According to a report by Todd Milewski of Badger Extra, the Big Ten is working towards playing outdoor games at Wrigley Field this season following the conclusion of the NHL Winter Classic held in the venue the day earlier. The Winter Classic is scheduled for New Years Eve and will pit the Chicago Blackhawks against the St Louis Blues.
Per Milewski, the men’s teams involved would include the entirety of the conference except for Minnesota. Big Ten men’s hockey is a seven-team league as of mid 2024.
As for Penn State, this would be the second time the NIttany Lions have played an outdoor game, the first coming in 2012 at Citizens Bank Park, Nittany Lions would go on to lose to Neumann 6-3. In terms of neutral site games of note, this would join a noteworthy list, Penn State having played at Madison Square Garden, Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Xcel Energy Center in St Paul and Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
When it comes to playing at Beaver Stadium, that might still be a few years away as the venue undergoes a multi-year renovation project. Nevertheless, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft is on board with the idea of the long desired NHL game in State College.
“Oh, absolutely. I think it’d be amazing in Beaver Stadium,” Kraft told StateCollege.com last year. “If the NHL called me today, I’d be like, Yep, let’s go. I think number one, it would be very cool. I think it’d be great for the NHL, I think it’d be great happy valley and for our fans. I think there’s ways to figure out how our teams could play out there, our hockey culture is really strong. But from a Penn State perspective, we’re all in. We’re still trying to get our arms around what all that entails, right? You’ve got to have all the amenities to do that and winterization will help but yeah, we we’d be very excited to do that with the NHL.”
For now though, Penn State fans might have to settle with a trip to Chicago.
