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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 17, 2007Gary BettmanColin CampbellTom ColisanoRyan MillerDavid MorehouseAndrew PetersRICK JEANNERET: Good afternoon. Welcome to Ralph Wilson Stadium on a beautiful afternoon, one of which I hope is not quite so beautiful January 1st, 2008. The first game the Buffalo Sabres ever played was against the Pittsburgh Penguins October 10th, 1970. The Sabres won that game 2-1. Over the years, Scotty Bowman coached for both teams, Tom Barrasso played goal for both teams. Tim Horton and René Robert, two of six players to have their numbers retired by the Sabres, played for both teams. The NHL first regular-season game I ever announced was the Buffalo Sabres against the Pittsburgh Penguins, October 10th, 1971. Sabres won that game 2-1. I was very excited on that particular evening. I was very tongue-tied. I am at least as excited about what is going to be announced this afternoon. Hopefully my tongue has become more educated over the last 36 years. These clubs have both played a lot of great hockey over the years. We've got some exciting moments to pass along to you and some information that you probably don't already have. But before we get to that, let's look at some hockey highlights over the last few years. (Video Shown.) RICK JEANNERET: I don't know that you noticed one of the headlines during that film clip said, "What a night." I have a feeling from January 2nd on through the remainder of the week you'll be seeing headlines that say, "What a day." To address that issue right now, the Commissioner of the National Hockey League, Mr. Gary Bettman. COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Thank you, Rick. Good afternoon and welcome. There is something very special about taking hockey out into the elements, back to its roots, back to the place where so many boys and girls first learned to love our game. Our last outdoor game, as you saw, took place on November 22nd, 2003. We were overdue for another one. But we needed the right place, the right team and the right time, and we found them all. So I want to begin by making it official. I am delighted to announce that the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres will play the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Day 2008 right here at Ralph Wilson Stadium. January 1, 2008 will be a great day for hockey fans: two great teams facing off in the great outdoors on national television both in Canada and the United States before what is likely to be the largest audience in NHL history. A lot of teamwork will go into making this game a resounding success. So I want to thank everyone who has played a role in the creation of the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic. First I want to congratulate and thank the Sabres and the Penguins for agreeing to welcome the New Year in in such a unique way. As you heard from Rick, there's a long history between these two teams. These teams are separated by only 225 miles. I'm sure there are a number of people from Pittsburgh that are going to be anxious to make the journey here, as well. The teams' lineups boast some of the best young talent in our league and I believe everyone who comes here on New Year's Day and everyone who watches on television will find something very intriguing about having this stadium magnificently and magically transformed into an ice rink. We have outstanding athletes, and the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic will provide an outstanding showcase of their skills. I'd like to recognize NBC, the CBC and RDS, our broadcast partners, who will bring this game to millions of fans. Also NHL Radio on Westwood One radio stations, and XM Satellite channel 204 in both the United States and Canada will broadcast the game live. I especially want to thank Ken Schanzer of NBC, who is here with us today. Ken has been a huge supporter and proponent of the NHL and of the Winter Classic concept. I know NBC is already planning some exciting things for New Year's Day, including running their game day studio right here from the stadium. I also want to welcome Sherali Najak from the CBC who is here today. And of course special thanks to Ralph Wilson and the Buffalo Bills for their cooperation. Russ Brandon, the executive vice president of the Bills, is here today. Thank you, Russ, as well. Thanks also to John Stamatis of Pepsi, obviously Pepsi's AMP Energy. Pepsi's AMP Energy is our title sponsor and we're thrilled to have Pepsi's AMP Energy on board. I also want to thank and send our appreciation to other sponsors of the event: Verizon Wireless, XM, Dodge, Reebok and Bud Light, all of whom will be sponsoring the game. With us today is Mr. Jeremy Jacobs, chairman of the NHL Board of Governors, owner of the Boston Bruins and a Buffalo resident. He is here with us today. Thank you, Jeremy, for your commitment to the NHL, to Boston, to Buffalo. Thank you for being here. Jeremy understands, as chairman of the board, the risks, as we all do, attendant to attempting an outdoor event. He urged us to go for it. I want to thank the Players Association and the players. We couldn't do this without their enthusiastic cooperation. Stu Grimson is here on behalf of the Players Association. Thank you, as well. And finally, a special thanks in advance to our great fans. What a way for us all to start the New Year. This is going to be an exciting day for the Sabres and the Penguins, the City of Buffalo and all of our fans. Plain and simple, we are doing this to have some fun. Now, it gives me great pleasure to introduce Sabres owner Tom Golisano. I don't have to tell you what Tom has meant to this state, this community, and to this franchise. His commitment, his passion, his vision have made the Sabres one of the