An outdoor game in Salt Lake City has long been rumored ever since the day the Utah Hockey Club, now the Utah Mammoth, arrived in town. Owner Ryan Smith has posted a couple of times on X that he was working on getting it done. It was also reported that the NHL had done some research into possibly bringing the iconic Winter Classic event to the Beehive State.
Working on it! https://t.co/A8n8wCbdAh
— Ryan Smith (@RyanQualtrics) January 20, 2025
On Wednesday, it was finally made official. The Mammoth will be hosting the 2027 Winter Classic at Rice-Eccles Stadium, home of the University of Utah Utes’ football team. They will faceoff against the Colorado Avalanche in an outdoor edition of the Rocky Mountain rivalry.
The Mammoth Are Heading Outdoors
An outdoor game in Salt Lake City is like a match made in heaven. A cold and snowy city with a stadium right in front of the iconic Wasatch Front. It was bound to happen. For a guy like Logan Cooley, he’s excited to play in the cold. The forward is hoping for lots of snow.
“Being outside, you see the mountains in the background,” Cooley said. “As a player, I hope it’s pretty cold, and there’s a lot of snow. I don’t want to be a lot of plays out there. I want it to be you’re just pushing the pucks.”
Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, did promise NHL commissioner Gary Bettman perfect weather for the event. 26 degrees to be exact.
All jokes aside, the Winter Classic at Rice-Eccles Stadium will be the 18th edition of the event. It will be the first outdoor game in Mammoth franchise history. The team’s appearance will make it so that all 32 NHL franchises have participated in an outdoor game.
Related: Utah Mammoth Focused on Winning at Madison Square Garden Despite Excitement
“It was a long time coming for some franchises, but for this franchise, long overdue,” Bettman said. “The circumstances and the ownership in the community have made it right. In the very early discussions I had with Ryan (Smith) about the possibility of a franchise here, the thing that impressed me most was that he was focused on big things for Utah. What could they do to make a difference, to bring big things to a Utah franchise? Obviously, the Olympics, what’s going on and going to go on downtown, are all part of big things. But this is a big thing, and we’re happy to share it with the members of the NHL family that now reside in Utah.”
This will be the Avalanche’s fourth-ever outdoor game. They have a 1-2-0 record in the outdoors, most recently appearing in the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe event against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Avalanche won that game 3-2.
The #WinterClassic is headed to Utah! 🦣
The @utahmammoth will face off against the @Avalanche in the 2027 @Discover NHL #WinterClassic! pic.twitter.com/zEBz6uSyOO
— NHL Media (@NHLMedia) January 7, 2026
What You Need to Know About the 2027 Winter Classic
Rice-Eccles Stadium was opened in 1998 and has been the home of the University of Utah’s football team ever since. The building has a capacity of 51,444 and has hosted numerous events like concerts, soccer games, and the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Bettman thinks the NHL will have to bring in some bigger video boards, but other than that, calls the venue a great setup for the event, especially with a great sight line perspective.
“It’s actually going to be really cool because there’s not going to be that much space around the sides and the end zone, which is what people love about this stadium,” Smith said. “It’s like you’re on top of each other, and I think that’s really special.”
An area of concern with holding an event at Rice-Eccles Stadium was alcohol sales. Alcohol is generally not permitted on the premises. However, Utah Executive Director Collin Simmons says that the sale of beer and seltzers will be permitted since the Winter Classic is a private event.
Rice-Eccles Stadium (Kuleralsen, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
Only eight current players on the Mammoth roster have participated in an outdoor game. That includes Ian Cole, who has played in two (2017 Stadium Series with the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2020 Stadium Series with the Avalanche). John Marino is the most recent player to make an appearance in the outdoors (2024 Stadium Series with the New Jersey Devils), while Olli Määttä has the longest drought of an appearance in an outdoor game, last playing in the 2014 Stadium Series with the Penguins. Nate Schmidt was a healthy scratch in two outdoor games, so barring any unforeseeable events, he will finally play in one.
The players, especially the ones who have never played in the outdoors, are very excited to be a part of the Winter Classic. Cooley, who has never played in an outdoor game, grew up watching the Winter Classic, having fond memories of when his hometown team Penguins, played the first one against the Buffalo Sabres. He hasn’t skated outside since he was four or five years old, so he’s really looking forward to skating in the snow.
“As a little kid, you always watch the Winter Classic, especially around the holidays,” Cooley said. “You always imagine yourself being out there and to be in this position and have the chance to play in the Winter Classic in Utah with the support of our fans, I’m looking forward to it.”
Another tradition is that both teams wear unique jerseys for the event. Bettman says the jerseys are yet to be designed. Bettman did say the current Mammoth jerseys are “spectacular,” and the league will have to take it up a notch with the Winter Classic jersey.
The Winter Classic and all NHL outdoor games are an ultimate celebration of the sport of hockey and are ultimately one of the biggest stages to play. There’s a reason why Smith talked to Bettman about it even before the Mammoth were in Utah. To host an event like the Winter Classic is a sign of a thriving and supportive market, which Utah has definitely been, selling out every home game since the team’s inaugural one.
“I hope it’s a great experience for the fans, the whole city,” Cooley said. “I think as a group, that’s something that we’re looking forward to playing in, having the support of our fans here, being in Utah, at this stadium, I can’t wait. It makes me want to go out and play right now, looking at the field.”
To bring an outdoor game to Utah is a celebration of hockey’s fast growth in the state and the fans who have supported the team ever since the beginning. Utah is one of the ultimate outdoor states in the country. It feels right for the Mammoth to get one of the NHL’s marquee events so soon.
“We live in the mountains, so it’s what we breathe,” owner Ashley Smith said. “It’s very authentic to us and to all of Utah…We’re not just watching a game; half of the game is our fan base. Half of the game is watching what’s happening in the stands. I think it’s just really authentic to what our fans deserve. It feels exciting to us to say you deserve this, you’ve earned this in a very short amount of time, but also to open our mountains up to the world.”
The date and the time of the game are yet to be determined, though most Winter Classics have taken place on Dec. 31, Jan. 1, or Jan. 2. Tickets will also be released at a later date. This year’s Winter Classic was played in Miami at LoneDepot Park between the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers. The Rangers won the game 5-1.
