Philadelphia -- When it comes to the Winter Classic the message that was conveyed to the media was this event is big but it can get bigger. They sell a lot of merchandise and apparel and do well on television but they won’t sit on their laurels. In a very impressive presser, NHL Executive Vice President of Marketing Brian Jennings, continues to work hard to make sure that this event continues to excel.

“The uniforms get a great deal of attention,” he said and then he talked about how well they sold on Cyber Monday.

The “mood board” was quite impressive. It showed a collage of uniforms and pictures for each team throughout the years and how the creative team at the NHL study that and then consult each franchise to figure out the best uniform option each year.

This is the 5th installment of the Winter Classic and this is the third baseball stadium that has gotten the nod. Does the NHL prefer ballparks and would they consider a soccer stadium in the future?

“Yeah, I think you are only limited by your imagination,” Jennings quickly answered. “I think in some instances the NFL has been very gracious by allowing us into their stadiums. Sometimes limiting our ability to extend the amount of time we have the rink down. So much effort goes into putting in the rink. That and I think our ability to involve the community is a real strong asset that having the event in a baseball stadium brings… The sight lines are unique.”

To me that means soccer stadiums could be in play and to me that’s exciting because that might include more cities in the future but then something crossed my mind. I heard some rumblings about Central Park, New York a year ago and it seemed outlandish. But a lot of NHL teams already practice outdoors at Lasker Rink when they come in to play the New York Rangers for a different experience. I wonder if they could build a temporary seating area surrounding that rink similar to what is done with the Olympics? They would have to have a seating capacity of at least 35,000 but think about the marketing opportunities? I could envision exorbitant ad rates and I could see the Winter Classic clothing being introduced during Fashion Week.

The long range weather forecast looks good. Interesting enough there is a night game on January 2nd, also on NBC (7:30PM ET). Sharks-Canucks, so a big weather delay during a 1PM ET start could see this game being played the next day but again, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“I don’t think that will be necessary based on the current weather forecast.”

Philadelphia is a great city to host this event and the NHL knows it.

“From a league perspective we’re thrilled to be here.”

* pictured is an early build of the ice surface without the paint.