most exciting and successful teams in the NHL. Without Tom, and I mean this on a whole host of levels, we would not be standing here today. So thank you, Tom, for giving us the opportunity to enjoy what will be a tremendously exciting day for hockey January 1, 2008. Tom Golisano. TOM GOLISANO: Thank you very much. Well, speaking on behalf of the City of Buffalo, the region of western New York, we are very happy and excited to be the host city for this first outdoor NHL game in the United States of America. I just know it's going to be a big event. I had planned to be in Naples, Florida, and had to cancel when this was announced. Buffalo is an excellent hockey town. I know they're going to support this event. They've supported the Buffalo Sabres in a very regal way the last couple of years. This is going to be a big deal in this city. I never thought about the tailgating parties the day before and the day after. I'm sure they're going to exist, too. Maybe Russ will give us some experience on that. They're talking about having 74,000 fans at this game. I think it would be wonderful. The largest crowd ever to attend a game. The Buffalo Bills and Ralph Wilson and Russ have been very helpful in helping us to put this opportunity forward and we thank you for your support. It's going to be great for western New York, the region. It's going to be great for hockey. One more note. Gary Bettman is in the habit of giving me a little too much in the form of kudos. This also wouldn't happen without Larry Quinn and Dan DiPofi, the coaching staff and general management of the Buffalo Sabres. It's been a real team effort as to what's happened here in Buffalo, New York. We're very proud of it. We're proud of the record this team has established over the last two years, as we are proud of the Pittsburgh Penguins. We know it's going to be a great contest, a lot of fun, a lot of national interest. We're excited about it and can't wait for it to happen. Thanks. RICK JEANNERET: And now I'd like to introduce the president of the other exciting young team in the National Hockey League, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mr. David Morehouse. DAVID MOREHOUSE: Thank you. Penguins want to thank NBC and the NHL for selecting us to be part of this event. We're honored to be selected. I want to thank the Buffalo Sabres, their fans, the Bills for hosting the event. We've long admired the Sabres for their work ethic and for their success. We hope to follow their footsteps, so to speak. Obviously our players are excited about participating. They couldn't be here today because we open up our exhibition season in Montréal. But I can assure you our general manager, Ray Shero, and our coach, Michael Therrien, are very enthusiastic about coming here on New Year's Day. We have a young team, so it's not long ago our players were actually playing on ponds, whether it be Sidney Crosby in Canada, Evgeni Malkin in Russia, or Ryan Whitney in the United States. These guys are not far removed from skating on ponds. So they're very excited and enthusiastic about coming. Like Sabre fans who are enthusiastic and committed to their team, the Penguin fans are enthusiastic and committed. I just made the short drive from Pittsburgh to Buffalo, and I've seen all the Buffalo fans come to games in Pittsburgh. So I can foresee a caravan of Penguin fans coming up Route 79 across 90 to Buffalo on New Year's Day. See everyone on New Year's Day. Thank you again. RICK JEANNERET: We will take some questions of those who are here on the podium and then we'll go to one-on-ones after that. The only thing I would ask is, please limit your questions to those on the podium for issues related to the January 1st game. Q. Are you going to be selling seats here on the field for this game or are you just going to be using the stands? Can someone address the logistics of setting up a football stadium to a hockey rink? COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Very difficult. Very expensive. Basically we have to build a rink from scratch, put in a refrigeration system to make the ice. We will start moving in the day after the Bills play the Giants on December 23rd, and Dan Craig, who is probably recognized as the leading ice expert in the world, who happens to do a great job, will be in charge of this endeavor. It takes far less time to dismantle the ice in the event that the weekend after the 1st the Bills are fortunate enough to host the home playoff game. It will be dismantled in plenty of time. But it will probably take all of the time between the Giants/Bills game and the 31st to get the ice up and running. It is a complicated, expensive undertaking, and it involves building an ice rink right here. Q. I know one of the big concerns that fans have and big questions that fans have right now is how can they get tickets, where are they going to be sold, when will they go on sale and how much will they cost? COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: The average ticket price will be about in the range of what a ticket costs to either come to a football game here or to go to a Sabres game downtown. There's a price range. As I said, the average ticket price is in the same ballpark. