NHL cancels Winter Classic, outdoor Detroit games

• The next Winter Classic will be held at Michigan Stadium between same opponents
• NHL and players association are talking about resuming negotiations soon
• Hockey attendance record could have been set at game

The 48-day-old NHL lockout took on a more ominous tone Friday when the league officially canceled the Winter Classic, the annual outdoor game that was expected to draw more than 114,000 fans to Ann Arbor's Michigan Stadium to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Detroit Red Wings.

"The Winter Classic has become the biggest event on the NHL calendar," said Lee Igel, a professor of sports management for the NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management. "It has become the centerpiece event. This may tell us how far apart the two sides are."

The league said the next Winter Classic will be played in Ann Arbor featuring the same opponents.

"Logistical demands for staging events of this magnitude made today's decision unavoidable. We simply are out of time," said NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. "We are extremely disappointed, for our fans and for all those affected, to have to cancel the Winter Classic and Hockeytown Winter Festival events."

The decision comes on a day when NHL officials and NHLPA officials were talking about resuming negotiations for the first time since they broke off on Oct. 18 in Toronto. The league has already canceled the first seven weeks of the NHL season, all games through Nov. 1. Players and owners are stalemated over how to divide hockey-related revenue.

Said NHL Players' Association executive director Donald Fehr: "The NHL's decision to cancel the 2013 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic is unnecessary and unfortunate, as was the owners' implementation of the lockout itself. The fact that the season has not started is a result of a unilateral decision by the owners; the players have always been ready to play while continuing to negotiate in good faith. We look forward to the league's return to the bargaining table, so that the parties can find a way to end the lockout at the earliest possible date, and get the game back on the ice for the fans."

Red Wings defenseman Ian White called losing the Winter Classic part of the NHL's hard-line policy in negotiations.

"They think we had some leverage on them with this game," White said. "So why not cancel it, take some leverage away? We don't look at it as leverage, we're just trying to get a deal done."

Ann Arbor was to be the sixth stop for the Winter Classic, which had previously been played in Buffalo, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The game was expected to establish a record for hockey attendance.

"Today is an outright embarrassment," says Douglas Golab, a 25-year Red Wings season ticketholder. "This was to be the hallmark of the winter and now it's a glaring black eye. As one who has defended the league to non-fans throughout the years, there is nothing left to say."

With Michigan trying to rebound from a struggling economy, Red Wings owners Mike and Marian Ilitch had lobbied the NHL to spread events between Ann Arbor and Detroit. Two alumni games, along with hockey games at other levels, had been scheduled for Comerica Park.

"This is just another blow for the city," Igel said. "For all of Mike Ilitch's good intentions, this is just not good timing."

The Great Lakes International college tournament will move to its usual site at Joe Louis while the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Griffins, Saginaw Spirit and Plymouth Whalers games will shift to those teams' home arenas.

Counting the college, American Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League games that were going to be played, the NHL estimates that 400,000 guests were coming to Detroit and Ann Arbor over the holiday period.

Debate on when the game had to be canceled centered on how much notice that fans needed to change their reservations.

"The hotels. Airlines. Bringing people in. Restaurants. How you are going to treat people when they are there. All of this goes into the planning," Igel said. "The logistics do involve a months-long process. ... This is a big event."

Contributing: Helene St. James and George Sipple, Detroit Free Press