Dodger Stadium hosted members of the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks on Thursday in preparation for their outdoor game to be held at the venue on Jan. 25, 2014. It is the first outdoor NHL game in California.
"Since we came in to take over the Dodgers, about a year and a half ago now, we have worked very hard to restore the brand and maybe polish it up a little, then get on with the all-important work of extending our brand," Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said during Thursday's press conference. "Whenever we can have unique events brough to historic, iconic, one of a kind in the whole world Dodger Stadium, we're very excited to do that."
The 7 p.m. PT game will be a home game for the Kings.
"In Southern California, it works. It's been 20 years of Ducks hockey, 47 years of Kings hockey," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. "We're here because if you look at USA Hockey's figures, the state of California has the seventh-highest number of people playin hockey in the country, and registrations at an all-time high."
The ice rink will run from first base to third base, just above the pitchers mound.
The press box view of the Dodger Stadium rink actually won’t be too bad for Kings-Ducks. (cc: @atvn) pic.twitter.com/PSmbIYaPzc
— James Santelli (@JamesSantelli) September 26, 2013
"No one is going to have the shot that we have, of that great NHL sheet of ice in front of our bleachers, our palm trees and our San Gabriel mountains," Kasten said.