- The Beat
- Posts
- 2024 NHL Winter Classic
2024 NHL Winter Classic
Sandy Dodge
April 15, 2025
Our goal in creating the on-field scenery for the 2024 NHL Winter Classic was to deepen the legend of the Kraken while showcasing Seattle’s uniqueness.
What if the Kraken was swallowing a shipwreck in center field?
The Winter Classic isn’t your average hockey game. We learned a thing or two about the unique obstacles and opportunities that come with bringing hockey outdoors when we designed and built the on-field scenery for the 2014 Winter Classic. Given our previous work with the NHL and the fact that this time around, the Winter Classic was in our hometown of Seattle, we were excited to knock this one out of the park.
It took a strategic ground plan to turn T-Mobile Park’s spacious grounds into a stage for cohesive scenic design. Our goal was to weave the ominous branding of the Seattle Kraken together with the Pacific Northwest ethos we know and love. That took the form of a giant Kraken logo over the batter’s eye in deep center, a studio set designed as a boathouse, a tentacle-entangled shipwreck, a wooden dock to stage the player entrances, etc. All scenic elements were designed with fan experience and broadcast in mind, turning the emerald green grounds of T-Mobile Park’s outfield grass into a themed hockey tundra.
