page_title: 2008 NHL Winter Classic
section_title: Attendance
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 NHL Winter Classic / Attendance
caption_attribution_description: NHL Winter Classic played on January 1, 2008, at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York.
context_page_description: The 2008 NHL Winter Classic was an outdoor regular season ice hockey game played in the National Hockey League on January 1, 2008, at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 2–1, in a shootout on a goal by captain Sidney Crosby. It was the inaugural Winter Classic game, and was the NHL's second outdoor regular season game and the first outdoor regular season professional ice hockey game to be played in the United States. The event was sponsored by AMP Energy, and was televised in the United States on NBC and in Canada on CBC and RDS. Due to the snowy conditions, the game was at the time colloquially referred to as the "Ice Bowl" by residents of the area and Sabres' fans.
  The game, which was played at a temporary ice rink built on the football field, set an NHL attendance record of 71,217. The Sabres held a Winter Classic "house party" at HSBC Arena during the game where another 11,000 fans saw the game shown live on the arena's video scoreboard with synched-up audio from the team's radio coverage. The Buffalo Sabres Alumni Hockey Team played a pre-game at the HSBC Arena as part of the house party festivities.
context_section_description: 71,217 people attended the game, setting an NHL attendance record. The former NHL record of 57,167 was set at the Heritage Classic between the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 22, 2003. Georges Laraque and Ty Conklin are the only two players who have played in both the Heritage Classic and Winter Classic games. They both played for the Oilers and Penguins, respectively, for each game.
  While it was the record for a professional game, it fell short of the then all-time number of 74,554, which was set in "The Cold War" between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University on October 6, 2001. Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller and Penguins forward Adam Hall both played for Michigan State in that game.
  Approximately 41,000 tickets to the game were made available to the general public, selling out within 30 minutes of being made available on September 18, 2007. In the face of controversy about the quickness of ticket sales, an official spokesperson for the Sabres called it "a testament to how popular the Sabres are and how many people want to be part of the event."  However, many Penguins fans were left out by not having the opportunity to purchase the tickets after they were made available to the city hosting the event, and they were frustrated by the lack of exclusivity for Penguins season-ticket holders.
  Terrence Pegula, who would go on to purchase the Sabres three years later, was among those in attendance. Also in attendance was game show host Pat Sajak, who spoke positively of his experience (although admitting that Ralph Wilson Stadium's size was somewhat of a distraction from the game itself).
caption: View from inside the stadium during the opening ceremony
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2008:02:07 09:52:32", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8380", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1019", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "764"}