up, and cursed the curbs incessantly, we found out that they were great for "street/ice" hockey.

It was not uncommon for us to run a garden hose from Davey McNair’s house, next to the playground, over to the court on a Friday or Saturday night to make sure that we had a "rink" for the next morning. Sure enough, as players at the NHL "Winter Classic" were retelling stories of their youth, similar tales came out from the stars themselves. Each player there, from 20-year-old Crosby to the 20-year veterans, seemed as giddy as a child on Christmas morning. This also came out of the commentators who with few exceptions shared the same experiences in their youth.

When the game itself began, there were indeed minor problems resulting from holding the game outdoors. There where many lengthy stops in play where the "grounds crew" had to come out and patch deteriorating spots in the ice surface. And, at times, the snow came down in large flakes which did, as had been feared, cause some difficulty viewing the moving puck.

Guess what? No one seemed to care at all. In fact, the game was an enormous success, and is now being regarded as one of those sports moments (no pun intended) "frozen in time."

The NHL is now certain to make this an annual event, and many teams are looking at staging at least one event outdoors next year regardless of any signature event such as the "Winter Classic."

Now, let me think here for a moment...

Is there another sport out there that could learn from the example of the NHL here?

A sport that could for just one event a year "return to its roots?"

Brian France has made some profound changes to NASCAR in his short tenure. We’ve seen the emergence of a playoff system with the Chase, alteration to a points system that had grown obsolete over 30 years, the "top-35" qualifying-lock and the birth of the "Car-of-Tomorrow."

While it’s obvious to most that these changes (as painful as they first seem) will be in the best interests of NASCAR’s future growth, a majority of us also feel that many longtime fans have become somewhat alienated by these swift upheavals to their world.

Brian, did you happen to catch that hockey game? The time is now. Let’s have just one race a year on dirt, buddy.

No one will care if you stop the race every 50 laps or so to water or re-groom the surface. Hey, it would give the teams time to wash the clay off of the sponsor logos. No one will tune out if their favorite driver drops out either. The "Car of Tomorrow" is built for it too - just raise or scrap the splitter and give it some more front end travel for this one race. This would probably end up the highest rated TV race of the season if you just let it happen.

No other single master-stroke would do more to win back "old school" fans, and has the potential to add new fans as well.

Do you like seeing kids on Christmas morning? The only thing that’ll bring smiles like kids opening presents on Christmas morning, would be these kids playing in dirt, all over again.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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