The NHL has slowly but surely eroded the magic of its most beloved spectacle to a state in which it may not be able to recover. And it’s really sad to see.
The December 31, 2024, Winter Classic, since we can’t even refer to it solely by year this time because it is the second Winter Classic of 2024, saw the lowest viewership of any iteration of the outdoor game since its inception.
It averaged 920,000 viewers across TNT and truTV, while peaking at just 1.2M viewers, which is a 16% decrease from the Jan. 1st, 2024, classic between the Golden Knights and Kraken (1.10M), and a 48% decrease from the 2023 classic between the Penguins and Bruins (1.78M)
NHL Winter Classic hits new low in New Year's Eve date as fewer than one million watch league-worst Blackhawks lose to Blues: https://t.co/omd8wp4IHV
— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) January 3, 2025
Now for some perspective, let’s go back to January 1st, 2008. The first-ever NHL Winter Classic drew 3.75 million viewers when the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins took the ice on a cold, snowy afternoon at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York.
A total of 71,217 roaring fans braved the elements to witness history. It was picturesque, and truly a magical event that captured the hearts of hockey fans everywhere and became a staple of hockey that was always looked forward to on New Year’s Day.
However, there’s been a steady decline since the event’s peak viewership in 2011 (4.50M), and the NHL has seemingly lost the plot with the Winter Classic. And as for the reasons this most recent iteration failed so miserably, well, there are several.
The Teams: A Repetitive Selection
One major glaring issue that many fans expressed displeasure with all over social media was the team selection for this Winter Classic, specifically the Chicago Blackhawks. The bulk of the complaints this year were directed towards the Blackhawks and how this was already their sixth appearance at the event, and their seventh outdoor game overall.
NHL fans are simply sick of seeing the Chicago Blackhawks in outdoor games, especially since there are still teams that have yet to play a single outdoor game, those teams being the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Florida Panthers, and the Utah Hockey Club (formerly Arizona Coyotes). Although the Blue Jackets are at least set to finally participate in a Stadium Series game later this year in March.
Pair the already seven outdoor appearances with the 1-6 record in said appearances and the fact that the Blackhawks are objectively a bad team right now, and you have already lost a large chunk of interest in the event before it has even started.
Again, Chicago has played in seven outdoor games now, and there are still teams that have yet to play in one at all. It doesn’t make much sense when you’re trying to garner more interest in an event that is hemorrhaging viewership year over year.
Time and Date: Breaking with Tradition
Another major area of complaints with this Winter Classic was the odd pivot from the NHL where they moved the date of the event from its usual New Year’s Day setting to New Year’s Eve in the same calendar year as the previous Winter Classic.
Every single year prior to this one, the NHL Winter Classic has been held on January 1st or 2nd (if the 1st fell on a Sunday) and has given hockey fans something to look forward to on the holiday when there naturally isn’t much to do, and you’re at home anyway after a late night bringing in the new year. Furthermore, it would be the only NHL game on that day, which would naturally draw more attention to the event from fans around the league and not just fans of the two teams playing. Well, the NHL decided to completely abandon both of those ideas this time around.
Yesterday, Dec 31st, there were THIRTEEN NHL games played, including the Winter Classic.
Today, Jan 1st New Year’s Day, there is one NHL game….
Beyond perplexed by this scheduling. Crowding the spectacle of the Winter Classic with twelve other games is such a weird choice.
— Empty Netters (@EmptyNettersPod) January 1, 2025
This Winter Classic between the Blues and Blackhawks was not only moved to December 31st, New Year’s Eve, but it was also smothered by a full slate of other NHL hockey games being played that day; 12 other games to be exact. And the kicker? There was only one game scheduled the next day seemingly in place of where the Winter Classic should have been played. Again, it doesn’t make much sense.
Now, there are alleged reasons behind these maddening scheduling decisions from the league, one of which claims the NHL wanted to avoid competition with various college football games on New Year’s Day, which is somewhat understandable until you realize that there was literally a college football game going on in Illinois on New Year’s Eve, the same host market as this Winter Classic. So even the argument for avoiding lost viewership from college football hardly applies in this instance.
A Diluted Product: Too Much of a Good Thing
A final major contributor to the downfall of the NHL Winter Classic is also likely the fact that the event has lost its uniqueness. It has lost its significance. From its inception in 2008 until 2014, viewership was at its highest and at worst drew around 3.7M viewers. But then in 2014 with the introduction of the Stadium Series, which has always just been the name of other random outdoor games the NHL has started to host, viewership for the Winter Classic has steadily declined to the point it is currently at.
Now, you can’t reasonably call this a simple coincidence, there have been a total of 15 Stadium Series games played in total since the event began in 2014. Fifteen. The 16th game will be held this year in March between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings. In that same time there have only been 11 Winter Classic games played. So it begs the question, which version of outdoor game is more important to the NHL?
Simply put, a huge factor that has been hurting the Winter Classic for over a decade now is the fact that the original outdoor spectacle has become far too diluted with the inferior concept of the Stadium Series, and fans are now far less impressed by the outdoor games as a whole. Sure, you can argue it was a good idea to bring the outdoor hockey experience to other markets that had not yet experienced it, but why couldn’t those markets have just waited their turn?
The Winter Classic used to be an annual event, one game per year, that fans would always be able to look forward to for getting their outdoor game fix on the grandest stage, but now? Outdoor games have become super common, repetitive, and do not have anywhere near the same allure they once strongly possessed.
The Path to Revival
There’s no doubting the Winter Classic is at an all-time low right now in terms of interest, but that seems to primarily be the result of the NHL shooting themselves in the foot in several different ways, and not the concept of the event itself simply being a dead idea. And the roadmap for the league resurrecting the event to its once grand scale is quite simple as well.
First and foremost, put the Winter Classic back into its New Year’s Day time slot regardless of whatever is going on in other sports, as it always used to be. Second, stop featuring the same teams that have already played several outdoor games already and start beefing up the matchups with real rivalries, or at least between two contending teams not in the middle of rebuilds. Again, just like how things used to be. And finally, eliminate the Stadium Series concept to draw as much interest in outdoor games back to the Winter Classic. The Stadium Series has run its course, and if the Winter Classic is getting terrible viewership, then viewership for the Stadium Series can’t be much better anyway.
It’s up to the NHL to make the right decisions to get their most beloved spectacle back to its once magical status. However, whether they will take the necessary steps to do so is another story. Fingers crossed, though, because everyone misses everything the Winter Classic used to be.
