ESPN.com reports the New York Rangers and NHL are discussing a potential hockey game at Yankee Stadium in late 2008 or early 2009.
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.
Yankee Stadium is a baseball cathedral. It has played host to the greatest teams and greatest players in the history of the game. It just does not seem right that the last event at this magnificent venue could be anything other than a Yankees game.
