The Tampa Bay Lightning have been pushing for years to host an outdoor game, and now, thanks to a mix of persistence, innovation, and a little bit of travel chaos, it’s finally happening. Next Sunday’s Stadium Series matchup against the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium is more than just a marquee event-it’s the result of a unique collaboration, some serious engineering, and a shared love of the game.
It all started in an airport, of all places. Ryan Hunter and Alex Lentowich, co-CEOs of GNB Global-a Canadian company that specializes in tension fabric buildings-were trying to get home to Winnipeg from Nashville as the COVID pandemic was winding down.
But canceled WestJet flights stranded them in Minneapolis. With no rental cars available, they were stuck.
That’s when fate stepped in.
At the Minneapolis airport, they spotted a group of people wearing backpacks with the NHL shield. For two guys who grew up playing hockey in Canada, that’s an instant conversation starter.
Hunter struck up a chat with Derek King, the NHL’s vice president of facility and hockey operations, who was also headed to Winnipeg. The conversation quickly turned to the challenges of staging outdoor games-especially in unpredictable weather.
“I was like, ‘Hey, if we could ever help, it would be awesome if we could build you a cover to put on the rink,’” Hunter recalled.
Around the same time, the Lightning were preparing for their first outdoor game, set in Nashville in February 2022. But Mother Nature had other plans-central Tennessee was getting hammered with rain in the days leading up to the game, putting the ice build in jeopardy.
The NHL tried everything: stretching cables across the rink, using forklifts, even laying down a pool cover. But wind and weather didn’t cooperate.
Despite those challenges, the Lightning’s debut outdoor appearance was a success. More than 25,000 Tampa Bay fans filled Nissan Stadium, proving that the franchise could draw big in a football venue.
Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, CEO Steve Griggs, and GM Julien BriseBois kept pushing for their own outdoor showcase. But Nashville was a wake-up call for the league-it needed a better, more reliable way to protect the ice in warm-weather markets.
“That’s when we started testing,” said Dean Matsuzaki, the NHL’s executive vice president of events. “We quickly realized that a quick, simple solution wouldn’t work. We needed something a little more structural and sound.”
The league explored inflatable options, but nothing stuck. Then came the lightbulb moment.
After the 2023 Winter Classic at Fenway Park, King was watching helicopters remove light fixtures from the ballpark when he FaceTimed Hunter. “Hey, do you think we can do this with your tent?”
he asked. That kicked off a new phase of planning.
Hunter and his team were invited to Raleigh, N.C., for the 2023 Stadium Series at Carter-Finley Stadium. The goal: design a temperature-controlled tent that could shield the rink from sun, rain, wind, and humidity-without interfering with the ice build.
Initially, the NHL considered using helicopters to assemble the structure, but logistics quickly ruled that out. Weather, airport proximity, and safety concerns made it too risky. That’s when GNB Global came up with a game-changing solution: a 265-foot-long rail system that would allow the trusses to roll on and off, piece by piece, without compromising the rink below.
Raymond James Stadium’s layout helped, too. With entrances in all four corners, the tent could be built from the south end while the ice construction moved in from the north.
Normally, installing a tent like this would take three weeks. GNB Global?
They’re doing it in five days. And when it’s time to take it down, they’ll do it in 6-10 hours-on game day.
The disassembly is set to begin at 6 a.m. next Sunday, with puck drop scheduled between 7:02 and 7:06 p.m. To meet the timeline, GNB Global tripled its usual manpower, putting 25 workers on the job.
“The challenges that we’re all facing-it’s crazy,” Lentowich said. “A lot of people would just say, ‘It can’t be done.’ But we’ve always had the mindset that it can be done.”
That mindset led to a summer full of test runs at GNB’s facility in Rhome, Texas. They simulated the exact conditions of Raymond James, down to the downward leveling of a football field. Rain and wind slowed things down, but the team made key adjustments.
“There was a significant redesign at that point,” said Ryan Widger, GNB’s director of operations. The biggest hurdle?
Creating a foundation that could handle the tent’s uplift without driving supports into the ground. “We made little tweaks along the way just to get everything right.”
This project has taken GNB Global into uncharted territory. They developed a custom hydraulic roller system to pull the massive canvas over the frame-and back off again before the game. They even built a robot that can scale the structure and run lead ropes to help with installation and removal.
“We’ve run through so many scenarios,” Hunter said. “The Lightning can speak to this-you practice and practice, go through your game plan.
We’ve done that. And yeah, maybe we’ll have a few minutes where we’re off our game, but we know the plan.
We can huddle up, make an adjustment, and get back on track.”
So when the puck drops Sunday night under the lights-and under the tent-it won’t just be a celebration of outdoor hockey in a warm-weather city. It’ll be the payoff of years of vision, months of testing, and one very fortunate airport conversation.