© Tracey Myers

CHICAGO — The 2025 Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues on New Year’s Eve will mark the second time the NHL’s annual outdoor game is played at Wrigley Field, but this version will be nothing like the first one.

“Those who attended in 2009 are going to get a completely different experience,” NHL senior executive vice president and chief content officer Steve Mayer said Thursday. “Aside from the fact they’re going to watch a hockey game and the Blackhawks are playing in the game, not much will be the same.”

Mayer was at the iconic home of Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs, along with executives from the Blackhawks and Cubs, and former Blackhawks defenseman Chris Chelios, to announce The Frozen Confines: Big Ten Hockey Series, which is slated for Jan. 3-4, four days after the Winter Classic.

It will be a fitting way for the NHL to show how much the Winter Classic and Wrigley Field itself have evolved since 2009.

“We’ve grown. There are so many different things you can do with LED technology, ways we design the field to give elements of staging, it just has a dramatic look,” Mayer said. “There are things we do in the way we bring the teams out, the music we have as part of the games, the presentation, the pyro — there’s so many modern ways to present events and we incorporate them all, outside and everything around the building, as well.

“And this is incredible, this area. From the time a fan comes down to this area, they just know they’re going to be at a big event.”

The rink layout will be similar to what it was in 2009, when the Blackhawks played the Detroit Red Wings. It will have what Mayer called the “first-base-to-third-base configuration,” and it will pretty much be the same due to Wrigley’s sightlines, but the rink will be a little further onto the field, with center ice around where second base would be.

The Frozen Confines will have three Big Ten men’s hockey game and a Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) women’s game. On Jan. 3, Penn State will play Notre Dame and Ohio State will play Michigan. On Jan. 4, the Ohio State and Wisconsin women’s teams will play, as will Wisconsin and Michigan State men. The order of games is pending but start times are set for 5 and 8:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 3 and 5:30 and 9 p.m. ET on Jan. 4.

“People come from all over the country, the world, to see the setting of Wrigley Field and the beauty of it and it’s special. There’s no other venue in the world like it,” Chelios said. “I grew up a Chicago kid so for me this means even more (with) the Big Ten.”

© Tracey Myers

Wrigley itself has gone through plenty of changes since 2009.

“When we played that last Winter Classic, we had a ballpark that was falling down. Literally concrete falling from the upper deck, restrooms that didn’t work, electrical, mechanical and plumbing that didn’t work,” Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney said. “We put $1 billion into the building from ’09 to today and that happened with no public support. Straight, private financing from our owners. To the owners that put $1 billion into Wrigley field to let events like this happen, we have to say thank you.”

The park also has two massive video boards, one in left field and the other in right, that weren’t there in 2009.

“The scoreboards, which make a big difference — we find our fans have to be able to see the broadcast as well, and many times in stadiums or arenas that don’t have the scoreboards like this place has, we bring our own in, so you don’t have to do that anymore,” Mayer said. “Utilizing those technology pieces from a creative standpoint is something we do as well.

“It’s not only about the game. It’s about information. We have our EDGE technology which we like to display during the game, and there’s so many ways to do that. And then there’s some creative elements we’re going to incorporate by using the screens. And we’re going to bring some screens onto the field as a creative device to amplify what we’re doing.”

This is the second time the NHL has played the Winter Classic more than once in the same park; the 2010 and 2023 Winter Classics were played at Fenway Park in Boston.

“We are starting to go back to some places that are iconic that treated us incredibly well the first time we were there,” Mayer said. “One of the challenges, but in this case, I think it’s an easy challenge, is to make it feel and look different. Some of the things we’re talking about and some of the ways we’re going to approach the look, the entertainment, the ancillary events, this is going to be very unique.”