The NHL’By Damien Cox Sports Columnists Winter Classic has died a quiet death.

The NHL announced Friday afternoon that the Jan. 1 game between the Maple Leafs and Red Wings, the two-week festival around that game and the HBO 24/7 series have all been cancelled because of the ongoing labour stalemate with the NHL Players’ Association.

The NHL says the teams will instead play outdoors in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Jan. 1, 2014.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly made the announcement that the game was off.

“The logistical demands for staging events of this magnitude made today’s decision unavoidable. We simply are out of time,” Daly said.

“We are extremely disappointed, for our fans and for all those affected, to have to cancel the Winter Classic and Hockeytown Winter Festival events.”

There were reports Friday morning that the NHL was considering waiting for another two weeks to cancel the game. But league sources say that the logistics of the event, all the tickets and hotels and part-time workers required to hold events in two different locations, all conspired to make holding the event with less than 60 days to pull it off became impractical.

This was to be the first time a Canadian team was involved in the game, which has become one of the major marketing initiatives for the league in recent years.

No new talks are currently planned between the league and players, although there are suggestions that could change this weekend.