On New Years Day, the Buffalo Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins will meet in the first-ever outdoor NHL hockey game in the United States, playing before 73,000 people at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of football’s Buffalo Bills. Though the NHL calls it the Winter Classic, Buffalo fans know this game as the “Ice Bowl” – the closest any Buffalo team has come to a “Bowl” game in about 15 years.

I won 4 tickets to the Ice Bowl from a contest on Sabres.com; though they’re obstructed view and in the family section, I’m still going to watch the game in the front row in the middle of the stadium.

I’ve been in Buffalo since before Christmas, and the Ice Bowl is taking on mythologically epic proportions. For many Buffalonians, this ranks alongside the Bills’ Super Bowl appearances, or the Sabres’ sole Stanley Cup series eleven years ago.

How do you build a hockey rink in a football stadium? The NHL made this time-lapse video.

Each night on the news shows, there’s a special report on the progress of the construction of the ice rink in the center of the football stadium. There’s Ice Bowl and Sabres merchandise in every grocery store. More than 8,000 people bought $5 tickets to watch the game on the Jumbotron in the Sabres’ HSBC Arena. Tickets are going for as much as $1400 on eBay.

For those with tickets, the NHL is making sure there’s going to be a big party for the event. The Buffalo News ran a story this morning titled, “Party Time at The Ralph”:

The outdoor hockey party, featuring the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins on center ice at Ralph Wilson Stadium, officially kicks off at 8 a.m. Tuesday when the parking lot gates open. And for those who have run out of party-planning energy, pregame festivities await.

“What I’m thinking is everybody’s going out for New Year’s and probably not thinking tailgating, so we’re going to create a tailgate party for those arriving,” said Don Renzulli, National Hockey League senior vice president of events and entertainment.

Once the stadium opens at 11, the party spills inside. The main vendor for the game expects to sell more than $1,000,000 in food and merch during the game.

“There is no doubt this will be the most food ever eaten at a hockey game,” said Sportservice President Rick Abramson. “It will be a spectacular feast.”

The pantries at the stadium are being stocked to sell an estimated 12,000 slices of pizza, 10,000 hot dogs, 31,000 cups of coffee, 6,000 pretzels, 5,000 hamburgers, 5,000 cups of potato soup, 3,000 bags of peanuts, 1,400 pounds of chicken wings, 12,000 bottles of soft drinks, and 5,400 bottles of water.

Fans who have gotten past their New Year’s Eve celebration are expected to down some 70,000 cups of beer. And in a first for the stadium, hot chocolate sellers will be roaming the aisles to help fans beat the chill.

Needless to say, I am beyond excited for New Years Day. I’ll be hitting the parking lot at 8 am with my friends and my 16-year-old (6’ 4”) brother, who we need to get into the special “family” section.

For a slightly more pesstimistic view of the Ice Bowl, this FoxSports hockey commentary dismisses the “Big Outdoor Game” as a last-ditch effort by the struggling hockey league to siphon casual fans surfing TV into this spectacle on ice.

For one-off gimmicks like the Winter Classic, it’s a neat idea that will make for great photo ops and highlight segments, but don’t expect to be anything else than a quick spark in the sports fan’s world. There are no quick fixes, and if the NHL’s willing to accept that, then by all means keep up the occasional outdoor game for its spectacle and grandeur. If they want anything else out of it, I’m afraid they’re out of luck.

However, the author makes some really interesting points about hitching the future of hockey to new media for easy updates to news and scores, as well as the continued adoption of HD TVs to enable casual fans to better see the details of the game, and the critical element, following the puck.