Five venues the NHL should consider for future outdoor games
The Seattle Kraken will host the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Park on Monday for the 2024 Winter Classic, marking the 40th outdoor game in NHL history and the first played in the state of Washington. T-Mobile Park, home to Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners, is located only three miles from the Kraken’s home, Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken will become the 29th NHL team to play an outdoor game.
That’s right: the Kraken are the 32nd franchise but not the last to play an outdoor game. The Arizona Coyotes, Columbus Blue Jackets and Florida Panthers have yet to participate in one. Will that change in the near future?
When tabling five new options for the NHL to consider as outdoor hosts, I kept the neglected trio of franchises in mind – while also factoring in which venues would be darned cool regardless of which teams they hosted.
Here are five potential options, filtered for the most part through the lens of what would actually be interesting rather than speculation.
1. Ohio Stadium, Columbus, OH
We’ll start with the most obvious oversight. Michigan University’s Big House, a.k.a Michigan Stadium, has hosted a Winter Classic. How can we leave the Wolverines’ bitter rival, the Ohio State Buckeyes, out in the cold? Their home football venue, Ohio Stadium, has the third-largest capacity in North America and happens to sit just a few miles north of the Blue Jackets’ Nationwide Arena. The Buckeyes would get bonus knife-twisting points by having their stadium feature the Blue Jackets considering their roster boasts several ex-Michigan players, most notably Adam Fantilli, Zach Werenski and Kent Johnson. The Jackets have endured non-stop misery in recent seasons. Time to give their fans a reason to get out of bed. Multiple reports in November indicated the NHL was giving Ohio Stadium a long look for a potential game between the Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings.
2. Lambeau Field, Green Bay, WI
It feels like a mini travesty that we’ve seen 39 outdoor games and none on the Frozen Tundra. Lambeau Field, storied home of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, arguably screams Winter Classic more than any other non-hockey venue. Of course, the state of Wisconsin doesn’t have an NHL team. But with several Midwest franchises to choose from, couldn’t the NHL consider something involving two of the Red Wings, Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks, for instance?
3. Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO
Kansas City isn’t known as a hockey venue…yet. It does have an NHL-ready building in the T-Mobile center and it occasionally pops up on lists of potential future expansion markets. An outdoor game at Arrowhead, home of the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, could serve as a mini audition. Surely the fans would pack Arrowhead, one of the most intense and iconic venues in North American sports, to capacity. The St. Louis Blues would make sense as the host team for a game here against a division rival such as the Dallas Stars.
4. Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, TN
Think outside the box, NHL. The Nashville Predators have played a couple outdoor games before and even hosted one, but taking things to this historic venue would deliver a look and feel unlike anything the league has seen for an outdoor game before. Best of all, Bristol Motor Speedway has a capacity of more than 146,000 for NASCAR, meaning a game there would have a shot to surpass the 2014 Winter Classic at the Big House for (105,491) for the single-game record.
5. Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany
Hear me out. This is a pipe dream idea, I know. But the NHL has enjoyed serious success with its Global Series in recent years. Signal Iduna Park, graded as an “elite” venue by UEFA, is the fifth-largest football (soccer) venue in Europe and the largest of any hockey nation. Imagine a game between Leon Draisaitl’s Edmonton Oilers and Tim Stutzle’s Ottawa Senators, featuring arguably the two greatest hockey talents ever produced by Germany. It would be a refreshing and exciting way to promote the game in a nation rapidly improving in its ability to develop top-tier NHL players.
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