NHL

NFL Buccaneers Hand Off Stadium to NHL Lightning; Tampa Bay Prepares for First Outdoor Game

If all goes to plan, the NHL expects to have the rink built in four days. Making the ice ready for the game should take seven days.
NFL Buccaneers Hand Off Stadium to NHL Lightning; Tampa Bay Prepares for First Outdoor Game
An aerial view from the Monster.com blimp shows Raymond James Stadium, the site of Super Bowl XXXV, in Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 24, 2001. Andy Lyons/Allsport
Donald Laible
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It’s out with the NFL Buccaneers, temporarily, and in with the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning at Raymond James Stadium in Florida on Feb. 1.

The hockey game will be played at the 75,000-seat NFL stadium along Tampa’s North Dale Mabry Highway, with a sheet of ice measuring 200 feet long by 85 feet wide—standard NHL regulation size—covered by a climate-controlled tent.

Donald Laible
Donald Laible
Author
Don has covered pro baseball for several decades, beginning in the minor leagues as a radio broadcaster in the NY Mets organization. His Ice Chips & Diamond Dust blog ran from 2012-2020 at uticaod.com. His baseball passion surrounds anything concerning the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and writing features on the players and staff of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Don currently resides in southwest Florida.