The attitude in sports circles around the world has often been one of “Go big or go home”. A sport allows fans, players and even businesses to raise their aspirations to the highest, loftiest goals imaginable and if you aren’t in it to do the best job possible than you might as well “go home”. For the Bridgestone Winter Classic that

mentality was on display today as the NHL announced what is being called the “Hockeytown Winter Festival”. In commissioner Gary Bettman’s opening statement he used the wording “incomparable heights” to describe what the event is becoming in 2013. As much as some fans may not want to believe him, he wasn’t lying.

The 2013 Bridgestone Winter Classic is expanding to new heights. On New Years day the game itself will be played in Ann Arbour at North Americas biggest stadium at the University of Michigan. With a capacity crowd of over 110 000 and a crowd that is expected to push 120 000 the venue will be as big as they get and might even push record capacity. Of course the annual Alumni game will take place.
The announcement had Maple Leafs legends Red Kelly and “The Chief” George Armstrong in attendance, whom will not participate in the game itself but will represent the Leafs at the event nonetheless much like Bernie Parent did for the Flyers. And Ann Arbour won’t be the only buzzing venue/area during late Decemeber and into the New Year. Detroit’s Comerica Park (home to the Detroit Tigers) will play host to the winter festival with matchups between NCAA teams as part of the Great Lakes Invitational, two regular season OHL games (Whalers/Knights and Spirit/Spitfires), a game between the respective AHL affiliated Grand Rapid Griffins and Toronto Marlies as well as youth and high school games. It is estimated the events at Comerica Park alone may bring upwards of 200 000 people to downtown Detroit.

With the announcement came chatter on Alumni players for the historic club. Possible names include forwards such as Mats Sundin, Darryl Sittler, Wendel Clark, Lanny Macdonald, Garry Roberts, Mark Osborne, Tie Domi, Tiger Williams, Doug Gilmour, Rick Vaive, Ian Turnbull, Steve Thomas and Ron Ellis. On the back end names like Ellet, Salming, Joseph, Belfour, Palmateer, Potvin and Gill could all take to the ice again.

Get ready to buckle in because the NHL and HBO will begin discussions in the near future in hopes of continuing the hit series HBO 24/7 Road to the Winter Classic that takes an in depth look into the dressing room, heat of battle, front office as well as the life of the players. Candid players and staff like Brian Burke, Ron Wilson, Dion Phaneuf and the always humorous Mikhail Grabovski will give fans a look into their lives that is unrivaled in sports. The Redwings/Leafs rivalry is nothing to scoff at either. Dating back before all but 4 other teams existed the rivalry has seen the two teams face off over 600 times with the Leafs taking just a single game more than the Wings (276-275). Brian Burke didn’t waste any time either stating that the host city may be hockey town but Toronto is “the center of the hockey universe”. The always bold Burke went on to say that the Leafs could sell 40 000 tickets in 48 hours and that this game will provide great memories for the players who can look back and remember their Winter Classic win.

I hope you like Elisha Cuthbert,

Scott (@scottcwheeler)

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