When the team bus pulls up outside the Frozen Four’s host arena – whether it is Tampa or Boston or Buffalo or wherever — and the players traipse down a red carpet, thronged by screaming fans, Kelly McGrath always feels a little sense of parenthood.

“That came out of this building in 2011. It was our idea, and now they do it everywhere, it’s just a normal part of the Frozen Four,” said McGrath, Xcel Energy Center’s general manager and executive director. “We like to remind them that it was a St. Paul idea, and the guys just feel like rock stars coming in.”

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the ‘X’ will host college hockey’s biggest show for the fourth time, and McGrath is working alongside the University of Minnesota and Visit St. Paul to ensure that the red carpet is rolled out. That is not just for the four teams coming to the arena, but for throngs of fans from Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan and all across the hockey-loving world.

Before the opening faceoffs on Thursday, when Denver faces Boston University and then Michigan plays Boston College, myriad preparations will take place inside the building, while coaches and players spend hours watching video to determine their best strategies once the puck is dropped.

At the X, after hosting more than 40 NHL games each year, along with welcoming more than 100,000 prep hockey fans to downtown St. Paul each February and March for the girls and boys state tournaments, there are no worries about what will happen on the ice sheet.

“We do hockey,” McGrath said. “That’s our strength and our bread and butter, so when an event like the Frozen Four chooses Minnesota and Xcel Energy Center, I don’t worry about the hockey. Three games, we know how to do that pretty well.”

The next job is to make sure St. Paul and the arena are clean, safe and welcoming for those making the trip to the Twin Cities, whether it is for their first trip or their 100th to the X. Organizers from Minnesota have traveled to recent tournaments — hockey and other college sports — in other cities to see what they do in New York or Florida or elsewhere and if there are ideas to be borrowed to make for a better experience.

“We’re going to have equipment trucks ready for the teams at the airport so they don’t have to play that Tetris game under the bus to fit everything,” said Tom McGinnis, an assistant athletic director at the U of M and a former chair of the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Committee. “In 2018 we were the first place to have student-athlete lounges at the hotels. You spend five days here either in the locker room or in the hotel room, so we’re trying to expand the student-athlete lounge at the hotel, so they have a different places where they can go play video games or do other things and have a different place to hang out rather than just watching Netflix in their rooms.”

So fans don’t just sit in their hotel rooms, they will again offer Frozen Fest, which is a gathering spot at the RiverCentre, adjacent to the arena, with games, food, drinks and giveaways. RiverCentre will also host the Friday evening awards, culminating with the awarding of the 2024 Hobey Baker award.

This will be the seventh time the Frozen Four has come to St. Paul, and just the second time that there will not be a team from Minnesota among the quartet that advanced out of the regional round. The since-demolished St. Paul Civic Center hosted the tournament in 1989, 1991 and 1994. The three previous tournaments at the X have concluded with an in-state team — Minnesota in 2002, Minnesota Duluth in 2011 and 2018 — cutting up the nets after the title game. Organizers admit it will be unique this time around, without a team from this state, or even this time zone, participating.

McGrath said the crowd will be different as a result, with many locals coming to watch college hockey’s top teams regardless of where they’re from, and many fans from other parts of the country coming here, in a kind of photo negative of two years ago, when Minnesota and Minnesota State Mankato faced off in the Frozen Four opening round in Boston. She added that the demand for tickets is still significant, with many available on the secondary market.

“It’s still a destination event for college hockey fans, so the NCAA put their tickets on sale and previous buyers got the first crack,” McGrath said. “The tickets were mostly sold by about the first of the year. There’s always the ticket exchange where people can buy and sell, but for all intents and purposes, we’ve moved the tickets.”

The 2025 tournament will be held in St. Louis and the 2026 Frozen Four will head to Las Vegas for the first time. Beyond that the schedule is not set, but there is a likelihood that based on past success, we will be back in St. Paul again before too long.

“We’ll continue to bid on hosting this event,” McGinnis said. “It’s got a great history and tradition of being here in St. Paul and in Minnesota, and we’ll want to continue to do everything we can to keep bringing it back here.”