It was 88 degrees at Busch Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, but it felt like Blues' hockey season.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was in St. Louis to announce the awarding of the Winter Classic to the city and unveil the logo for the outdoor game, which will feature the Blues and rival Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 2. An alumni game on Dec. 31 will also be part of the festivities.
It's been nearly six months since the Post-Dispatch reported that the Blues were being discussed as a possible host for the Winter Classic, which was confirmed on March 9. But on Tuesday, with boards outlining the shape of the rink in the shallow outfield area, the idea of Busch Stadium hosting a hockey game in hopefully much colder temperatures took more shape.
"For us to have an opportunity to come to a place that truly loves hockey, to play the game in an iconic venue where there are great sports fans," Bettman said, "made this a very easy decision for us."
Blues owner Tom Stillman credited Bettman with bringing the Winter Classic to the city. Stillman has said that Bettman was moved by a night in mid-January at Scottrade Center, only a few days after the Rams' announced their exit to LA, in which Stillman and Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III dropped a ceremonial puck in a sign of solidarity for the city.
"It was clear that both teams were coming together on behalf of the city and sports fans everywhere in St. Louis to show their commitment to the city," Bettman said. "At that particular point in time, they focused on how important it was to make that statement. Anybody watching would have appreciated the moment."
In that way, the Rams' departure benefited the Blues, and that will not be the only reason the Winter Classic coming to St. Louis next year will be a timely event. The season will be recognized as the 50th in the history of the expansion franchise, which broke into the league in 1967-68.
"We would be thrilled to be hosting the Winter Classic in any year, but it really is extra special to host it this year because it's our 50th anniversary season," Stillman said. "We think it will be the perfect way to celebrate our 50th anniversary, and perfect way to say thank you to our fans, our season-ticket holders, our partners in the entire St. Louis area. So thank you very much Blues fans, this would not be happening without your support over those 50 years."
The Blues' opponent will be the Blackhawks, who will be participating in their fifth outdoor game. Many NHL fans have criticized the overuse of the Hawks on the national state, but Bettman supported the choice of the Blackhawks and the Blues agreed.
"It's a team that right now is on the high end of an arc and has a very strong national following ..." Bettman said. "This is a franchise that's doing extraordinarily well and has a very strong passionate national following, not just in Chicago but throughout North America."
Stillman added: "It's such a great rivalry, and we are very close neighbors, and the games are always as intense as can be and probably even more so after last spring. I think it will be a lot of fun. Yes, there will be a lot of red Blackhawks jerseys in this stadium, but I think that will be fun. It's like a big college game, college football game with different sides. It will be a lot of fun."
The Blues have developed a new Winter Classic jersey, but it was kept under wraps Tuesday. It's not known when that will be unveiled and Stillman would only offer a brief clue about its design.
"Could be something old, could be something blue," he said. "I think everybody will like them, and they will celebrate our 50-year history."
The Blues have begun the process for selling tickets to the game, sending an email out to season-ticket holders, who will have a pre-sale window to purchase a designated amount.
The Blues have sold 3,000 new season-ticket plans this summer, which is double the amount they had processed by this time last year. That is perhaps a direct response to the fact there may not be any tickets available to the general public once they are distributed to season-tickets holder.
"Listen, it's a challenge," Blues CEO of business operations Chris Zimmerman said. "I think we could sell 100,000 tickets if we had them. We're going to do everything we can to make it fair based first and foremost on either past support or becoming a season-ticket holder now. I think the important thing for people to realize is that the Blues really only control about half the tickets in the stadium. The NHL, Blackhawks, Cardinals, all of those parties also have meaningful amounts of tickets."
It's all starting to seem real now that the outdoor rink has been formed on the Busch Stadium field, jerseys are close to going on the market and tickets are being sold.
"It starts to become a lot more real," Stillman said. "I mean we've seen mock ups of how (the rink) would look out here on a computer screen and it looks really great. But when you're down here and you see the view of the Arch and everything, it becomes pretty real."
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