Red Wings end Traverse City training camp after nearly 30 years

Grand Traverse County is losing one of its most reliable late-summer sports draws as the Detroit Red Wings move training camp out of Traverse City and back to Detroit. For local hotels, downtown restaurants, gas stations and the workers who benefit from that annual hockey surge, the change removes a familiar burst of business that arrived after the traditional tourist season.

The Red Wings said their 2026 camp will be held at Little Caesars Arena and the BELFOR Training Center in Detroit, beginning Sept. 17. The club’s first preseason game is scheduled for Sept. 21 in Columbus, and the team’s preseason will shrink to four games from eight under the new NHL collective bargaining agreement.

Centre ICE Arena first hosted Red Wings training camp in 1997, turning Traverse City into a recurring stop for players, coaches and fans for nearly 30 years. The team was back in town for 2025 camp, with on-ice sessions Sept. 18-20 before the annual Red and White Game at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids on Sept. 21. That 2025 visit also carried a visible local footprint: the Red Wings held a ball hockey clinic at Traverse Heights Elementary School for about 75 students, hosted a Special Olympics Poly Hockey Celebration and launched a Community Rink Refurbishment Program with Meijer and the Detroit Red Wings Foundation.

For Grand Traverse County, the loss is more than a line on a preseason schedule. Local coverage in 2024 described Red Wings camp as the team’s 26th year in Traverse City and said it delivered an economic benefit to the city by bringing in hotel, gas and food spending after peak tourism faded. That late-summer lift helped keep downtown traffic moving, gave fans across Michigan a reason to come north, and put Traverse City in front of a wider statewide audience at a time when summer visitors were thinning out.

Centre ICE Arena’s tourism listing underscores how deeply the Red Wings have been woven into the local hockey ecosystem. The facility is also home to the NHL Prospect Tournament, Grand Traverse Hockey Association, Traverse City Figure Skating Club and Traverse City Curling Club, making the departure felt well beyond one preseason event.

The Red Wings have not said whether the move is permanent, leaving Traverse City, local tourism leaders and civic boosters to watch whether 2026 marks a one-year change or the end of a summer tradition that helped define the city’s hockey identity since 1997.