An outdoor hockey game is coming to Charlotte thanks to Checkers, Knights
An outdoor hockey game is coming to Charlotte.
The Charlotte Checkers and Charlotte Knights announced on Tuesday that Truist Field — home of the city’s minor league baseball team that has truly transformed into a “multi-purpose facility” in recent years — will be home to the Queen City Winter Classic on Jan. 13.
The event will pit the Rochester Americans against the Checkers during the 2023-24 American Hockey League’s regular season.
The event will mark a bunch of history: It will feature the first time the Checkers have participated in an outdoor game, and it’ll also be the first outdoor hockey game played in the city of Charlotte.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Dan Rajkowski, the Charlotte Knights’ chief operating officer. “We saw what ice skating and hockey and the brand brought last year to Truist Field, and we are just looking forward to doing this event.”
What Rajkowski referred to was part of the “Light The Knights Festival” — an annual holiday-season month-long event where Truist Field has a regulation-size ice rink, a six-lane 150-foot snow tubing hill and more. The third iteration of the event happened this past December.
There have been 11 outdoor games in American Hockey League history to date. This also won’t be the first professional hockey game in North Carolina: The Carolina Hurricanes played an outdoor contest at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh in February — a game that attracted a crowd of nearly 57,000 and was deemed a financial success for the NHL, Carolina Hurricanes and N.C. State.
The Checkers held a practice at Truist Field in December. It was a relatively warm day, but the ice held up well and community attendance was encouraging, officials said.
And Checkers players and coaches? They love any chance to play outside — and they are looking forward to the winter event.
“My husband is an ex-professional player, and he could speak to that,” Tera Black, chief operating officer of the Charlotte Checkers said. “Their dads would freeze the backyard, and these guys would get up at seven, eight in the morning and play outside all day long. It’s a remarkable experience. Until you’ve done it, or even just skated out in the Light the Knights or just outside, it’s just fun. It feels like you’re part of something bigger.”
Some logistics for the Charlotte event:
▪ Truist Field is considered the “perfect” venue for this event, Black said on Tuesday, adding, “How about the backdrop skyline?” Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Football Club, could be another venue option for this event should it go well and wanted to be done again. Several outdoor hockey games have been played in football stadiums — including the 2014 New Year’s Day game at Michigan Stadium that drew nearly 110,000 people.
▪ The rink will be built where the infield normally is. That means an improved view for fans seated along the base lines and behind home plate — where the bulk of seating is in Truist Field — but it also means ripping up the stadium infield. The positive? The infield will be due for a makeover by then, Rajkowski said: “The big expense is tearing up the field, and we did that last year. This will be more intensive because we’re going to the infield. But it’s a good time to replace an infield that hasn’t been replaced in a few years.”
▪ Tickets will go on sale at a later date. Black said that they will be “affordable” and that she imagines the event will sell out quickly. Visit the Checkers website for more information.
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 1:38 PM.
