We Said a Miami Winter Classic Would Work for Years. Here It Is

On Jan. 1, 2010, the Florida Panthers beat writer for the Miami Herald wrote a piece on the On Frozen Pond blog pitching the idea that the NHL could someday find a home for its annual Winter Classic at the new ballpark being built in Miami.

Yes, Miami.

It was brushed off as a silly idea for years, but it was an idea that I brought up quite a bit.

Too much? Maybe.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman shot down the idea as “ridiculous” each time I brought it up.

Only lately, the idea of actually playing outdoor hockey in Miami caught on with the NHL.

And here we are.

On Friday night, the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers will skate out onto ice at LoanDepot Park — the home of the Miami Marlins — for the 2026 NHL Winter Classic.

It will be the first outdoor game to be held in the Sunshine State but it will not be the last.

On Feb. 1, the Tampa Bay Lightning will also play outdoors against the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium.

It is a celebration of the Sunshine State of Hockey.

As Paul Maurice notes, between the Panthers and Lightning, “you have four Stanley Cups down here.’’

“Two outdoor games in Florida is bold, it’s audacious,’’ Bettman said.

“It’s an attempt to do something special for the fans in Florida who haven’t had an outdoor game. Some people have suggested that we’re crazy, but I don’t think we are.”

In 2010, more than two years before the Marlins played their first game at their new ballpark in Little Havana, I pointed out that the Winter Classic could find itself running out of venues that would excite fans.

This was before the NHL came up with the ‘Stadium Series,’ which included NFL stadiums.

In 2010, it was mostly ballparks being used for the Winter Classic.

There are only so many of them.

And, only one in Miami.

From my Herald piece in 2010: There are only a few places you can hold the Winter Classic. Baseball parks up north (Yankee/Shea Stadium, Busch Stadium, the new Twins Park, SkyDome, etc.) and college football stadiums not being used. …

They are going to be looking for unique places to hold the game. Don’t you think an outdoor hockey game in MIAMI would bring a ton of national and international attention to the game? For sure it would.

And with the roof, it could work.

You close the roof at the stadium and turn on the AC. You put down the rink two weeks before the game, get a good ice sheet going. Then, you open up the roof for a few hours. If it’s too hot the day before, you keep it closed for practice, opening it up only for the game. Even if it was a day like today, a good sheet of ice could keep if only for a few hours of hockey.

Sure, it would take away from the Winter Wonderland that the Winter Classic has become — and doesn’t Fenway look awesome today? — but that would be cool.

Hockey with a Little Havana flair.

Let’s do this.

So, I wasn’t wrong.

The NHL has closed up the roof, cranked down the air, and is making ice at the ballpark where the Orange Bowl once stood.

The Marlins’ retractable roof will be open for the game — with temperatures perhaps being in the 50s at game time and a zero percent chance of rain.

With the game being played at night there is no worry about glare of the sun on the ice, nor the heat of the sun affecting the playing surface.

Thursday afternoon, both the Panthers and Rangers got to practice on the Miami ice.

Maurice praised it.

“It’s going to be awesome,’’ Maurice said. “First off, the ice was fantastic. We didn’t hold back on that. … That’s a big jump. I don’t know how they pulled it off.’’

When asked by Florida Hockey Now before Game 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final about conversations between the Panthers and Marlins, Bettman said he had not visited the ballpark yet, but added he certainly liked the idea that it “has a roof and is air conditioned.’’

Bettman did tour the facility and was obviously impressed enough to bring the Winter Classic to the tropics.

“Stanley Cups, strings of sellouts, and the exponential growth of youth and high school hockey throughout the state have demonstrated that Florida is a hockey hotbed,’’ Bettman said when the two outdoor games were announced.

“Outdoor NHL games in the Sunshine State? Never let it be said that our league isn’t willing to accept a challenge.’’

Last week, Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper cracked that all it took for the NHL to come to Florida was have the two teams play in six straight Stanley Cup Finals.

No doubt winning helped changed the mind of the league.

If the Lightning and Panthers were bottom feeders as they both have been in their histories, this would not be happening.

Only the Panthers and Lightning are among the most successful organizations in professional sports.

The Panthers have won South Florida over; the Lightning did that in the Tampa area years ago.

The NHL is bringing outdoor hockey to Miami and Tampa not only because the optics are going to be off-the-charts cool, but because both teams are popular and have helped spur large-scale growth of the game in Florida.

Friday’s event in Little Havana will not hurt that popularity one bit.

“This is an incredible opportunity,’’ Brad Marchand said. “These outdoor games are so much fun and I have been lucky enough to have played in a few of them now.

“Those are some of the best memories that we will ever have as a team. A lot of things can go wrong in games like these, but that’s just part of the whole experience, and you have to embrace it. We’re going to be the first teams to play an outdoor game in Florida. How cool is that? It’s going to be a really special time, and we’re going to have a lot of fun together, and there will be incredible memories, not just for us as a team, but for our families and the fans.”

ON DECK: GAME No. 40

THE 2026 NHL WINTER CLASSIC

NEW YORK RANGERS at FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Friday; 8 p.m.
• Where: LoanDepot Park, Miami
• National TV: TNT/truTV (US); Sportsnet/TVA (Canada)
• Streaming: HBO Max
• Radio: WQAM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 931 or 932, NHL App
• Last Season vs. Rangers: Panthers Won 2-1
• This Season vs. Rangers — At Panthers: Winter Classic; April 13. At Rangers: March 29.
• All-time Regular Season Series: Rangers lead 62-36-8, 6 ties
• Postseason History: Rangers won 4-1 (1997, 1st round); Panthers won 4-2 (2024 ECF)
• Up Next for the Panthers: Sunday vs. Colorado Avalanche, 5 p.m.