Gary Bettman talks about outdoor NHL game at Wrigley Field

CHICAGO - Chicago season-ticket holders will get the first shot at tickets for Blackhawks' New Year's Day game against Detroit at 41,160-seat Wrigley Field.

"The game is going to be sold out," commissioner Gary Bettman said Wednesday night. "Most of the tickets, not all, are going to be going to the season-ticket holders of the Blackhawks. We're not going to have a mass public sale like we did in Buffalo last year when we were playing in a 73,000-seat facility."

But Bettman, in Chicago for an NHL general managers meeting Thursday near O'Hare International Airport, emphasized that "some tickets will be made available to the public." He said the ice surface probably will be positioned in the infield, angled diagonally from first to third base.

The game will be the first NHL contest in a major league baseball stadium. The previous two outdoor game were played in football stadiums in Edmonton and Buffalo.