Once the sign of prosperous times in the NHL, the Winter Classic is now an emblem of its failings.
The league wiped its marquee event off the schedule Friday, bringing about another dark moment during the lockout and casting shadows over the future of the 2012-13 season.
Organizers had been expecting a crowd of 115,000 at Michigan Stadium on Jan. 1 to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Detroit Red Wings - an Original Six matchup that commissioner Gary Bettman predicted would vault the Winter Classic to a "record-setting level."
Instead, it followed the 326 regular-season games through Nov. 30 that have already been cancelled because of the league's work stoppage.
"The logistical demands for staging events of this magnitude made today's decision unavoidable," said deputy commissioner Bill Daly. "We simply are out of time. We are extremely disappointed for our fans and for all those affected."
The annual Winter Classic has occupied a special place on the NHL calendar since first being held in 2008, when Sidney Crosby scored in a shootout to lift Pittsburgh past Buffalo while snow fell.
It made subsequent stops at Chicago's Wrigley Field, Boston's Fenway Park Pitts-burgh's Heinz Field and Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park - events that helped propel the league to record revenue year after year.
Not only was the NHL hoping to set a world record for attendance at the "Big House" in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this season, but it was also counting on a large television audience in both the U.S. and sa国际传媒. The Toronto-Detroit game was the only one scheduled for Jan. 1, and anticipation had been building among fans and players alike.
"It's definitely very disappointing," Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard told ESPN.com on Friday.
"Not only was I looking forward to it, but so were all my friends and family. It was going to be a great event not just for us but all the businesses and hotels and fans excited to see us and Toronto play."
The cancellation will also keep the league from enjoying the spotlight on HBO's popular 24/7 series, which went behind the scenes with NHL teams in the leadup to the Winter Classic the last two years and was scheduled to do so again.
League executives wrestled with the decision about when to pull the plug on the event and spent Friday phoning sponsors to let them know it was coming.
Ultimately, they decided there wouldn't be proper time to pull everything together even if a new deal with the NHL Players' Association was signed soon.
