The NHL has Mexico Town on a scale down checklist of places for while global video games.

Steve Mayer, important content material officer for the NHL, informed ESPN’s The Let go podcast this era that “Mexico City is on a short list because our teams are very interested in going there and exploring that market.”

The NHL restarted its International Order excursions in 2017, taking part in preseason and regular-season video games in conventional hockey markets like Sweden and Finland year venturing into extra untested markets as smartly. Terminating past, the Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings performed two preseason video games in Melbourne, Australia, which marked the primary life the NHL held an tournament on that continent.

“Our international department and our events department gets so many inquiries from all over the world, and we’ve heard from so many people that have done major events big cities and they love the fact that hockey can be viable in their countries,” stated Mayer.

However NHL groups have additionally made inquiries about taking part in video games in markets like Mexico Town as smartly.

“There are teams that would really love to go to Mexico,” stated Mayer.

The Coyotes specifically have made a push, as a group that has advertised to Latino enthusiasts in the community for years.

“I keep telling [the NHL], ‘Guys, I don’t think you understand. If you think there’s a rabid fan base in Australia, any American sport event in Mexico is a massive deal for the country,” stated Xavier A. Gutierrez, the Coyotes group president.

Groups just like the Dallas Stars and Los Angeles Kings have held hockey camps in Mexico Town. One of the most NHL’s largest stars, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is of Mexican heritage and has supported the theory of taking part in video games in that crowd.

“It’d be awesome to literally play a hockey game in Mexico and just see what happens,” he stated in 2021.

As with every NHL video games performed across the world, venue logistics are a number one fear. The video games in Australia, for instance, had been staged inside of Rod Laver Enviornment, which is essentially old for tennis fits.

There was hypothesis that the League would possibly journey massive with a sport held inside of Azteca Stadium in Mexico Town, which seats 105,000 enthusiasts. However Mayer stated the league may be having a look at indoor sport choices.

“Mexico City, because of climate, might be a little more difficult to go an outdoor game. But those things are challenges for us that we love to take on,” he stated.

The NBA has performed video games in Mexico Town over 30 instances since 1992. The Atlanta Hawks and the Orlando Witchery are taking part in a regular-season sport on the Enviornment CDMX in Mexico Town in November, an enviornment that seats over 20,000 enthusiasts.