Avalanche want to play outdoors at Coors Field

A Winter Classic might be a long shot for the near future – Washington will host in 2015, and Toronto is aggressively bidding for the 2017 edition -- it’s possible Denver lands an outdoor game soon. (David Zalubowski/AP)

Colorado is aiming to host an outdoor hockey game in the thin air of Coors Field, home of Major League Baseball’s Rockies.

“We have been in discussions with the NHL and the Avalanche and hopefully we will have an outdoor hockey game at Coors Field,” Rockies owner Dick Monfort tweeted during a social-media chat with fans:

While a Winter Classic might be a long shot for the near future – Washington will host in 2015, and Toronto is aggressively bidding for the 2017 edition — it’s possible Denver lands an outdoor game soon.

Coors is both the headline sponsor of the four-game 2014 NHL Stadium Series and of the Rockies’ home field.

When asked directly last week about the Avalanche holding an open-air game, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told Sportsnet that “everyone” wants to host one.

“It’s based on a whole host of factors: the market, where the team is in terms of its competitiveness, the venue, where we’ve been and where we haven’t been. There’s not some magical formula that you pop in. Some of it has to do with timing and what makes the most sense,” Bettman said.

“All teams are aiming for one. At this point, nobody has the edge over anyone else.”

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