Industry News

Westpac Stadium notches a first for outdoor ice hockey

Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand, is set to become the first outdoor stadium in the southern hemisphere to host a major outdoor ice hockey game.

The Ice Hockey Classic is scheduled to land in New Zealand in June 2018, in which three games will be played between teams from the US and Canada.

Spark Arena in Auckland and the Queenstown Ice Arena will play host to the other two games in the tournament.

The 34,500-capacity Westpac Stadium chief executive, Shane Harmon, said that there would be many challenges and the event would be a first on many levels.

“Building an NHL-sized ice hockey rink on the pitch presents some technical challenges,” Harmon said, according to the Stuff news website.

“The team have a 72-hour turnaround period to build, freeze, unfreeze and dismantle the rink. But we believe it is worth the effort to create such an exciting and innovative event experience for fans.

“Few Kiwis will have experienced a live ice hockey game before so we think it will be very popular, particularly with the calibre of athletes who are expected to compete.”

The series is usually played during the winter months in the US and Canada, and is therefore easier to maintain the ice rink. Although Wellington has notoriously bad winter weather, it is unlikely such cold weather would be in place for the game.