Rangers reportedly eyed for Yankee Stadium game

[TaborJet]

Rangers reportedly eyed for Yankee Stadium game

ESPN.com news services

Yankee Stadium has been the setting for scores of World Series games, but what are the odds that a Winter Classic follows a Fall Classic in The House That Ruth Built?

Only time will tell if the Yankees play in October, but there seems to be a decent chance that a puck will drop at the stadium next winter.

The NHL and the Yankees are continuing their work toward a deal that would call for the Rangers to play host to a 2008-09 regular-season game before Yankee Stadium is shuttered for good, the New York Daily News reported in Monday's editions.

"It's something we've spoken both to the Yankees and to the city about," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the newspaper, "but it's not a done deal. There are still other possibilities and a lot of moving pieces."

Yankee Stadium opened in 1923. Construction on their new park began in 2006 at a cost of more than $1 billion. The new stadium -- the site is adjacent to the current edifice -- will open in 2009.

It seems clear that the NHL is intent on capitalizing on the incredibly popular Winter Classic in Buffalo, played on New Year's Day before a crowd of more than 71,000 at snowy Ralph Wilson Stadium.

The first regular-season outdoor NHL game in the United States, between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, drew a 2.6 overnight rating and a 5 share on NBC, the best numbers since a six-game regional NHL telecast on Fox in February 1996. The Winter Classic ratings also surpassed Wayne Gretzky's final game on April 18, 1999.

Pittsburgh beat Buffalo 2-1 in a shootout on a Sidney Crosby goal.

Neither a date nor a Rangers opponent for the potential Yankee Stadium game has been determined, the Daily News said. To generate maximum interest, the paper said the league and the network would prefer an Original Six foe for New York.

According to the Daily News, the Yankees have been reluctant to embrace hockey at the stadium for fear that the playing surface would be damaged by refrigeration pipes needed to build a temporary rink. Their new park has quashed that concern.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman also said recently that an outdoor game in Chicago, possibly at Wrigley Field, "would make a lot of sense."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

[toon88]

on a league-wide level, you would hope they play either Detroit or Montreal. Local interest would love to see the Rangers-Islanders play.

Think it's a great idea either way.

[MasonJet]

Rangers and Bruins in Yankee Stadium would be awesome. One last New York-Boston game before they close it down.

[Mavrik]

NHL would be fools not to put either Montreal or Detroit in the game against the Rangers. I've got my money on Detroit considering a)Montreal played in the original classic and No offense to Canada, but your not going to draw big ratings among Americans with a Canadian team playing. Detroit is a huge hockey market and you would have two teams that epitomize American hockey playing. Hard to pass that up.

[JetsMan57]

Kind of silly that the last sporting event at yankee stadium will be a hockey game.

[Thai Jet]

The Sabre game this year at the Ralph was a great time. Rangers in Yankee Stadium seems like a natural.

[TaborJet]

Kind of silly that the last sporting event at yankee stadium will be a hockey game.

It will make for one heck of a Trivial Pursuit question.

[JetsMan57]

Al Trautwig announced that its going to the be Islanders vs Rangers at Yankee stadium.

AWESOME.

[MagicBizkit87]

Did they really have to get the Islanders, they would have been better off getting a Canadian team, or a team in the running. The Islanders will probably be out of the playoffs next year, just like they are this year.