According to the Winnipeg Free Press, the NHL is looking at Winnipeg to potentially host a Heritage Classic outdoor game.
Newspaper sources say the league has contacted Environment Canada for information regarding weather patterns in Winnipeg for January and February (“Awful, with a chance of terrible”), suggesting a reincarnated Heritage Classic could be on the docket for the Manitoba capital, possibly for 2014.
As for location? Investors Group Field -- Winnipeg’s currently-under-construction football stadium -- is set to open in June 2012 with an estimated capacity of 40,000 (with temporary seating.) While that seating number falls short of the 57,167 at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium in 2003 for the Oilers-Canadiens Heritage Classic, it’s not too far off the 41,022 that attended Calgary’s McMahon Stadium for the 2011 Classic between the Habs and Flames.
As mentioned earlier, weather will likely play a key role in Winnipeg’s ability to host. Weather was a major story at the 2011 Classic, as the wind chill in Calgary made the temperature feel like minus-21 degrees Celsius (minus-6 Fahrenheit.)