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning I believe at 10:00 through Ticket Master, on NHL.com, on the Sabres and Penguins website, and at the ticket office here at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Q. Gary, you said it was expensive. Can you speak more on the costs involved and where the money is coming from? Is the league paying for all the setup? COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: The league is responsible for putting on and conducting this event. This is not something that we anticipate being a very profitable endeavor. We're really doing it, as the speakers have indicated, because we think it will be fun. It's a great tribute to the game, to its roots, its origins. But this is well into the seven figures in terms of what it costs logistically to do this. Q. (No microphone.) COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: All factors, including the two you mentioned, went into it. This was an organization that we think does a great job of running its franchise, being a part of the community. We know of Buffalo's terrific support, and this isn't the first time you're hearing me say that, because we can go to the time immediately before Tom Golisano bought the franchise when people were questioning the future of this franchise, and we stood behind this community and this franchise. The weather was obviously a factor. We knew we couldn't go to any one of our 30 markets. We would be somewhat limited. Just so everybody understands, the average temperature at the beginning of January, the end of December, is 25 degrees. That's exactly what we're hoping for. A little overcast, we don't need quite so much sun. We prefer there be no lake-effect snow or any other precipitation. As beautiful as today is and as perfect as today is for this press conference, I will be pulling what little hair I have out if it's this warm on January 1st. Over 55 degrees, we begin to have a problem. In the 20s would be perfect. Too cold, the ice starts to crack. These are all variables that we had to take into account. But first and foremost, as I've indicated before, having these two great teams willing to do it, being able to come to a cold-weather venue to try to minimize the weather risk, having an organization that we knew we could work with, that was an important part of the community, it all led to us reaching this point where we said, Let's do it. It's going to be fun. It's going to be hard. It's going to be expensive and risky to put on. But this was the right place at the right time with the right team. Q. Commissioner, can you talk about a contingency plan in case the weather does become a factor and also can you talk about this market for both America and Canada? COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Well, given its location, Larry, a third of your fans come from Canada to Sabres games, give or take. We know this entire area is great supporters of the NHL and of hockey at all levels. So this to us seemed like a terrific place to make it our first outdoor game in the United States. The contingencies, we've got a list of variables in our mind. They'll be buttoned down as we get closer to the event with consultation of the two teams about if we have to delay, if we have to postpone, if we have to reschedule. All of that will be buttoned down. I'm not going to bore you with the details now. Some of the issues are still open. We know all of the contingencies will have to be buttoned down and made public to everybody well in advance of the event. But we have a little bit of time for that. Q. Ryan, having had a chance to play in an outdoor game at Michigan State, what is different? What is unique? Is it more fun? Can you talk about the experience of playing like that? You played in your backyard. Is it any different? RYAN MILLER: We tried to play in the backyard a lot. Doesn't always cooperate (laughter). What was different? Pretty much everything, for a goalie especially. There's no roof. There's 74,000 people. The excitement around the game, you start to understand why football players play to play, how pumped up they get, the roar of the crowd. Yeah, you start to feel that. You get that many people appreciating something on the ice or anything happening on the ice. I think, you know, when we played Michigan State, we were college kids to begin with. We were really excited, really pumped up. Everybody was trying to make a big play. I think it's going to be bringing out a lot of kind of playoff atmosphere. Everyone's going to want to be on the biggest stage possible. The NHL has presented us with a chance to do that, so we're all very excited. Q. Getting back to the setup question. Will it be set up soon enough so the teams will get an opportunity to practice on the ice? If so, would that possibly be open to the public? COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: The ice should be ready on December 31st. We're anticipating having the players skate on the ice. I don't think we've made plans to open it to the public. It's an interesting question. Logistically we have to see if that's something we can accommodate because to open up a stadium this size isn't an easy thing to do unless it's fully staffed. But the players will have an opportunity on the 31st to skate on the ice. Q. Brian Campbell, you must have been discussing this in the dressing room, in the locker room, and talking about this proposed game for quite some time now. What are the problems that you might foresee? BRIAN CAMPBELL: Well, I think how we're going to stay warm out here is the first problem. I guess you see Theodore wearing the tuque - the winter hat for you Americans. That's not a shot by any means (laughter). It is called a tuque. I guess that's the biggest problem, what you're going to wear underneath, trying to stay warm, especially even on the benches. There's going to be heaters there in front of us, warm up a little bit. We will see. Q. Andrew Peters, from a different perspective, a different type of hockey player, what was the last time that you played an open-air game? ANDREW PETERS: Oh, it was this summer, my brother and I had a PlayStation out on my patio (laughter). RICK JEANNERET: I think we're going to wrap it up now and head to one-on-ones here. Thank you very much for coming. Look forward to seeing you on January 1st, 2008. End of FastScripts |
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