Ice used for the game (photographed following the Frozen Confines college hockey games held January 3–4, 2025)
The league announced the game on February 7, 2024, during the first intermission of the NHL on TNT's broadcast of the Tampa Bay Lightning–New York Rangers game.[2][3] Several media sources however leaked the game's site and opponents on the day before.[4][5][6]
New Year's Eve was chosen as the date for the Winter Classic, as opposed to its traditional New Year's Day scheduling, in response to the expansion of the College Football Playoff from four teams to 12 beginning in the 2024–25 postseason. The Winter Classic had been on a steady decline in ratings, one exacerbated by the move to the cable-only TNT Sports in 2022, and the move to the less crowded slot on New Year's Eve afternoon (much of the game took place in the gap between the 2024 Texas Bowl ending and the Fiesta Bowl's kickoff) was intended to make the event "something (...) very unique on that day."[7] In practice, the move to New Year's Eve backfired, with viewership hitting an all-time low for the event, as one of the bowl games that partially overlapped with the game, the Citrus Bowl, featured the Illinois Fighting Illini football team (potentially diverting Illinois viewers away from the game); viewers also commented on social media of how they had not noticed the date change and had sought the game on television during New Year's Day only to find they had missed it, while others expressed burnout toward seeing the Blackhawks in yet another Winter Classic after losing all four previous appearances and sitting, at the time, in last place in the NHL's standings. The timing also meant that much of the country west of the Eastern Time Zone was at work or commuting home during the game, as New Year's Eve is not universally recognized as a work holiday.[8]
In the United States, broadcasting rights to the game are held by TNT, with sister channel TruTV simulcasting, and streaming on Max. In Canada, rights are held by Sportsnet with streaming on Sportsnet+.
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