The largest attendance to watch a National Hockey League game may soon be broken.
According to Yahoo! Sports, the University of Michigan is in advanced talks with the NHL to host the next Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
The teams to likely play in the matchup would obviously be the Red Wings with their opponent being original six rival Toronto.
One source, who spoke on a condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on the matter, said Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon wasn’t initially sold on the idea of the NHL hosting an outdoor game at Michigan Stadium. But over a matter of a couple of weeks, the source said “something happened to make it go from looking like it could happen to [a point where] it probably will.”
This news doesn’t however come without some controversy being that the event wouldn’t be held in Downtown Detroit and wouldn’t be held at Comerica Park. Comerica Park is the home of the Detroit Tigers who is owned by Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch. Those potential attendance numbers however would be the biggest advantage as to why the NHL would choose The Big House over Comerica Park.
If The Big House were to host the Winter Classic, it wouldn’t be the first time the 100,000 plus seat stadium hosted an outdoor hockey game. The University of Michigan hosted Michigan State at The Big House back in 2010 where there were 113,411 in attendance. An NHL outdoor game between the Wings and Leafs would more than likely break NHL attendance records which was set back during the 2008 Winter Classic. This game had 71,217 people in attendance.
Ref: Yahoo! Sports, NHL.com, Washington Post (image)