Planning to go to Buffalo?

Well, unless you managed to snag one of the 41,000 tickets in the first 30 minutes, you may be out of luck. You just may have to watch the outdoor game between the Pens and Sabres at home on TV like the rest of the country...well, the rest of Pittsburgh and Buffalo anyway. Sounds like ticket scalpers must have taken advantage of the no maximum ticket purchases, because while I thought the game could sell out, 30 minutes is insane.

Obviously the game will be a draw at the ticket booth, but how will it do on TV, where the NHL struggles tremendously? The NHL did both some right and wrong in scheduling this game. On the plus side, the league chose the right teams for the game. The Penguins and the Sabres are two of the hottest teams in the league, and NHL's two best U.S. television markets (2007 Stanley Cup final games received the highest ratings in these two cities, despite the fact neither city had a team in the finals). The cities are in easy driving distance of each other, and NHL hot spot Toronto is even closer for an additional hockey fan draw. The "gimmick" of hosting an outdoor regular season game--and one that Sidney Crosby is playing in--should bring plenty of media attention.

Or will it? New Year's Day is traditionally a big sports day, but not for hockey. Sports fans across the country plan on sticking by their TVs to watch some big college football bowl games. Will the outdoor game be big enough to bring in non-hockey sport fans? Will the media give the game the attention it deserves when they have the height of BCS bowl games to cover?

I hope so, but I'm not counting on it. The NHL desperately needs to increase its sports media coverage, and the league has found a good way to do it on perhaps the worst day possible. And what the league really needs is not just a day's worth of coverage for the one event, but a year's worth of coverage of equal merit of other professional sports.

Meanwhile, while the Sabres report that none of the remaining tickets are reserved for Penguins fans, the Pens organization is working on getting us a few more.