The wait is almost over. The Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets will be playing an important hockey game on March 1 at Ohio Stadium for the 2025 NHL Stadium Series. On Tuesday, we got our first glimpse inside the stadium as the league has started their preparations for the game.
A group of around 100 people will be working around the clock to make sure everything is in order down to the finest details. They will be working from a detailed production schedule and with multiple departments to ensure the ice is ready to go for the big game.
On Tuesday afternoon, Derek King and Mike Craig both met with the media to talk about where things stand as they begin the setup inside Ohio Stadium. They both have the same position as NHL Senior Director, facilities operations.
Among the discussion points, they laid out what this week’s schedule will look like. They also talked about what their ideal conditions will be come gameday and more.
The Upcoming Schedule
Both King and Craig spoke about the importance of being ahead of schedule. This allows them to make sure things are done timely while accounting for possible unforeseen circumstances should they arise.
The ice as you can imagine is the biggest thing. It has to be NHL caliber. It also has to be ready in time for when practices take place.
“It’s going to be a lot of time and really paying attention to the finer details,” King said. “The next few days until Friday, we’ll be putting all the piping together, putting down the floor, putting down dasher boards. Slots will go in. Then we’ll start making ice Friday night. That’s kind of a seven day build for us and we’d like to be ahead of schedule. Practice day for the team is practice day for us. It’s paying attention to those finer details for us.”
One of the first looks inside Ohio Stadium. #CBJ pic.twitter.com/SKVna2uOjN
— Mark Scheig (@mark_scheig) February 18, 2025
Before they can start making the ice, they have to finish the floor. When we arrived on Tuesday afternoon, a lot of the floor inside Ohio Stadium was in place. Here’s what they’ll do between now and Friday.
“Until Thursday evening, we should be finishing our build with the floor. Friday, we’ll have the dasherboards going up, and then if we’re on schedule, we’ll be making ice Friday evening. That’ll take us up to a big day for us will be the 24th, 25th where we’ll paint the floor white. All the hockey markings, lines and logos will go on on the 25th, and then we get ready for the 27th, 28th for the first skate.”
Ideal Conditions
Very early indications of the weather forecast for March 1 suggest the daytime temperature will be in the low-mid 40s. With the game slated to start after 6 P.M. Columbus time, the sun will have set. It will just be a matter of if other weather conditions play a role in the game.
King and Craig were asked what their idea weather conditions would be. They have encountered several less than ideal instances over the course of time when preparing for previous outdoor games. They are confident they will be ready no matter what Ohio tries to throw at them.
“We’ve seen a lot over the last few years. We just wake up in the morning and we see what mother nature has for us. When we’re building ice, if we have sun during the day, we’ll obviously cover the sheet. Then we’ve got a lot of other things that we can work on during the day. And then once the sun’s off the field, we’ll uncover it and build overnight. If we do get rain, we’ll freeze the rain that we can freeze. That helps us to build ice. If it snows, we’ll remove the snow, and we just adapt with what we get.”
Ideally, having a temperature around freezing is the most ideal scenario for the NHL.
“A lot of cloud cover throughout the day and sitting at about 32 degrees, it’s great for us. We can control whatever we need to out there. It’s very comfortable for the fans that come and just make it a great experience. We’ll be ready for anything that comes our way.”
Two refrigeration trucks have arrived at Ohio Stadium. They are located on the east side of the stadium. They will be responsible for making sure the ice is ready to go no matter what weather comes their way.
Setup is Unique
King and Craig said that building in Ohio Stadium is unique. The main reason for that is the number of fans expected to attend the game.
Accounting for staging and blocking off some seats as a result, it’s not out of the question to see over 80,000 fans for the game. This will impact how the setup is built.
“The setup’s a little bit different just as far as the access to the field. But what’s different is the volume of seats. What doesn’t get old with these events is being a part of something unique like this and being just in front of all these many people and getting to be a part of that. That’s the one of the unique things about the building for sure.”
In about a week’s time, most of the setup will be completed. A lot is going to happen over these next 10 days to make sure that this Stadium Series game is one that will be remembered for a long time.