The only time in recorded history that snow fell on Miami was Jan 9, 1977. Nearly 50 years later during the 2026 Winter Classic, snow fell again. Just before the puck dropped at LoanDepot Park, Luis Fonsi took the stage to perform his reggaeton mega-hit “Despacito” the roof opened, and artificial snow began to cascade and blanket the more than 36,000 fans in attendance.
It was one of many surreal sights as the Florida Panthers, who arrived to the stadium two by two in Ferraris and all-white suits a la Miami Vice, took on the New York Rangers in the first ever outdoor hockey game held in the Sunshine State that was also the southernmost National Hockey League contest in history.
The Panthers were never close in the 5-1 defeat, but a lopsided loss for the cats was still a massive win for hockey in South Florida.
The cold-weather sport has seen tremendous growth in Florida, based largely around the success of the state’s two teams, the Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lighting. A Florida-based team has been in each of the last six Stanley Cup Finals and each team has won two cups. Steve Mayer, NHL president of content and events, said it's that success that made an event like the Winter Classic inevitable for the South Florida market.
“ The success of the teams had so much to do with it. Since 2018, the Stanley Cup has pretty much lived in Florida, and we just kept on talking about it and then we got a lot more comfortable with the ice build,” he said.
Read More: How do you keep ice from melting in Miami? NHL prepares for first outdoor game in Florida
But it was not long ago that hockey in South Florida was an afterthought.
“Oh, [the Panthers] were the laughing stock of the league. For a quarter century, it was a wasteland,“ Dave Hyde, a sports columnist for the South Florida Sun Sentinel told WLRN in June as the team geared up for their third consecutive Stanley Cup finals.
“They used to give tickets away for free. They'd put them in some coffee shop or restaurant near the arena, and fans knew they could just go get them,” he said.
Those days are seemingly long gone. At the team’s low point in the 2014-2015 season, average attendance was just over 11,000. Today, it's nearly doubled. The team has sold out of season tickets each of the last three seasons, and TV viewership is estimated to be up 170%. When the Panthers celebrated their second Stanley Cup win with a parade on Fort Lauderdale Beach, attendance estimates ranged from 220,000 to nearly half a million people.
Panthers winger Brad Marchand, who spent more than 15 seasons with the Boston Bruins before being acquired via trade last year, says the fan atmosphere has completely changed.
“ The amount of love for this game that has grown here is pretty incredible. You used to come down here and a lot of opposing teams would kind of take over the building, and now it doesn't matter where you go, the fan support is unbelievable,” he said.
It's not just the team seeing a bump in popularity, the sport itself is more popular than it ever has been in South Florida.
“ From when I came here two and a half years ago, the youth hockey rinks have doubled, or tripled in the amount of people that are constantly there," said Panthers winger Evan Rodrigues. “No matter which rink you go to now they're all jammed.”
From 2020-2025, USA Hockey reports that participation in Florida is up 46.8% overall and 67.9% for players 10 years old or younger. The NHL’s Learn to Play initiative, which exposes children between the ages of five and nine to the sport, has seen a more than 33% increase since 2023 in the state.
Currently 11 active NHL players are from Florida, but Rodrigues thinks that number will go up soon.
“You'll have more kids playing and more local grown talents staying down here instead of having to move to Minnesota, move to Michigan, Boston, wherever it may be to continue their career. Especially in the next five to 10 years, you're gonna see a lot more players coming from the state,” he said.
Up next, Florida’s other team gets their outdoor game when the Tampa Bay Lightning host the Boston Bruins in the NHL’s Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium on Feb 1.
