According to Bill Daly, an outdoor game in Europe may be coming sooner than later.
The NHL Winter Classic has become one of the sport's coolest traditions, and apparently the NHL may want to take it to Europe. The NHL recently announced that it will play games in Cologne and Munich, Germany, the hometowns of Leon Draisaitl and JJ Peterka respectively.
Is an NHL outdoor game in Europe coming?
“I think it's going to happen, for sure,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told NHL.com at the European Player Media Tour in Munich on Friday. “When it's going to happen, I couldn't tell you, but I would say relatively near future would be a good guess.”
Several countries could be perfect settings. Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland are countries with several NHL players that could be awesome settings for an NHL game. Even Czechia (or the Czech Republic), Latvia, and more are nations who played in the Winter Olympics and had there moments.
It would make sense to target the German population with some players, as well as the national population. Denmark has 6 million people, Norway has 5.5 million, Sweden has 10 million, and Finland has 5.5 million. That means those nations combined have a population of 27 million, compared with Germany's 85 million.
If the NHL wants to expand its fandom in a country, Germany might be the best target. The NFL claims to have around 20 million fans in Germany, Europe's largest fanbase. That might make the NHL want to build a large fan base there, too. All in all, wherever the NHL decides to bring more games and outdoor games, it will be quite the sight.
Add us as a preferred source on Google