Since there’s not much to discuss along the lines of Penn State football this week, we’re going to talk some hockey.
There’s a buzz in Happy Valley with Division I-A hockey coming to town. In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll explore the possibility of something very exciting.
A Great Day for Hockey
Thanks to Terry Pegula, a new hockey arena will soon be built at the University Park campus. Here at gantnews.com, we’ve got an idea to help kick off Penn State’s first Division I-A hockey season.
The time is right to play the Winter Classic at Beaver Stadium.
On Jan. 1, 2012, the National Hockey League should have the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins meet in the Winter Classic at Beaver Stadium. Sure, the Penguins just played the Washington Capitals this past January at Heinz Field.
So what?
The Penguins are one of the most popular teams in the NHL and an intrastate battle between the Pens and their hated rival, the Flyers would be the biggest – and best – Winter Classic to date.
Penn State’s Beaver Stadium is the perfect locale for a battle between the Penguins and Flyers. State College is smack dab in the middle of Pittsburgh and Philly. And although students would be home for semester break, we’re guessing quite a few of those who trot around Happy Valley with Penguins and Flyers jerseys would come back to watch the rivals play.
The last football game of the 2011 college season will be played at Beaver Stadium in November. That gives the NHL well over a month to ready Beaver Stadium for the annual event. The NHL experience could be set up in one of the many parking lots that surround Beaver Stadium and the NHL could make use of Medlar Field at Lubrano Park as well as the Bryce Jordan Center to house events that run in conjunction with the Winter Classic.
The Penguins have played in the Winter Classic twice, the Flyers just once. The time has definitely come for this meeting to take place.
There are critics who will tell you that the Winter Classic will never work at Beaver Stadium.
They’re wrong.
It won’t matter if the Penn State football team is playing on New Year’s Day or not – the Winter Classic will draw a different crowd. If – and it’s a big if – the Nittany Lions are playing on New Year’s Day, fans will still pile into Beaver Stadium to watch the Classic. There’s not a bad seat in Beaver Stadium and with an additional 10,000 seats on the field around the ice, you’ll have 120,000 watching a hockey game on New Year’s Day in State College.
Can State College handle the crowd that will come with the Winter Classic? Of course it can. During the fall, there are seven or eight Saturdays when Beaver Stadium transforms into the third-largest city in the state. There will be plenty of hotel rooms available around New Year’s Day. State College is typically a ghost town at that time of year, so the Winter Classic will help area hotels and restaurants make a lot of money at a time of year when they traditionally make very little.
So the wild cards here are the NHL and Penn State, of course. The NHL would have to OK the Penguins playing in the Classic for a record third time. Penn State would have to sign off on turning over the hallowed ground of Beaver Stadium to the NHL. As far as I can remember, there has never been a non-Penn State football event held at Beaver Stadium. There was supposed to be a concert a few years back during Blue-White Weekend, but that was scrapped by promoters.
Can it happen? Yes. Will it happen? Unlikely.
But it’s something that should happen in the very near future. It would be an event like no other.
Chris Morelli is an award-winning writer/editor who lives in Centre County and covers Penn State athletics for gantnews.com. He’s also a regular on “Sports Central,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com. Also, be sure to check out Morelli OnLion on Facebook!
