2026 Winter Classic taking shape as ‘quite the Florida celebration’ in Miami

The infield at loanDepot park in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami was resplendent Thursday morning.

But in a few weeks, the baseball diamond at the home of Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins will begin to disappear. The NHL will be transforming this ballpark in the tropics into a winter wonderland for the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 2, when the Florida Panthers will face the New York Rangers in the first NHL outdoor game in Florida (8 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SNW, SNO, SNE, TVAS).

“We feel like we are at a great stage to put on this year’s Winter Classic in Miami,” NHL president of content and events Steve Mayer said while sitting in the outfield Thursday. “It’s going to be great.”

As NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said at the Winter Classic last season at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, playing an outdoor game near downtown Miami is “a little unusual.” The Commissioner said this while on the TNT pregame show outside the ballpark, with everyone bundled up against the cold.

Parkas and ski caps do not figure to be the attire of choice for the game in Miami.

“This is an incredible opportunity. These outdoor games are so much fun,” Florida forward Brad Marchand said. “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. 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.”

The Winter Classic will be the first of two outdoor games in the Sunshine State within a month. On Feb. 1, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins will face off at Raymond James Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series.

The two games will celebrate the massive growth of hockey in the state as well as the huge success of the NHL’s two Florida teams.

The Lightning have won the Stanley Cup three times (2004, 2020, 2021). The Panthers are the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and have been to the Stanley Cup Final each of the past three seasons.

The past six Stanley Cup Finals have featured either the Lightning (2020-22) or the Panthers (2023-25).

“I remember when Florida came into the League (for the 1993-94 season), and where the game is right now in Florida,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Look at the sheer number of people who will be at these two games here in Florida. There will be a lot of Panthers fans, a lot of Lightning fans, and everyone is going to get a little taste of the growth of our game here.

“I think that's awesome. There are four Stanley Cups in the last handful of years sitting down here.”

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.

“This is a hotbed, in many different ways,” Mayer said. “Miami has become such a hockey town. … This is quite the Florida celebration for the NHL and outdoor games.”

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’s mound.

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’s sparkling skyline to the east opened up as well.

“Over the years, we have refined the making of ice to the point where it is quite the science,” Mayer said. “We are comfortable building it in this climate. The game will be played in an open-air stadium. … There are zero plans not to open it.”

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.

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.

The average low in Miami around New Year’s Day is in the 60s. Humidity, the biggest challenge to ice, is usually low in the region in the winter months.

“Right now, it’s 80 degrees, which probably isn’t good for ice,” Mayer said. “But at night? It’s good. This place deserves an outdoor game.”

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.

“This is a sports bucket list experience,” Mayer said. “It starts from the second they park their car. The second they arrive, fans are going to be hit with a giant fan fest. … 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.”

The field will be completely transformed. One half will represent Florida’s beach and water culture, with the other depicting a more traditional Winter Classic setting.

“It’s going to be winter meets summer, fire meets ice, hot meets cold,” Mayer said. “Imagine left field from third base to home plate, that’s summer. That’s the beach, that’s Miami. Everything from right field, first base to home plate, that’s winter. That’s the cold. There is going to be this cool dynamic. … With the mix of the two, we’re going to have some fun.”

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.

“The stadium itself looks awesome, and when it’s dark, you can see the Miami skyline from the windows,” center Anton Lundell said. “It’s just a super-cool place.

“I 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’s cool that we are going to make some history by doing so.”