The Boston Bruins are set to face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 9 in a regular-season tilt that will take place on ABC and ESPN+, but will also offer an alternate presentation called the NHL’s Big City Greens Classic on ESPN+, Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney+. This follows last year’s groundbreaking live volumetric animation broadcast that featured the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers. It also follows a trend that’s been made popular in recent years by the National Football League. The NFL has seen great success by implementing a Nickelodeon broadcast for their games, which culminated in a highly-advertised and equally well-received Super Bowl being presented through a Nickelodeon scope.
“We learned a lot from last year, and thankfully it was pretty much all good,” said NHL executive vice president for business development and innovation David Lehanski. “The whole point of this is to bring the game to a new audience. The composition of the audience from the data that we got proves that it worked.”
The NHL Big City Greens Classic will feature real-time virtual animations of the Bruins and Penguins, inspired by characters from the Disney Channel’s Big City Greens television show. While last year’s Big City Greens Classic highlighted the NHL Edge tracking system, designed to collect data through sensors in the puck as well as in players’ uniforms, the game between the Bruins and Penguins is going to combine NHL EDGE positional data with the NHL’s new Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking for dynamic player and character movement.
“The players and the ‘Big City Greens’ characters are going to move in a more realistic manner. They’re going to move very similar to, if not exactly like, the players on the ice, with their stick and body position and their limbs,” said Lehanski.
The game will feature Big City Greens characters Gramma and Cricket, who will coach the Bruins and Penguins respectively. The ESPN commentators for the game, Drew Carter, Kevin Weekes and Arda Ocal, will all wear virtual reality headsets for motion capture, intended to immerse them into the animated environment.
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The two intermission frames will also be fun for fans as it will include animated skills competitions between various Big City Greens characters.
NHL Appealing to a Broader Audience
For the NHL, this is a no-brainer as it will draw interest from fans of all ages. Innovative ways of broadcasting traditional sports, while not infringing on the fans’ ability to watch traditional broadcasts, is a smart way to not only draw eyes towards the product but also draw new, younger eyes in a way that can excite and educate the fans of tomorrow. Because fans will also still have the option to watch the traditional broadcast, everybody should come out a winner.
“The younger generation of kids are really going to connect to this,” said Bruins’ captain Brad Marchand. “A lot of the games are catered towards adults and older people. This is an opportunity for the young generation to connect with the game. Hopefully it allows them to have a better understanding and be a little more excited about watching.”
The ever-changing landscape of broadcasting, media and technology allows for innovative ways of presenting sports in a way that can appeal to a broader audience. The NHL is dipping its toes into the waters, but this should be just the start of newer-age technology finding its footing in modern-day sports presentation.