How Charlotte Checkers and Knights joined forces for an event the Queen City has never seen

Dan Rajkowski knew this was the next step his team could take.

It was December 2014, and the Charlotte Knights’ chief operating officer was walking around with his owner on a sunny day in San Diego, California, during Major League Baseball’s winter meetings.

They’d just gotten lunch and were near Petco Park, where they saw an ice skating rink as part of a holiday-themed winter event at the Padres’ ballpark.

“Beautiful day, must have been 80 degrees,” Rajkowski recalled Tuesday in a phone interview with The Charlotte Observer. “And I said, ‘If they can make ice in San Diego, we sure can do it in Charlotte.”

Less than a decade later, the Charlotte Checkers, the Queen City’s AHL franchise, will host a regular-season game at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Knights’ Truist Field. The matchup against the Rochester Americans will be the first outdoor hockey game in the city of Charlotte.

Tera Black, the Checkers’ COO, remembers initially approaching the Knights’ leadership a decade ago with a simple question: “Have you ever thought about doing an outdoor game?“

“The story to be told here is two teams working together toward a common goal,” Black explained, sitting in her office inside Bojangles Coliseum. “That’s really unique, with Charlotte, is that all the executives of the teams and front offices of all of the sports here are collaborators. In one way or another, we’ve worked with everyone.”

Each year since the Knights moved to uptown Charlotte from Fort Mill, S.C., Black has revisited this conversation with Knights executives. Nothing materialized for different reasons, mostly due to the sheer cost of an outdoor ice rink.

About four years ago, Matt DuBois, the Knights’ marketing director, started ramping up efforts toward putting on an outdoor hockey game. Having grown up in Buffalo, N.Y., he was a lifelong hockey fan, but also had experience working with the business side.

When the Knights put down a skating rink for their “Light the Knights Festival” last holiday season, the Checkers held a practice at Truist Field.

At the time, the practice was held mostly out of curiosity, to see how the ice would even hold up with hockey players skating all over it on a sunny winter day in North Carolina. The ice can be affected by a variety of natural factors, such as ambient air temperature, humidity, wind and sun.

After that practice, Checkers head coach Geordie Kinnear stood next to the ice inside the Knights’ ballpark. He gazed at the backdrop of uptown Charlotte’s skyline. He felt making every effort to play a game on that ice would be a “no-brainer.”

“That’s what makes outdoor games great, you just don’t know what the elements are gonna be,” Kinnear told The Observer after Tuesday’s practice at Bojangles Coliseum. “It’s a level playing field because both teams are going through it. Whether it’s a little bit more snow at the end of the period — you gotta push the puck a little harder, you gotta shoot the puck more — that’s just what makes outdoor hockey when we were all kids.

“You just gotta battle the elements and push through. It’s not gonna ever be perfect, hockey’s not perfect, but I think that makes outdoor games a little bit more special.”

In a southern city like Charlotte, winter temperatures often reach the 50s and 60s. While many players grew up skating outdoors, they experienced winters that are much different than that of Charlotte.

So, the Checkers decided that the least risky time frame to host the game would be at night. Even if Saturday ends up being a warmer January day, as the temperatures likely would have dropped by the time the sun goes down. The game was also scheduled for a holiday weekend, in case they need to pivot off one day last-minute because of inclement weather.

The forecast for Saturday calls for clear skies with a high of 49 and a low of 30 that night, according to the National Weather Service.

“It’s gonna be unbelievable,” Checkers defenseman Matt Kiersted said Tuesday. “(Zac) Dalpe, our captain, was just saying, this is not something that happens every year. It’s pretty cool to be able to play in an outdoor game — and to do it at the pro level.”

Want to go on Saturday?

A limited number of new seated and standing room only tickets are available. Tickets can be purchased on the Charlotte Knights’ website.