2018 NHL Winter Classic
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| Date | January 1, 2018 | |||||||||||||||
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| Arena | TBA | |||||||||||||||
| City | TBA | |||||||||||||||
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The 2018 NHL Winter Classic is an upcoming regular season outdoor National Hockey League (NHL) game that is scheduled for January 1, 2018.
Mn March 15, 2017, Arthur Staple of Newsday reported that the game had been awarded to the New York Rangers. The Rangers originally had planned to play at Blaik Field at Michie Stadium on the campus of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York but were unable to come up with an agreement to use that facility in time. Yankee Stadium, which hosted the Rangers' games in the 2014 NHL Stadium Series, was ruled out for the Winter Classic because it hosts the Pinstripe Bowl a week before the event. Instead, the Rangers reportedly reached an agreement with Citi Field, home of the New York Mets baseball team, to host the event.
The same article identified the Buffalo Sabres as the Rangers' opponent. The Sabres were also in negotiations to host the event, both because it marked ten years since the inaugural Winter Classic and because the 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships had already scheduled an outdoor game at New Era Field for late December 2017, which would have allowed the outdoor ice surface to be used for both that and the Winter Classic.
One major problem with this scenario is that, under state law, the Rangers are effectively prohibited from hosting any outdoor games themselves; the 2014 Stadium Series games were technically hosted by the other two teams in New York, the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils. Under a specific loophole in New York State law, Madison Square Garden, the Rangers' home arena, is exempt from taxes, under the condition that the Rangers not host any home games at any other venue. No loophole or waiver to this rule was included in the state's 2017–18 budget. The National Hockey League, which in past years has typically announced the next year's Winter Classic by February, has not confirmed Staple's report as of April.
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