Yankee Stadium might miss out on one last hurrah, according to reports that Chicago has snagged the Winter Classic open-air hockey game taking place on New Year’s Day.

The Chicago Blackhawks are expected to play the Detroit Red Wings in Wrigley Stadium for the Classic, which last year drew bigger ratings than any regular-season hockey game in over a decade.

Just last spring, National Hockey League officials said they were consulting with city officials about hosting the game in Yankee Stadium, which would have been the closing sporting event at the venue.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that the deal was brokered between the commissioner of the NHL, Gary Bettman, and the mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, in a meeting last week.

A spokeswoman for the NHL, Bernadette Mansur, said reports that the game will be in Chicago are “speculation.” She said the NHL will announce the venue as soon as they can.

Yankee Stadium will be closing after this baseball season to make way for a new, $1.3 billion facility next door.

The game was thought of as a way to close the “House that Ruth Built,” which first opened in 1923. But Ms. Mansur said the nostalgia for the building does not mean it would be easy to host an event there.

“The fact that Yankee Stadium is closing … there are some considerations because that construction is a bit of a challenge,” Ms. Mansur said.

This Winter Classic will be only the third NHL game to be hosted outdoors. Last year, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres in Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Stadium.