The #ReturnToPlay concept, developed by the National Hockey League for the 2019-20 postseason and Stanley Cup Final, was a tremendous success. The tournament and Final went off without a hitch and no COVID-19 cases were reported during the tournament.
Now, as 2020 draws to a close and the NHL looks to start its new season on 1 January 2021, the pandemic is raging across the United States with seven straight days of 100,000 or more COVID-19 cases reported.
Those numbers are unsustainable for indoor sporting competition. The state of New Jersey has stopped all indoor sporting events for the pandemic numbers there. It is not inconceivable that other states will be forced to do the same.
Today, NHL Commissioner Gay Bettman laid out new ideas for the coming season.
A hybrid bubble is being contemplated with league realignment considered as a temporary fix.
“You’ll play for 10 to 12 days,” Bettman said in the 2020 Paley International Council Summit. “You’ll play a bunch of games without traveling. You’ll go back, go home for a week, be with your family. We’ll have our testing protocols and all the other things you need.
“It’s not going to be quite as effective as a bubble, but we think we can, if we go this route, minimize the risks to the extent practical and sensible. And so that’s one of the things that we’re talking about.”
The concept will need to consider remedies for inclusion of the seven Canadian teams in the new design.
“Obviously, we’re not going to move all seven Canadian franchises south of the 49th Parallel, and so we have to look at alternative ways to play,” Commissioner Bettman said. “And while crossing the U.S.-Canadian border is an issue, we’re also seeing within the United States limitations in terms of quarantining when you go from certain states to other states. It’s again part of having to be flexible. …
“As it relates to the travel issue, which is obviously the great unknown, we may have to temporarily realign to deal with geography, and that may make sense, because having some of our teams travel from Florida to California may not make sense.
“It may be that we’re better off, particularly if we’re playing a reduced schedule, which we’re contemplating, keeping it geographically centric, more divisional based, and realigning, again on a temporary basis, to deal with the travel issues.”
All sport needs to consider how to accommodate local implications for sport and mass gatherings and the need for fans in seats.
As discussed on these pages during the postseason, the absence of fans and the energy was palpable and missing. Pumped in noise was obvious and at times, irritating.
Placing fans in packed or even socially distanced would still expose them to risk. Air changes are far from adequate in arenas.
“I was talking to Gary from my den at home, and I remember us kind of reaching the conclusion, maybe it’s not about playing through it,” Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Maybe what you’ve really got to worry about is making sure it doesn’t spread.
“That conversation led to us changing our approach a little bit. We had shutdowns and just accepted the fact that we were going to have to reschedule to get through. But those are the kind of conversations that I think make a real difference.”
Bettman, the NHLPA and the NHL need to have capture lightning in a second bottle. That’s a tall order.
Sick and deceased fans cannot buy tickets and sit in arenas. A regular, though reduced, season may be possible, but only with Herculean logistical considerations.
Image courtesy of NHL.com
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