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Michigan AD: NHL “hell-bent” on breaking hockey attendance record

Big Chill - Michigan State v Michigan

ANN ARBOR, MI - DECEMBER 11: Michigan State Spartans and the Michigan Wolverines at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan on December 11, 2010 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)

Leon Halip

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.

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