WHL moving ahead with full schedule for 2020-21

Despite concerns around COVID-19 and the ability to hold mass gatherings, the Western Hockey League is hoping to move ahead with a full 68-game schedule for the upcoming 2020-21 season.

The WHL made the announcement following the Annual General Meeting, which was conducted by a conference call on June 17. Highlighted in the WHL media release was the WHL Return to Play protocol as the league attempts to facilitate a timely start to the 2020-21 season.

Complicating the safe return of the WHL is the fact that the league operates in four Canadian provinces and two American states.

“The WHL has appointed special task forces in each of the six jurisdictions to work directly with government and health authorities to ensure the health and safety of WHL players, staff, officials, and fans are a top priority in the Return to Play protocol. The outcome of these discussions with government authorities will ultimately determine the start date for the 2020-21 WHL Regular Season,” said the release.

WHL Commissioner Ron Robison addressed the media the following day and said that testing protocols were yet to be determined.

“We’ll break down to those details again once we’ve had further discussions as to the requirements of each of the state and provincial health authorities. We’ll do whatever is necessary to meet those requirements. Right now we have a screening process that players will be subjected to each day as part of our protocol, but not subjected to testing unless we are required to do that under that provincial and state guidelines.”

The league has a targeted start date of October 2 to open the 2020-21 regular season, a date that is contingent upon receiving approval from government and health authorities in all six jurisdictions.

“The WHL is committed to protecting the integrity of the WHL Regular Season schedule, and fully intends to complete a full 68-game schedule for 2020-21, regardless of when the season begins,” said the release.

What that 68-game schedule looks like a few months from now could be very different admitted Robison.

“Anything is possible. Again it is going to be dictated by largely what the outcome of our discussions are going to be with the health authorities and what restrictions we are working with. We talked earlier about border crossings, we talked about quarantine situations that occur, various restrictions that might be in place that will be unique to that particular centre or province or state. So we have to take all of that into consideration.”

“I think we are just committed to start playing as soon as we possibly can and in a safe and responsible way. But we are going to certainly need to be flexible on a scheduling point of view. So stay tuned. We might have a completely different looking schedule then we traditionally have. Would more divisional play be something we’re considering? Absolutely,” he added.

Robison said a season without spectators would not be possible.

“No we feel we need to have spectators in order to make it work. Obviously we are a ticket driven league from a revenue perspective. Unlike other professional leagues or leagues that have the ability to have broadcast revenues or other sources of income, we do not and consequently we rely heavily on spectators to make it work… Our position would be that we would need a minimum capacity, our target is 50 percent, but again that