{"id":135328,"date":"2026-01-28T19:39:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135328\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:39:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:39:50","slug":"raymond-james-stadium-transforms-to-ice-rink-for-nhl-stadium-series-this-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135328\/","title":{"rendered":"Raymond James Stadium transforms to ice rink for NHL Stadium Series this Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the wildest spectacles in sport is taking over Tampa this weekend. After months and even years of anticipation, the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series is here, as the Tampa Bay Lightning host the Boston Bruins under the Florida sun at Raymond James Stadium this Sunday, February 1, at 6:30 pm.<\/p>\n

With a sellout crowd expected, tickets are a hot commodity<\/a> for the landmark matchup between the Bolts and Bruins. If you can\u2019t make the game (or if you decide the temperature is a little too appropriate for hockey), the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN. We anticipate the sports bars in Water Street Tampa and around Benchmark International Arena will have plenty of blue and white jerseys filling their tables.<\/p>\n

\"An\"An<\/p>\n

\"An\"An<\/p>\n

While the NHL has staged outdoor games before, and while the Lightning have even played in one of them somewhat recently, there hasn\u2019t been one quite like this. The sunny and temperate climate creates a challenge for the ice itself, while the palm trees and pirate ships surrounding the festivities add a bit of fantastical flair to the entire experience. The aerial view of Sunday\u2019s game, zooming in through the fronds to find hockey players skating across the ice, will be a scene unlike anything the NHL experienced before, and the Gasparilla-inspired treasure map design surrounding the ice is the perfect complement to the wild juxtaposition (see those renderings and plans here.)<\/a><\/p>\n

It helps, of course, that the temperature on Sunday is projected to be in the 40s, potentially the lowest Tampa has seen for the date in more than 100 years. There were plans in place to make it work should the temperatures have soared into the 80s as they did last weekend. But, fortunately for the ice crew, things will be a bit more manageable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is perfect weather for this game. We were expecting the 80s, worst case,\u201d said NHL President, Events & Content Steve Mayer, who is serving as Executive Producer for the game. \u201cIt\u2019s historic for Tampa! It\u2019s unbelievable!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rendering\"RenderingRendering via NHL<\/p>\n

The ice rink itself will be up to three inches thick, as Benjamin Pierce explained for TampaBayLightning.com<\/a>. The team site outlined the process of rink construction, which includes a wooden base and two separate layers of ice on top. The thicker bottom layer will be painted white to create the appropriate color for the rink, with the thickness of the top layer depending upon final temperatures.<\/p>\n

While Sunday\u2019s game will be fully open-air, the rink is currently covered by an air-conditioned tent to protect it from the sun, pictured above. In fact, each team will even take a practice session inside the tent before it is removed early Sunday morning and becomes the center of the hockey universe for one big night.<\/p>\n

You could argue Tampa may well be the center of the entire universe this weekend. As we outlined recently<\/a>, there\u2019s a case to be made that this is the biggest weekend in the history of the Tampa Bay Area. Hometown legend Bert Kreischer kicks it off with a Friday night show at Benchmark International Arena. Gasparilla Pirate Fest, the region\u2019s biggest annual party, takes over the streets and waterways on Saturday afternoon. Kings of Leon hit the stage on Saturday night at Benchmark.<\/p>\n

Then, the cherry on top of the appropriately-frozen sundae is the long-awaited and highly anticipated 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series. When the puck drops in Raymond James Stadium (and what a wild set of words that is), it will be history in the making. We can\u2019t wait.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the wildest spectacles in sport is taking over Tampa this weekend. After months and even years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-135328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-tampa","9":"tag-tampa-headlines","10":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}