There are four NHL teams that have yet to play in, or to be promised, an outdoor game. The four are the Arizona Coyotes, the Florida Panthers, the Seattle Kraken and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
One of those teams is not like the others.
The Coyotes have had trouble paying rent in their old indoor arena, and now they’re having trouble getting a new one built. They shouldn’t even think about peering outside into a desert.
The heat and humidity in South Florida can be overcome. The bigger problem is that, historically, the Panthers have not been known for sterling management.
The Seattle Kraken joined the league last year, which is to say they don’t even have a history.
The Blue Jackets are in their 21st season, they’ve made the playoffs in five of the previous eight years and they have a responsive fan base. Down the street from Nationwide Arena sits Ohio Stadium, one of the most iconic buildings in the country.
For 20 years, or since the NHL played its first outdoor game in Edmonton, Jackets fans have been wondering why Columbus hasn’t gotten into the league’s queue to host a Winter Classic — or, at least, a Stadium Series game – in The Shoe.
Hockey fans throughout North America, including NHL players generally and Blue Jackets players in particular, have been wondering the same thing. So have football fans.
Match the Jackets with, say, the Detroit Red Wings or the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the league record for an outdoor game — 105,491 at Michigan Stadium in 2014 — would be under threat.
It’s a no-brainer.
“It’s going to happen,” said John Davidson, Blue Jackets president of hockey operations. “I don’t know when, but it’s going to happen.”
The league wants it to happen; outdoor games are big money-makers for the league, not to mention the teams involved.
