The Michigan Athletic Department is in the early planning stages of hosting an outdoor hockey game in Michigan Stadium, officials said yesterday.

The game is planned for Dec. 11, 2010, Matt Trevor, the Michigan hockey team’s Sports Information Director, said in a phone interview yesterday.

Early yesterday afternoon, Athletic Department officials contacted Michigan State officials about playing a game in Michigan Stadium. The stadium, which is currently undergoing a 3-year, $226 million renovation, is scheduled to be completed by August 2010.

“They’re intrigued,” Trevor said. “The planned opponent at this point is Michigan State, through an expressed interest in favor of playing an outdoor game at Michigan Stadium.”

But Michigan State Associate Athletic Director John Lewandowski refused to confirm yesterday that plans for a game at the Big House were in the works, according to the Lansing State Journal.

In 2001, the two in-state rivals met at Spartan Stadium in front of more than 74,000 people in a game dubbed the Cold War. The game ended in a 3-3 tie. Rumors of a rematch in the Big House have been passed around, but talks have never been as serious as now.

Trevor also said that the Michigan vs. Wisconsin outdoor hockey game at Camp Randall Stadium scheduled for Feb. 6, 2010 would be confirmed by the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department later this week.

Trevor stressed that planning for the game at the Big House is in the most preliminary stages, but said “it’s definitely planned. People want to do it and everyone’s behind it — it’s a matter of moving forward and figuring out how.”

“There’s still a lot to be decided,” he said. “We have to decide what time the game will be, how much tickets will be, what companies can provide the outdoor ice.

“We’ll contact the NHL and see how the Blackhawks did it, and talk to the people that did the Cold War game at Michigan State back in 2001,” he said. “And then we’ll see how the Badgers do it next year.”

Trevor also said that packaging the game with an NHL matchup is not out of the question, since the production of the game is still in its early stages.

“People are always saying, ‘Oh, the Red Wings should play a game at the Big House,’ ” Trevor said. “We definitely want to do it … but there’s a lot of stuff that we would have to go through.”

— Daily Sports Editor Michael Eisenstein contributed to this report.