NHL.com’s Craig Merz reports that the NHL has begun building the rink at Ohio Stadium ahead of March 1st’s Stadium Series meeting between the Red Wings and the Columbus Blue Jackets:
Eighteen degrees with a wind chill of eight are not optimum conditions, but for workers at Ohio Stadium on Tuesday the weather was a reminder that something special is afoot.
They were laying the floor decking over the field of college football’s reigning national champions, the Ohio State Buckeyes, preparing for the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings on March 1 (6 p.m. ET; ESPN, TVAS-D, FX-CA).
“The next few days, until Friday, we’ll be kind of putting all the piping together, putting down the floor, putting down the dash of boards,” NHL senior director, facilities operations Derek King said. “The glass 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 teams (March 28) is practice day for us, so really, it’s paying attention to those finer details.”
The mobile refrigeration units arrived in Columbus on Monday and are parked on the east side of the stadium. While the media toured the operation, a forklift was unloading crates of coolant that will be used to get the ice in prime playing condition.
Mike Craig, who holds the same title as King, gave the ideal conditions for the game.
“If we could [get] a lot of cloud cover throughout the day and sitting at about 32 degrees, it’s great for us,” Craig said. “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.”
Continued, with a time-lapse video of the progress made thus far…
