Luck of the Draw: He Shoots, He Scores a Million

On January 14, the Chicago Blackhawks announced an interesting new promotion called the "Million Dollar Minute" for all home games the rest of the season. One random adult fan in attendance would be chosen at random and if the Hawks scored at exactly the 10:00 mark of the 2nd period, the fan wins $1 million.

On January 19, five days later, Cary Stolarczyk of Indian Head Park, IL cashed in when Martin Havlat found the back of the net with...you guessed it...exactly 10:00 left in the 2nd period.

At a time when companies are still willing to dole out $3 million or more for a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl, the $1 million promotion is not a huge shock; but when the jackpot hits in the third game of the promotion, I couldn't help but wonder what the odds of that happening are.

Luckily, CNBC's Darren Rovel did part of the legwork and contacted US Hole In One, a company which regularly insures these types of contests. The representative from US Hole In One shed some light on the odds, which weren't nearly as tough as I expected at first glance:

Greg Esterhai of US Hole In One says the odds of a player scoring a goal at any second in any game is about 1 in 1,000. But Esterhai says that since the promotion is a season-long promotion, the odds go down to about a 1 in 25 chance. He said that this makes the goal promotion more likely to happen over the course of a season than a fan hitting a full court shot in any particular game, which is about a 1 in 50 chance.

Let's say you live in the Chicago area. You've been "donating" dollar after dollar to the state lottery with the hopes of one day winning the jackpot and retiring to the Bahamas. Now you've found out some fan goes to a Blackhawks game and wins a million that easily! Naturally, you start to wonder what's really the best use of that entertainment dollar? Let's take a look...

The United Center's capacity is 20,500. Assuming a few thousands fans in attendance are minors and ineligible, the actual odds of any particular adult fan winning the million at a home game falls somewhere around 1-in-18,000,000. In section 326, where Stolarczyk was seated, season tickets run at $660 for 40 home games, or $16 per game. Since that would be the equivalent of buying 16 separate $1 tickets for the lottery, your true odds of attending a game at that price and hitting for a million are 1-in-1,125,000.

By comparison, according to the Illinois State Lottery website, the odds of winning the normal $2 million jackpot on a $1 ticket is 1-in-10,179,260...which means an equivalent $1 million payout would be at odds of 1-in-5,089,630.

Throw in some of the NHL's brightest young stars, an exciting atmosphere, and a potential Stanley Cup playoff run on the horizon...and you have no excuse to sit at home watching WGN for the Monday, Wednesday and Saturday Lotto drawing at 9:22 p.m. Get out and catch a Hawks game.

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