Crews have been working through the night transforming Spartan Stadium from a gridiron showroom to a hockey shrine for “The Cold War,” and Associate Athletics Director Mark Hollis said the conversion is ahead of schedule.
“Everything is going very smooth, just as planned,” Hollis said. “It’s incredible. We have a few more minor staging things to do that are minor in scale compared to what we’ve done.
“There were student-athletes in here working through the night the past two nights under the work lights to get this done.”
Most of the boards and glass were in place by Monday afternoon and the crew said it was hoping to start making the ice Monday night.
Four portable lights are due to arrive Thursday and, if the rink is ready, the Spartans plan to practice outdoors Thursday and Friday in preparation for the season-opening matchup with Michigan at 7:05 p.m. Saturday.
A world-record crowd of more than 72,000 is expected for the sold-out event, which Hollis hopes will raise $200,000 for the Athletic Department.
The rink is on a platform a little more than a foot above the artificial turf floor of the stadium.
Lengthwise, it stretches between the two 18-yard lines and widthwise, it extends about halfway between the hash marks and sideline on both sides of the field.
The penalty box and scorer’s table will be on the east side of the rink (MSU’s football sideline) and the teams’ benches will be on the west side (the visiting team’s sideline).
The stadium’s south goal post had to be removed to allow the workers room to bring in the rink piece by piece.
But there might be one ugly sight for Spartan fans at Saturday’s game. The trim along the top of the boards is blue and the trim at the bottom along the ice is a maize-ish color.
What’s in a name?
Despite some criticism that the name “The Cold War” is insensitive to last month’s terrorist attacks, it will remain the official title of Saturday’s game.
MSU head coach Ron Mason said it’s too late to abandon it from a marketing standpoint and that the teams and universities are not trying to make light of what happened.
“You can’t take this out of context,” Mason said. “This is a hockey game and people understand. But I refer to it as ‘the big game’ now and I don’t think we’re going to overly emphasize ‘The Cold War.’”
The nickname has been attached to the event since it was announced in June.
Still, Mason said he would have considered renaming the event if the game date wasn’t so close.
“At the time we did it, no one questioned it - it was the right thing to do,” Mason said. “Obviously with the recent developments, we probably would have done something differently. In some ways, it’s a little unfortunate, but at the time we did it, I thought it was ingenious.
“I think we can use this game as a tool to show our respect as Michigan State and as the sport of hockey to the situation at hand.”
MSU junior defenseman Brad Fast agrees that people should just take the game for what it is and not read into the nickname.
“You really have to be careful about what you say, but I don’t think we’re representing the war in a bad way,” Fast said. “What we want to do is to make this as positive as possible, and I don’t think we’re trying to make it out to be anything more than a hockey game.”
Are those ants playing hockey?
A quick, unscientific survey of some stadium seats found that seats in the upper part of the lower bowl had a surprisingly decent view. The upper deck was closed off and untestable.
The toughest area from which to see the action will probably be the lowest seats in the four corners of the stadium.
Rain, rain go away
A forecaster at the Grand Rapids office of the National Weather Service said the weather for Saturday’s game will be chilly with about a 40 percent chance of rain throughout the weekend.
Hollis said the game could be played in a light rain, but in the event of a rain-out, the game would be postponed to 1 p.m. Sunday.
If it’s unplayable again Sunday, “The Cold War” would be canceled, and MSU and U-M would play at Munn Ice Arena later in the season.
The Weather Channel (Channel 41 on campus) will broadcast live from Spartan Stadium from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday.
Zamboni accompaniment
There will be a laser light show before the game and entertainment from country singer Shannon Brown during both intermissions.
Karen Newman will sing the national anthem before the game - a duty she also has at Detroit Red Wings home games.
If you can’t get in...
The game will be televised locally by Fox Sports Detroit (channel 54 on campus). It will also be broadcast on the Spartan Radio Network’s affiliates throughout the state. The game can be heard in the Lansing area on WJIM (1240-AM and 97.5-FM) and on WVFN-AM (730).
