Winter Classic 2012 Video: Watch Citizens Bank Park Prep for Rangers vs. Flyers

The 2012 NHL Winter Classic is just a few days away, but the players aren’t the only ones preparing for January 2nd.

Philadelphia’s ground crew is working overtime.

While the transition from a baseball stadium to a hockey arena in just a matter of days is no small chore, don’t tell that to the video cameras that capture the whole process.

Time-lapse video of the building process is one of the coolest things done each season with the Winter Classic. The idea of a normally functioning baseball stadium being winterized and transformed into an arena built to support hockey is one of the many intrigues of the Winter Classic.

Dealing with the elements and the lack of cold weather makes things like this difficult, but the good people the NHL employ to take care of this do their job better than almost anyone.

Rain or snow or shine, the Winter Classic will go off without a hitch because of the same hard-working folks who worked to assemble the rink in the video.

The good news for local fans is that the people who set it up don’t want it to go to waste on just a few games; they want the public to come out and use it. After all of the games are finished, the Phillies, Flyers and NHL will open the facilities to fans for a public skate. Tickets are expensive, though.

Either way, if the Winter Classic is half as cool as the video of the rink being built, I know what I’m doing the day after New Year's.

Check back for more on the National Hockey League as it comes, and check out Bleacher Report’s NHL Page to get your fill of all things hockey.

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