Wrigley Field Ice Skating Rink in Chicago Community

The Chicago Cubs are turned the Wrigley Baseball Field Stadium into an ice skating rink this winter for an unusual ice skating experience. I am curious to see how this will turn out. I don’t think anyone ever thought that we need an ice rink in the middle of Wrigley Field, but here we go anyway.

The original purpose is for a hockey game but the Wrigley Field Ballpark Ice Rink was open on January 4th for the general public at $10 per person. The proceeds from this day went to the Cubs Care Charity. There were no skate rentals, so you had to bring your own skates.

The rink was officially built to host the Chicago Winter Classic hockey game outdoors at Wrigley Field on January 1, 2009 between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings. See the photo above from the game and the photo below from the public skate day.

What I don’t undersand though, is that if people have a hard time watching outdoor football games in the cold at Soldier Field in October and November when it is between 50 and 20 degrees farenheight, how did they attract a crowd to watch an outdoor hockey game in Chicago in January when it is between 20 and negative 10 degrees? And you’re not nearly as close to the action? Why would anyone sit outside to watch a hockey game when it is that cold? This was the oddest sports related stunt I have seen in a while.

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Update: There was a lot of media attention and PR buzz about this event and all went well except the Blackhawks lost the game against the Redwings. The community even got to skate on the rink a few days after the game. The thing is, it was cold, about 10 degrees and the people who did go to the game had to go warm up a lot indoors. I am not sure that all the cost of building this temporary rink was worth it, but the publicity seemed to get a ton of attention on the internet and on the local news. Hockey has lost a lot of popularity in recent years due to too many pro sports and not enough time to follow them and the reputation of lots of bloody fighting. Maybe this is a turnaround for the image of the sport? After all there is a lot of skill in the skating done on the ice.