Blue Jackets to host 2025 NHL Stadium Series game at Ohio Stadium

The Columbus Blue Jackets could play their first outdoor game in franchise history at Ohio Stadium, home of college football’s Ohio State Buckeyes, during the 2024-25 season.

The Blue Jackets will host outdoor veterans, the Detroit Red Wings, on March 1, 2025.

The Athletic reported in November 2022 that the NHL, the Blue Jackets and Ohio State officials had already discussed staging an outdoor game at Ohio Stadium for several years, but a major hurdle to that was the venue not being designed for deep winters.

The typical college football regular season ends in mid- or late November, and bowl games are usually played in warmer climates or in climate-controlled venues. But the NCAA’s decision to expand its playoff format meant higher-seeded teams could host games in December, meaning stadiums in colder climates would have to adapt.

Twenty-nine of the NHL’s 32 teams have played in outdoor games, with the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights being the two most recent teams to partake in the festivity. The Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and Arizona Coyotes are the three teams to not have played in one.

The Blue Jackets being one of the remaining teams is especially odd, considering Columbus is in a colder, northern market, hockey is very popular in Ohio and both the Panthers and Coyotes are in warmer, nontraditional markets.

Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin wrote a list of five venues the NHL should consider for future outdoor games, with Ohio Stadium being No. 1.

“Michigan University’s Big House, a.k.a Michigan Stadium, has hosted a Winter Classic,” Larkin wrote. “How can we leave the Wolverines’ bitter rival, the Ohio State Buckeyes, out in the cold?”