Wisconsin hockey teams to play at Wrigley Field next season, sources say (2024)

It has been 11 years since the last University of Wisconsin men's hockey outdoor game. The Badgers women have played only one, and it was in 2010.

The pace of outdoor college hockey events has slowed since the 2010s but the Badgers could be part of a new undertaking.

Both Wisconsin hockey teams are part of a Big Ten endeavor focused on playing games at Wrigley Field after the venerable home of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs hosts the NHL Winter Classic in the upcoming season.

The conference hasn't announced details but the plans being discussed, sources said, include three Big Ten men's hockey games and one women's hockey contest involving Big Ten schools Wisconsin and Ohio State.

The men's teams involved, sources said, include Wisconsin, Michigan State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State. Minnesota is the odd one out from the seven-team men's hockey conference.

Dates for the games haven't been confirmed but are likely in the first days of January 2025.

Wrigley Field is scheduled to host an NHL Winter Classic for the second time when the Chicago Blackhawks play the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 31. It was the second Winter Classic venue on Jan. 1, 2009, when the Detroit Red Wings beat Chicago 6-4 and former Badgers defenseman Brian Rafalski scored the winning goal on a 32-degree day.

The Badgers men have played neutral-site games in Chicago before, including one outdoors. They defeated No. 2 Minnesota 3-2 at Soldier Field on Feb. 17, 2013, in the Hockey City Classic in front of an announced crowd of 52,051.

The other two Badgers men's hockey outdoor games in the team's modern era — it routinely played outdoors in the early days of the program before it went on hiatus in 1935 — were in Wisconsin. They downed Ohio State 4-2 at Green Bay's Lambeau Field on Feb. 11, 2006, with an announced crowd of 40,890. The crowd was listed as 55,031 when the Badgers overcame Michigan at Camp Randall Stadium on Feb. 6, 2010.

"Life experiences are what these young men are after when they come to a university like Wisconsin," Badgers coach Mike Hastings said in February when asked about the potential for another outdoor game.

"That's a lifelong experience. That's something you can remember forever. So from a coach's perspective, I'm on board if that's something that became an opportunity."

The Wisconsin women's hockey team also played at Camp Randall Stadium in 2010, beating Bemidji State 6-1.

Outdoor games were a college hockey fad in the 2010s: There were 36 outdoor Division I men's hockey games in the decade. There have been only five since the start of 2020. Hastings was involved in one of them at Minnesota State, which hosted St. Thomas at its football stadium in January 2022.

The NHL has a mobile refrigeration unit to maintain outdoor ice at multiple venues each season. It has provided an opportunity for college games around the pro contest at Boston's Fenway Park, Air Force's Falcon Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium, Pittsburgh's Heinz Field and Denver's Coors Field in the past decade.

The Chicago location is a natural one for the Big Ten, which has its headquarters in the suburb of Rosemont and has a heavy marketing presence in the area. The Big Ten Network operates out of studios less than four miles away from Wrigley Field.

Two of its men's hockey schools — Wisconsin and Notre Dame — are less than 150 miles away from the stadium.