Stadium Series in Tampa getting ’real now’

TAMPA -- With the sounds of construction in the background and the sun beaming down on Raymond James Stadium, Tampa Bay Lightning CEO Steve Griggs said he couldn't think of a better place to hold an outdoor NHL game.

"This is real now. We can see the structure here," Griggs said. "It's been 10-15 years in the making. We thank the NHL. We thank the Tampa Sports Authority and Tampa Bay Sports Commission for really making it happen.”

It's happening alright. The 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series between the Lightning and Boston Bruins on Feb. 1 (6:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS) is just over a week away, and it will be unlike all previous outdoor games.

Instead of building the rink and putting down ice in chilly, outdoor conditions, the NHL had to figure out a way to make ice in the summer-like temperatures at the home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which does not have a roof.

Even when the NHL hosted the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic in Miami on Jan. 2, it was able to keep the roof at loanDepot park closed until game time.

Not so in Tampa, where the NHL is erecting a massive, air-conditioned tent that will stay over the rink until a few hours before puck drop. The skeleton of that structure was visible on Thursday.

"I walked in today having arrived last night and went, 'Wow," said Steve Mayer, NHL president of content and events. "I mean, what we're doing and how we had to engineer this is extremely unique.

“These were people that never wanted to hear ‘no,’ and 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're off and running and I can't believe we're just a few short days away."

It will be some weekend in Tampa. In addition to the first outdoor NHL game in the city, the annual Gasparilla pirate fest will be held the day before, on Jan. 31.

“This is really a celebration of hockey wrapped around Gasparilla,” Griggs said. “There's gonna be [close to] 64,000 fans here in the building and they're hockey fans. Getting it here took us a while, but this is to celebrate hockey and celebrate the great fans we have here in Tampa Bay."

Even things are looking good from a weather standpoint. Though temperatures are expected to be unseasonably warm this weekend (85 degrees Fahrenheit), the week of the game is expected to be one of the coolest of the year. A cold front will be coming in late next week that could bring rain, but it's likely to be clear hours before the teams plan to take the ice at 6:30 p.m. ET and low temperatures are predicted to be in the 40s.

This will be the Lightning's second time in an outdoor game. They beat the Nashville Predators, 3-2, in the 2022 Stadium Series from Nissan Stadium in Nashville. That game saw approximately 25,000 Lightning fans make the trip to Music City, giving Griggs more confidence to push for a game in Tampa.

"10 years of where our organization has been...Stanley Cups...440 consecutive sellouts, and I think about Nashville when we played the outdoor game in Nashville and we had 25,000 fans who went to Nashville to see the game," Griggs said. "I remember it being about 2 o'clock [on Saturday] afternoon looking down Broadway and it was just a sea of Bolts fans.

“So for us, this was about getting it here for our fans. And with the explosion of community hockey here with everybody, all the young kids playing hockey now, where we're at as an organization is the perfect time to have an outdoor game here."

Mayer said the same questions he heard about the NHL attempting an outdoor game in Florida are similar to the ones the League heard over 30 years ago when it announced expansion into the Sunshine State. But the Lightning and Florida Panthers have been two of the most successful teams in the League over the past decade, winning the Stanley Cup a combined four times and reaching the Cup Final seven times since 2015, including the past six in a row.

"In a world where these special events get a lot of attention, we're finding that these games in Florida are not only reaching hockey fans, but they're reaching sports fans," Mayer said. "We're doing it for all the right reasons. We're celebrating, as Steve pointed out, hockey here in Tampa and all the success they've had. This is awesome and for every right reason in the world we're playing the game in Florida."