Return to play? NOT SO FAST!

[ckg927]

The Ontario Hockey League just released a statement regarding the Return to Play plan. And...it's going on pause.

The OHL said that the safety of its stakeholders and communities are paramount and they will start the season when safe to do so. But due to Ontario going into lockdown on Boxing Day(as well as in regards to cross-border travel), they had to take this path.

[fishfan51]

Originally Posted by ckg927

The Ontario Hockey League just released a statement regarding the Return to Play plan. And...it's going on pause.

The OHL said that the safety of its stakeholders and communities are paramount and they will start the season when safe to do so. But due to Ontario going into lockdown on Boxing Day(as well as in regards to cross-border travel), they had to take this path.

See you in September.

[strohs]

Originally Posted by fishfan51

See you in September.

I simply can?t see them playing until then either UNLESS the vaccine rollout is faster than I anticipate it will be...

But they are running out of time to do anything this year at all.

Maybe some sort of late spring early summer tournament style of games ?

It?s too bad a lot of these owners are probably bleeding money .... IMO they would only lose more money if they played without fans in the buildings anyways


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[NiceDawg]

In other news, the IceDogs today informed me that the balance owing on my 2020-2021 seats is now not due until February 1st.

[Dogs Enthusiast 104]

Originally Posted by strohs

I simply can?t see them playing until then either UNLESS the vaccine rollout is faster than I anticipate it will be...

But they are running out of time to do anything this year at all.

Maybe some sort of late spring early summer tournament style of games ?

It?s too bad a lot of these owners are probably bleeding money .... IMO they would only lose more money if they played without fans in the buildings anyways


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The vaccine rollout is going to be faster than you think. Plus, because the first single dose gives a small amount of protection I suspect the hospitalizations are going to decline fast. Which is what is required for re-openings.

They have been managing expectations all along. You will notice that most every benchmark for the vaccine happened faster than we were promised.

[strohs]

Originally Posted by Dogs Enthusiast 104

The vaccine rollout is going to be faster than you think. Plus, because the first single dose gives a small amount of protection I suspect the hospitalizations are going to decline fast. Which is what is required for re-openings.

They have been managing expectations all along. You will notice that most every benchmark for the vaccine happened faster than we were promised.

Actually I don?t agree with you. Some benchmarks have happened faster than promised yes but the most important one - needles in arms - is rolling out slower than forecast - at least in the USA and I also suspect so in Canada.

When the vaccine candidates were announced The US was hoping to vaccinate close to 20M people by end of December . There was a report on CNBC just on Wednesday that they aren?t going to come anywhere close to matching that.

The rollout in Canada is a lot slower and we have less people spread out over a larger country ... it will take longer to vaccinate our population compared to the USA.

Yes reopening will occur when the hospitals are not overloaded to the point of concern ....that requires lockdowns and mass vaccinations.

By the end of January hopefully hospitals are breathing easier and strict lockdowns can be eased ... but that certainly does not mean there will be fans in the stands if the OHL was to return to play in February ... I would be shocked if the Ontario government even allows the OHL as we know it to play in February / March.

Some will say that they are letting the pros to play so why not amateurs? The pros are older, more mature, and will be subjected to heavy testing and quarantining and travel by charter aircraft ....this will all cost massive amounts of money.

The amateurs are kids, who won?t be subjected to the same level of testing due to costs, will not follow social distancing rules and quarantining because they are young and think they are invincible, and will travel by bus which I?m sure will give them a higher chance of catching the COVID than playing the actual games.

I just cannot imagine the Ontario government will let them play anytime soon ... and tbh if they are allowed to ply with no contact and no fans in the arena, well, that?s not a product I want to watch and the only attention I would really pay to that would be reading the box scores and newspaper recaps ...

And eventually they simply will run out of time on the calendar where it?s impossible to have any type of a season .

All that said, Hope I am wrong, very wrong!


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[Dogs Enthusiast 104]

.. but that certainly does not mean there will be fans in the stands if the OHL was to return to play in February ... I would be shocked if the Ontario government even allows the OHL as we know it to play in February / March.

I completely agree with the no fans in February. That aint happening.

I have a question. How many games can they reasonably play in 10 weeks? (if they actually could play in March and April into May then Mem Cup in late May)

[strohs]

Originally Posted by Dogs Enthusiast 104

I completely agree with the no fans in February. That aint happening.

I have a question. How many games can they reasonably play in 10 weeks? (if they actually could play in March and April into May then Mem Cup in late May)

I would guess the same that we see during the regular season ... 3-4 games per week .... the kids are still in school so they couldn?t regularly do 4 a week I don?t think.

The problem is the playoffs some series finish quicker than others so there ends up being some delays waiting for other series to finish and start.

Building availability shouldn?t be an issue at least lol

I guess they could push back the MemCup as I see no reason why they shouldn?t be able to do that ... if they did that that would help them play some type of season ...


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[Dogs Enthusiast 104]

I was thinking more like one big round robin tournament. To get a winner to send to the Mem Cup.

[NiceDawg]

That many teams? More likely a "pay to play" style of tournament to keep the numbers down to something manageable. I doubt any locale could handle every team in the CHL.