{"id":432850,"date":"2026-01-23T19:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432850\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T19:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:30:08","slug":"all-the-right-reasons-stadium-series-to-celebrate-hockey-community-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432850\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018All the right reasons\u2019: Stadium Series to celebrate hockey, community in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman mentioned<\/a> earlier this month that the league took notice of how well supported the Lightning were at the 2022 Stadium Series game in Nashville, when 25,000 Lightning fans attended the game.<\/p>\n

That same game was part of Thursday\u2019s conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go back to Nashville when we watched 25,000 people walking into that stadium,\u201d Griggs said. \u201cFifteen years ago we had 2,000 season ticket holders. And we worked hard, but now we sit here today, we have 16,000 season ticket holders and a sellout streak that is extremely successful and is number one in the NHL right now. It’s a testament to the community and believing in what we’re doing here not only on the ice, but off the ice. As (Chairman and Governor) Jeff Vinik said, we\u2019re a community brand, and it\u2019s all about giving back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Days away from the first outdoor game in Tampa, both the Lightning and NHL are ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been in the event business for a long time. I walked in today having arrived last night, and went, \u2018Wow.\u2019 I mean, what we’re doing and how we had to engineer this is extremely unique, but a huge thanks as well to the Tampa Bay Lightning, to the Tampa Sports Authority, to the Tampa Sports Commission,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cThese were people that never wanted to hear, \u2018No\u2019. For many years, it was just hard to figure out how to engineer what we’re about to do. But once we were able to figure it out, we\u2019re off and running, and I can’t believe we’re just a few short days away.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that? The organization will focus on a 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs run and then reassess what other opportunities await.<\/p>\n

For now, though, it\u2019s time to enjoy what the franchise and community have earned\u2014an outdoor NHL game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve been here for a few Stanley Cup Finals, opening of the playoffs. We’ve done a lot. And our event team loves it here,\u201d Mayer said of Tampa. \u201cAnd as Steve pointed out, between the Sports Commission, the Sports Authority, (they\u2019re) the best. Amazing at what they do and how they operate, and they’re part of our team\u2026We work so closely together. They’re a part of all our calls, all our meetings, because their only interest is to make this great, and they understand the global piece of this (game).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just a Tampa event. This is seen around the world, and this is a great chance for us to show Tampa to the rest of the world, not just everybody here. And you can’t discount that. That’s so important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman mentioned earlier this month that the league took notice of how well supported the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-432850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}