The Milwaukee Admirals will play their first-ever outdoor game when they take on the Iowa Wild in Hastings, Minnesota, as part of the 20th annual Hockey Day Minnesota in January.
The eight-day, statewide hockey celebration will feature an outdoor professional hockey game for the first time when the Admirals and Wild face off at the United Heroes League complex in Hastings, a city of about 22,000 residents 30 miles southeast of Minneapolis, at 5 p.m. on Jan. 23.
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“It’s a really cool opportunity to be asked to play in one of these,” Milwaukee Admirals President Jon Greenberg told Milwaukee Magazine. “We’ve been hoping that somebody in our area would ask us to play in an outdoor game before we are able to host one ourselves, which is certainly on our radar moving forward. When the phone call came for this game, it was easiest ‘yes’ I’ve had in a long time.”
Hockey Day Minnesota originated in 2007 with the Minnesota Wild, the NHL parent club of the Iowa Wild, to celebrate the hockey’s deep connection to the state. It is produced in partnership with Bally Sports North, Minnesota Hockey and the respective local community that serves as host each year. Baudette Bay served as host the first two years, with Shakopee hosting the 2025 event earlier this year.
“Hockey Day Minnesota is an iconic celebration of hockey and community spirit,” American Hockey League President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Howson said. “We are thrilled and honored to be part of this year’s event in Hastings.”
This will also mark the first outdoor game in Iowa Wild history and the 13th outdoor game played in the 90-year history of the AHL.
“This once-in-a-lifetime event will create lasting memories for our players and fans,” Iowa Wild General Manager Matt Hendricks said.
The Admirals have been pushing to host an outdoor game in Milwaukee for several years, Greenberg said. That’s something that he hopes will come to fruition once American Family Field, the home of the Milwaukee Brewers, undergoes a planned winterization project.
“We’d really like to be able to do one,” Greenberg said. “The winterization project at American Family Field is a real good step in that direction. We’ve been talking with the Brewers about this for many years and the answer was always the same – that the building wasn’t winterized. I know they’ve mentioned other events that they can host, and hockey was on the list. We’re hoping we can be part of that when the time comes.”
The Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District Board in January approved nearly $30 million in upgrades to American Family Field, including a winterization project that will enable the stadium to host events year-round. The project is expected to start after this year’s Milwaukee Brewers season and could take more than one off-season to complete. Brewers officials have said that winterization of the ballpark will provide the Brewers with an opportunity to host major events in the winter, including hockey, basketball, concerts, wrestling, and monster truck shows, among other events.
Playing a regular-season game with the American Family Field roof open would be ideal, Greenberg said.
“We would love to have it be opened,” Greenberg said. “When you are playing an outdoor game, you want it to be as outdoor as it can be.”
Greenberg said he hasn’t had a chance to speak with any Admirals players about this coming season’s outdoor game in Minnesota, but the team’s coaches are “all fired up” about the opportunity.
“A few years ago, we set out to build Minnesota’s greatest outdoor ice rink on our Tradition Veterans Complex here in rural Hastings,” United Heroes League President Shane Hudella. “The response from the hockey community has been incredible and we are extremely excited to serve as the host site for this historic event.”
United Heroes League is a non-profit based in Hastings. The charity assists families of all branches of the military by providing free sports equipment, free youth camps, financial grants to help pay youth sports fees, special experiences, and pro sports tickets so families can enjoy time together before or after deployment.
Playing outdoors will present some unique challenges, Greenberg said. “It’s a matter of dealing with the elements. It’s the weather, the wind,” he said.
The teams are expected to face off at 5 p.m., minutes before the January sunset time in Minnesota.
“If the wind picks up or the snow starts to get heavy, that’ll be a quite a different experience, but for most of these guys, if not all of them, they’ve played outside before, maybe not a competitive game at this level but while growing up wherever in the world they are from,” Greenberg said.
The next step will be designing uniforms for the Admirals and Wild specifically for the outdoor game. “They’ll have a little bit of a throw-back mentality. Things are in motion,” Greenberg said.
The Admirals and Wild will also wear the specially designed jerseys for a matchup the following day at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
