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The NHL will perhaps make its most radical statement yet with outdoor games in 2026, placing two contests in Florida.
The league has finalized plans to hold next year’s Winter Classic at Miami’s loanDepot park, home of MLB’s Marlins, between the defending champion Panthers and Rangers. A Stadium Series game, meanwhile, will be held at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Buccaneers, between the Lightning and Bruins.
In the 18-year history of NHL outdoor games, the league has previously gone to several warmer-weather locales, including Raleigh, Dallas, Nashville, and Santa Clara, Calif. But never before has the NHL pushed the envelope so far in the juxtaposition between the local climate and creating a pro-quality outdoor ice rink.
Because of that, the league will install a temporary, climate-controlled structure within Raymond James Stadium that will house the rink during its construction. The roof of loanDepot park will be similarly closed during that rink build, but both games will be outdoors—in weather that could easily surpass 70 degrees.
“The push with us is always to see what is unique, what is different, and what will raise the bar of our events calendar,” NHL chief business officer Keith Wachtel tells Front Office Sports. “It’s obviously not the easiest endeavor, but this definitely fits the bill, and it was definitely time to get to Florida with outdoor games.”
Bigger Themes
The Florida push, meanwhile, seeks to tie into a pair of larger issues: the steady growth of grassroots hockey in the Sunshine State, and the unrelenting push of local officials there to bring outdoor games.
Youth hockey registrations in Florida have increased by 212% between 1999 and 2024, and that steady groundswell has helped generate eight Florida-born players on NHL rosters this season, more than twice the number from a decade ago.
Local leaders, particularly in the Tampa area, have actively sought to bring an outdoor game to Florida. After the 2018 NHL All-Star Game held in Tampa, local officials constructed a billboard, thanking the NHL for bringing that event there and encouraging it to “next time, let’s go outside the box.”
“That, obviously, stayed with us, and there have been seven years of conversations about it since then,” Wachtel says.
Timing Issues
The Winter Classic is set for Jan. 2, while the Stadium Series game in Tampa will be held Feb. 1, 2026, with both games to be held at night. The date for the Winter Classic, a Friday next year, again avoids New Year’s Day—once more a key day for college football with that sport’s expanded playoff.
The Florida outdoor games were finalized long before this year’s Winter Classic posted its worst-ever ratings.
“There are going to be those narratives, but the game is about far more than just ratings,” Wachtel says. “We were absolutely thrilled with how this year’s event came together, including a record average ticket price, and we’re very much looking forward to taking it to another level in Florida.”
