Building Ice in the Sunshine State: Behind the Scenes of Tampa’s Outdoor NHL Game
WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. - As crews hustle to transform Raymond James Stadium into a hockey venue for Sunday’s outdoor showdown between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins, the buzz around the bay isn’t just about the game-it’s about the ice.
Yes, ice. In Florida.
It’s taken years for the NHL to greenlight an outdoor game in Tampa, and now that it’s happening, the challenge of building and maintaining a playable sheet of ice in a subtropical climate is front and center. And while the league has its top-tier ice technicians on the job, a pair of local experts know a thing or two about keeping ice solid in the Sunshine State.
Meet Kevin Gibson and Tyler Urba-two guys who live and breathe ice maintenance at AdventHealth Center Ice in Wesley Chapel, the largest ice facility in the Southeast. Between five rinks and a packed schedule of hockey, figure skating, and curling, their days are anything but chill.
“Most of it is during the days, just trying to keep it level,” said Urba, the Operations Coordinator. “You don’t want to keep it too thick because it gets harder to cool. It doesn’t make for a good skating surface.”
That balancing act is a daily grind. And it got even tougher after Hurricane Milton knocked out power and melted all five sheets of ice. For Gibson, the Facility Operations Coordinator, it was a gut punch.
“We actually did the rink to my left. We did.
It looked beautiful. We were all done.
We went to another rink. We started on that one.
And all of a sudden we lost this one. So we had to redo this one,” Gibson said.
Still, the crew bounced back, as they always do. And now, even as they manage a tournament this weekend at Center Ice, they’re keeping an eye on the progress at Raymond James Stadium. For guys who understand the science and sweat behind ice-making, what’s happening in Tampa is nothing short of remarkable.
“To be able to do that down here especially, is an incredible thing,” Urba said.
Gibson echoed the sentiment but pointed to one major concern: water.
“The only thing I think, as far as being difficult, is if we got rain or water. Because water, that’s worse than humidity sometimes,” he said. “Other than that I think they’ll pull it off and I think it will be awesome for the Tampa Bay area.”
While they won’t be in the stands for the Lightning-Bruins game-they’ll be working their own ice tournament just up the road-the pride is there. Because for folks like Gibson and Urba, who keep ice alive in Florida year-round, this outdoor game isn’t just a novelty. It’s a statement.
Ice hockey belongs in Tampa. And yes, even outdoors.