The NHL is expected to announce tomorrow that the 2013 Winter Classic will be played at Michigan Stadium between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Big House will be by far the largest venue to host the NHL’s annual outdoor game – in 2008, 71,217 jammed into Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Stadium for the first Winter Classic. And since then, no crowd has been bigger.

It will be bigger in 2013.

Michigan Stadium already holds the Guinness record for the largest crowd to attend a hockey game. In 2010, 104,173 watched Michigan play Michigan State in the Big Chill.

Not surprisingly, the NHL wants to break that mark.

“The NHL is hell-bent on breaking the record we set in our event and I hope they do,” Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon told Yahoo! Sports. “Because then we’re going to come back and have another hockey game and try and break their record.”

To which the NHL will respond by making the world’s largest pizza, and that will be that.

There is no “good seat” at the Winter Classic games. At least Michigan has hosted outdoor hockey events before and it’s setup is more viewer friendly than Chicago was. Wings/Leafs will be the ultimate outdoor event…IF they can serve beer. haha

balewsquare - Feb 8, 2012 at 3:49 PM

Oh man I’m loving this site more and more! How will the NHL and NHLPA split the pie?