Mayer said both the Lightning and Panthers had been clamoring to play in an outdoor game, and the NHL figured this was a great time to allow both teams to hold one in the same season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a hotbed, in many different ways,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cMiami has become such a hockey town. \u2026 This is quite the Florida celebration for the NHL and outdoor games.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for how ice can be built in the tropical climate of Miami, loanDepot park is basically a very big arena. Its retractable roof, which is closed most of the time, will help enable the NHL to install the ice surface that will run across the infield and over the pitcher\u2019s mound.<\/p>\n
When the sun has set for the Winter Classic, the plan is for the roof to be open, with the large sliding windows that face Miami\u2019s sparkling skyline to the east opened up as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, we have refined the making of ice to the point where it is quite the science,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cWe are comfortable building it in this climate. The game will be played in an open-air stadium. \u2026 There are zero plans not to open it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the roof and windows closed, the building can get quite cold. Mayer said the NHL is taking no risks when it comes to lowering the temperature inside the ballpark.<\/p>\n
It was 83 degrees in Miami on Thursday, and it could be that warm again for the Winter Classic, so extra air conditioning units are being brought in to help lower the temperature further.<\/p>\n
The average low in Miami around New Year\u2019s Day is in the 60s. Humidity, the biggest challenge to ice, is usually low in the region in the winter months.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it\u2019s 80 degrees, which probably isn\u2019t good for ice,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cBut at night? It\u2019s good. This place deserves an outdoor game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayer said an announcement is coming soon regarding a major act performing an hourlong concert outside loanDepot park before the Winter Classic, and the 2026 Enterprise NHL Pregame will be a fan fest held just outside the ballpark.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a sports bucket list experience,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cIt starts from the second they park their car. The second they arrive, fans are going to be hit with a giant fan fest. \u2026 You could spend 10 minutes or two hours here. We have some really cool plans, and it will be an experience from the moment you get here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The field will be completely transformed. One half will represent Florida\u2019s beach and water culture, with the other depicting a more traditional Winter Classic setting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be winter meets summer, fire meets ice, hot meets cold,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cImagine left field from third base to home plate, that\u2019s summer. That\u2019s the beach, that\u2019s Miami. Everything from right field, first base to home plate, that\u2019s winter. That\u2019s the cold. There is going to be this cool dynamic. \u2026 With the mix of the two, we\u2019re going to have some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
A number of Panthers players have been to the ballpark for Marlins games and are looking forward to seeing how the venue is turned into a house of hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stadium itself looks awesome, and when it\u2019s dark, you can see the Miami skyline from the windows,\u201d center Anton Lundell said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a super-cool place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was watching a baseball game there and could not picture a hockey game, but I know it is going to be great. This is going to be my first time playing in a Winter Classic, and it\u2019s cool that we are going to make some history by doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayer said both the Lightning and Panthers had been clamoring to play in an outdoor game, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-331236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}