Coming off a successful and safe postseason in the bubble cities of Toronto and Edmonton, the National Hockey League can be excused for being ambitious about starting what would be the 2020-21 season.
It all seems so odd given that as of now an entire 82-game season would be played in the year 2021; followed shortly thereafter by the 2021-22 season.
On Friday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, with deputy commissioner Bill Daly, participated in a video conference call with the league’s general manager.
“The goal is still to start as early as Jan. 1 and to play a full season,” Daly said. “Having said that, we also recognize, depending on a host of different things, that it could take a different form and we might not be playing a full season, we might not be playing into the summer, we might not be starting on Jan. 1. So there’s still a lot of uncertainty.”
Daily cases of COVID19 in the United States are rapidly making 80,000 the new average for the day. That kind of number is unsustainable by any epidemiological metric. Putting fans, media, staff, and players in an enclosed arena cannot be accomplished under that environmental status.
“We told them we’re evaluating all possibilities and that we’re gathering a lot of information and data points and we don’t need to make any decisions right away, that we should wait and inform ourselves as best as possible and make the best decisions we can when we need to make them,” Daly said. “There really wasn’t anything spoken about specifically with respect to variations we’re considering, but obviously they’re multiple and probably somewhat numerous and depend on a whole host of things. So that was basically the message to the GMs.”
Public health and infectious disease experts in the US and Canada have long stated the need for lower daily case rates, contact tracing, rapid antibody and antigen test kits, personal protective equipment (masks), hand washing, and social distancing as effective means of pushing the daily case rate down to a manageable (still not acceptable) rate to have some return to “fans in seats” sport.
So much was accomplished in Toronto and Edmonton for the playoffs and Stanley Cup Final; it seems that the NHL taking its time to reasonably adjust to ebb and flow of COVID19 would be the cautious approach.
The problem is, the NHL is at the whim of the public who need to adhere to public health recommendations.
With 17,000+ fans in an enclosed air space, with no social distancing, and scatter-shot mask wearing, the NHL (or any league) nay not have fans to take any seats in 18 months.
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