The NHL's annual Winter Classic was held Tuesday at Notre Dame Stadium and it was one of the better installments of the outdoor game in recent memory, at least in terms of quality of play and venue prestige.
However, in terms of stadium operations, it was apparently a bit of a disaster. About halfway through the game, various attendees began reporting that stadium vendors were running out of food and alcohol at the event. Yes, halfway (!) through.
lol they ran out of beers halfway through the second period. I’m katie nolan espnnnnnn
— Katie Nolan (@katienolan) January 1, 2019
Sold out of food and beer here at the #WinterClassic
— 5 Golden Tuuks (@WeberKing) January 1, 2019
For the record, #WinterClassic ran out of food during the first intermission and they don’t have much beer left now. I haven’t eaten in three days and am probably gonna perish before I leave this place.
— phonymahoney (@phoneymahoney) January 1, 2019
@NHL at one of the many food stands @NotreDame has where they have ran out of everything except water #WinterClassic #WorstWinterClassic @NHL please host at a university that is prepared for this amount of people pic.twitter.com/kSToiM5ZwY
— Izzy Ca (@super_robo_gal) January 1, 2019
While a number of concession stands completely ran out of food, others were packed with massive lines that left fans stuck waiting for excessive periods of time.
.@NHL y’all gotta do better at Winter Classic. Lines for food got you looking as unprepared as the @Marlins, 40 people deep for a pretzel? They don’t have trouble serving food here for football games.
— Chris van B (@vanMathuysen) January 1, 2019
Pretty pathetic. Line for food or hot chocolate is 100 people deep while you can get beer all day long. #WinterClassic
— MJoM (@xmjomx) January 1, 2019
That's a pretty stunning failure for the host venue, especially considering the temperature at puck drop was around 35 degrees. Food and booze definitely helps when it comes to battling the temperatures at these types of outdoor events, so it's understandable that people were ticked off that the stadium was dealing with a shortage so early in the game.
For what it's worth, this was the second-largest Winter Classic crowd since the NHL started running the event back in 2008. Notre Dame Stadium had a sellout crowd of 76,126 fans, second only to the 2014 Winter Classic at University of Michigan's "Big House," which had 105,491 fans in attendance.
