After years of planning, the National Hockey League will be hosting its first game at a football stadium in Florida Feb. 1. The Tampa Bay Lightning are scheduled to face the Boston Bruins in the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series.
Discussions about the project began after the 2018 NHL All-Star Game, which took place at Amalie Arena (now known as Benchmark International Arena).
Right after the event, the Tampa Bay Sports Commission created a billboard which said “next time, let’s go outside the box.” It showed an artistic conception of a rink at Raymond James Stadium – the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This sparked an idea that NHL representatives could not ignore.
The organization has hosted games at football stadiums in other states. However, creating a rink in an open-air environment in Florida was a challenge that almost prevented the experience altogether.
“The fear back then, and I’ll very much admit it, was that ice and Tampa were probably not the best mix. We were always just nervous about the weather,” said NHL president of content and events Steve Mayer. “Our ability to make ice back in 2018 was a lot different than our ability to make ice in 2026. We talked about it, but were never quite comfortable.”
Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois and chairman Jeffrey Vinik were persistent and championed the project, he added. The team’s Stanley Cup victories in 2020 and 2021 certainly didn’t hurt their case.
The billboard erected by the Tampa Bay Sports Commission after the 2018 NHL All-Star Game. Photo provided.
After the NHL eventually agreed to host a game at Raymond James Stadium, it had to figure out a way to build a rink that would stay cool. A tent would become the solution to the problem.
The NHL released its plans for the construction Jan. 10.
It will begin to install the rink next week. The air-conditioned and steel-framed tent, designed by Canada-based GNB Global, is 34 feet high, 125 feet wide and 240 feet long.
“That is the only way to protect the interest,” Mayer explained. “We’ve decided that this is much more about the wow of it all, rather than the business of it all.”
The structure will be dismantled the day of the game. It will take approximately six and a half hours to deconstruct it. GNB Global has already rehearsed the process.
“We’re banking on the fact that by the time we take it down, the sun is almost down and it will get a little cooler.”
The whole field at Raymond James Stadium will be covered and the floor will feature a treasure map with “things that are very unique to Tampa,” Mayer added. Floats from the Gasparilla Pirate Festival will also be present.
Earlier this week, the NHL announced that country music star Tim McGraw will be the headliner for the game. The performance, which will take place during the first intermission, will feature a medley of his greatest hits.
Mayer and the NHL team have been interested in working with McGraw for “a long time.” However, schedules never lined up.
He already has ties to the NHL. The singer has been to many games and his 1995 hit “I Like It, I Love It” is a goal song for the Nashville Predators.
“The Tampa Bay Sports Commission and the Lightning organization pushed for this because they knew how good it could be,” Mayer said. “We want to make sure that everyone in Tampa is really proud of what we accomplished, because they deserve it.”