On Friday, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly appeared on Edmonton radio station 630 CHED and on TSN radio to discuss the league’s processes for moving forward, if, and when, the NHL resumes the 2019-20 season during the continuing #COVID19 pandemic.
“We’re going to need to have access to testing, and we’re going to make it a point that we’re not accessing testing, even in a private way, if testing availability is an issue in the community,” Daly said on 630 CHED. “We will not test asymptomatic players ahead of symptomatic people who are unable to get tested. It’s just something we will not do.”
That statement alone set up a dilemma because in the United States, testing remains a major problem for the public at-large as well as first responders and healthcare professionals across the country.
“There are number of potential solutions that are [pitched] to us and to the other sports leagues and to other organizations every day, and I’d say it’s an important part of the process in terms of making sure you thoroughly vet that and understand the testing solution you’re embracing,” Daly said.
The largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) in the US have become epicenters for #COVID19 infections and deaths. These are the same MSAs that host NHL teams.
With more than 333 million US residents and perhaps 5 million #COVID19 tests performed, there remains a chronic need for more testing to be done as soon as possible to determine the rate of infection and presence of infection centers in the country. Without that, the NHL will be hard-pressed to accept a bid from any city that wants to host a regional hub for games.
“Not every community probably will be in the place where they can allow for discretionary testing of players,” Daly said.
“… Another box on the checklist that you have to check is, is it supported by kind of the local health authorities? Is this something that the community welcomes and thinks would be a positive in recovering from what we’re going through now?
“… We’re really just in the process of kind of vetting all those clubs, communities and all the venue issues that would be associated with that.”
Daly did say Edmonton was in the mix for being a host city for a reopened NHL schedule.
Even the possibility of a fan-free competition cycle would seem fraught with issues and Daly acknowledged the NHL is looking at embellishing those empty arena games.
“Obviously we’re looking to exploit that opportunity, and we’re going to try to maximize the fan experience,” Daly said via TSN radio. “If you can’t be in-building, which is a second-to-none fan experience, I think, for live sports generally but in particular for our sport, I think you have to be creative in ways to utilize technology to, as I said, maximize the fan experience and bring them closer to the game, closer to the personalities than ever before.”
There appears to be reluctance to put an end to the 2019-20 season. The commitment is there to finish the campaign with playoffs and forego the completion of the regular season schedule. As it stands now, the NHL will be playing its post season in the dog days of summer.
That also means the delay of the 2020-21 season until November or December and that season playing into the summer of 2021.
Infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists have suggested that #COVID19 will be a public health issue in 2022. If that is possible, then the NHL and every other sport league across the globe will need to rethink how they display their products and entertain their fans.
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