Myers: Hockey at Target Field could mean no more waiting for the NHL

Nike had a brief flirtation with the hockey equipment world in the past decade, before quietly going back to making God-awful ugly football uniforms for the University of Oregon. How brief? Well, that's something hard to answer on a day when Wikipedia is shut down.

But in the spirit of the sneaker behemoth, and in honor of Phil Knight's short-term foray into the hockey world, here's some advice: For those waiting in vain for the NHL to bring its annual outdoor hockey festival, the Winter Classic, to Minnesota, we say quit waiting and Just Do It.

While the pro game's geniuses in Manhattan and Toronto fail to acknowledge the existence of winter, and of hockey, west of Chicago, we've already got perfect venues for large-scale outdoor games, and dozens - even hundreds - of teams willing to fill them.

Sometime soon, the NHL will announce yet another bypass of the self-proclaimed State of Hockey, as the 2013 Winter Classic will be awarded to the Detroit Red Wings. The game, versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, will be played at the Big House in Ann Arbor next New Year's Day. The first five of these popular hockey events have been held in Buffalo, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and most recently Philadelphia. And while every year there are those who insist Minnesota's turn is coming up next, it is widely rumored that the TV ratings-obsessed NHL will award games to Washington, D.C., and New York City (likely Yankee Stadium) after the one in Michigan.

But a quick glance around the hockey-playing part of the U.S. last weekend provides ample proof that there's no reason to wait for the NHL to finally notice the patient folks who live somewhere north and west of La Crosse. In Boston there was another rink laid down in the middle of Fenway Park. In Cleveland, Major League Baseball's Indians had a rink built atop the Progressive Field diamond, and held a slate of games, capped by a Michigan-Ohio State showdown played with more than 23,000 on hand.

Ironically, had the Metrodome roof not collapsed under the weight of a massive snowstorm some 13 months ago, there would have likely been similar games played this month at TCF Bank Stadium on the U of M campus. Gophers coach Don Lucia said that the single game played at Mariucci Arena versus Notre Dame on Jan. 7 was originally going to be an outdoor contest at the football field. But the Metrodome collapse, the Vikings subsequent one-game appearance at the Bank, and the roughly $700,000 spent for snow removal at the stadium, struck fear into the hearts of those who crunch numbers for the U athletic department.

They envisioned a nightmare scenario where huge snows would fall before an outdoor game at the U, leaving the school stuck paying not only for the rink construction and removal (which can run upwards of $500,000), but for untold more in snow removal costs. As it turns out, that wouldn't have been a worry in this particular winter. On Jan. 7 in Minneapolis it was 37 during the day and dropped down to 25 at night, without a flake of precipitation in the sky and almost no snow on the ground. A perfect night for hockey under the stars.

Michigan State got 75,000 paying customers for the Cold War at Spartan Stadium in 2001 - the event that started this outdoor stadium hockey trend. Wisconsin drew a crowd of 40,000 for a game at Lambeau Field in 2006 and more than 50,000 for a game at Camp Randall Stadium in 2010. Michigan played before nearly 110,000 at the Big House last winter. Ohio State's game in Cleveland was a fiscal success. And even the club team at Penn State, which will move up to varsity status next season, played an outdoor game in the ballpark Philadelphia a few weeks ago.

Lucia admits that he expressed interest when offered the idea of playing Wisconsin at Solider Field in Chicago next February, as part of a planned doubleheader with Notre Dame and Miami (Ohio) in the other game. But for now, with outdoor stadium games seemingly everywhere, the Gophers are the only Big Ten hockey school that has been left out. Or, left in(side), as the case may be.

That's where we meet a potential savior one rarely thinks about in the winter months, at least until pitchers and catchers report. The Minnesota Twins have entered the picture, openly talking about putting a rink down at Target Field, and hosting hockey there. Twins president Dave St. Peter said the Winter Classic is their number one hockey-related goal, and the team has made overtures to the NHL, the Minnesota Wild, NBC Sports, the U of M and practically anyone else with a pair of skates who will take their calls.

But as a secondary track the Twins have also begun studying extensively what would go into staging hockey there without the Winter Classic. Boston just hosted a 16-day hockey festival of sorts called Frozen Fenway, where college, high school and youth hockey teams played more than a dozen games, and even more hours of ice were rented for private and corporate skating events. The Twins sent team representatives to both Cleveland and Boston, and based on what they learned there, St. Peter says a similar event will happen here.

"It's a matter of when, not if, we play hockey at Target Field," he said. "Maybe it's because I'm a big hockey fan, but maybe more importantly because we think this building would do well with an event like that."

Realistically, with schedules already set a year out, St. Peter believes a January or February hockey event in 2014 or 2015 is most likely. He admits that the Gophers are their primary college hockey focus, but they could likely get Minnesota's four other Division I hockey teams (Minnesota Duluth, Bemidji State, St. Cloud State and Minnesota State in Mankato) involved, along with St. Peter's alma mater, North Dakota.

"We haven't gotten there yet, but we think college hockey would do very well here," St. Peter said. "There's no shortage of interest."

With the idea of playing an outdoor game on campus on hold, Lucia feels that playing outdoors on the other side of the Mississippi would be fine too.
"If Target Field wanted to do something like that, I would certainly be interested and want to do it," Lucia said. "I think that's something that, for me, I'd like to be a part of while I coach."

In any case, it's time to quit waiting for the NHL to "re-discover" Minnesota once again. It was 15 years ago that Minnesota proved the NHL needed our state much more than our state needed the NHL. The North Stars went south, and the game still thrived throughout the Upper Midwest, prompting the highest level pros to make a return less than a decade after the moving vans departed Met Center for Texas.

An outdoor game, or a few dozen of them, at Target Field, with upwards of 40,000 looking on, would send another message to the NHL about the passion and resiliency of Minnesota hockey fans. Think of it as telling the NHL something akin to what 12-year-olds say to their peers on cold, clear winter days when there's no school:

"We're going outside to play hockey. If you want to come down to the rink, bring your skates and a stick, and we'll have fun. If not, it's your loss."