Nissan Stadium Becoming a Hockey Rink

The home of the Tennessee Titans will host an NHL Stadium Series game between the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 26.

Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports

The Tennessee Titans always have been willing to share their home with others.

Ever since 1999, when they moved into Nissan Stadium, they have welcomed Tennessee State University’s football team as a secondary tenant. For the past two years, Nashville SC of Major League Soccer also moved in while its permanent home was being built.

Now the venue has become sports world’s version of a short-term rental. For two weeks, the National Hockey League and the Nashville Predators will settle in, and the highlight of their stay will be a game between the Predators and the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, for an NHL Stadium Series contest set for Feb. 26.

Monday, a 53-foot trailer – the Stadium Series Ice Plant – arrived to begin the installation of the playing surface required to hold a hockey game on a football field.

"It's pretty cool to actually be here and to start the work now," NHL senior manager of facilities operations and hockey operations Derek King told NHL.com. "There's a lot of stuff going on, and it's pretty busy, but it's pretty cool to be in Nashville to do this game."

It will take four days to construct the rink before work begins on the sheet of ice, which develops when 3,000 pounds of glycol coolant is pumped into aluminum trays that are carefully positioned on the grass. Then water is sprayed in a fine mist, which requires hundreds of passes, to produce the desired result – a surface that is two inches or more, thicker than a normal indoor surface in order to ensure viability in whatever weather materializes on game day.

Most of the work will be done during the day to avoid the effects of the sun.

"Basically, what we've done is we've taken an indoor NHL facility ice rink," King said, via the Predators’ website. "… We have a pretty hectic schedule, and it's going to be a lot of hours, but we have a really good crew here. A lot of the guys have worked outdoor games before. … Once we get into the ice making, it'll be an 18-hour day for everyone. So, it's going to be some long hours, but it's what we do, and we love what we do."