NHL hopes to raise profile with Classic at Wrigley

By Ben Klayman

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The National Hockey League is hoping its second Winter Classic outdoor game, scheduled to be played at revered baseball park Wrigley Field on January 1 next year, will help raise the sport's profile.

"We certainly expect that the NHL Winter Classic will be a home run for hockey in this ballpark," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said on Tuesday of the game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the rival Detroit Red Wings.

Wrigley has hosted numerous events aside from baseball including football and soccer, the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, boxing, rodeo, the circus, concerts and even ski jumping, with ice hockey set to be the latest addition.

"This coming January, we'll have another first and I believe it will be one of the events most memorable when people look back on the history of Wrigley Field," Chicago Cubs chairman Crane Kenney told a news conference at the ballpark.

Wrigley Field, known as "the friendly confines" and opened in 1914, is the home of the Cubs and the second-oldest Major League Baseball park after Boston's Fenway Park.

NHL officials, speaking against a backdrop that included Wrigley's ivy-covered outfield walls and the frame of the ice rink on the playing field, are confident the game on New Year's Day will help the North American league become more popular.

Coming off its third consecutive year of record attendance figures following a lockout by owners that eliminated the 2004/05 season, the NHL has been working hard to build up its national TV audience in the United States.

The NHL's TV ratings are among the lowest of North America's major professional sports leagues.

FIRST CLASSIC

The first Winter Classic, which was also the first outdoor NHL game played in the United States, was on January 1 this year.

Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres in a blizzard at Ralph Wilson Stadium, Orchard Park, the New York-based home of the National Football League's Buffalo Bills..

More than 71,200 fans paid an average of $75 to watch all-star Sidney Crosby and his team mates win a match that drew the NHL's highest TV ratings in more than a decade despite competing with a full slate of college football Bowl games.

About 41,000 will see the Chicago game although prices have not been set. Kenney said no seats will be placed on the field.

After the success of this year's outdoor hockey game, numerous cities had expressed interest in hosting the event, but analysts believed the NHL favored a major market as a way to better publicize the North American sports league.

New York had been considered favorite because it is the largest U.S. TV market and the league could tout the game as the last sporting event ever played at Yankee Stadium before it is demolished to make way for a new baseball stadium.