No league return until New Year
THE YKK-sponsored Widnes Wild will have to wait until January at the earliest for the start of the new Laidler Division season after a joint announcement by the English Ice Hockey Association and the Planet Ice organisation who operate numerous ice rinks across the country, including Widnes.
In view of the ongoing uncertainty regarding the coronavirus pandemic, with some ice rinks still not yet fully open, and fears of further spikes and local lockdowns in many areas, it has been agreed among the clubs that there is little point in rushing to try and to start the league competition in the current climate.
A target date has been set of January 1 2021 for the start of National League ice hockey with hopes of playing challenge games and some sort of pre-season cup competition during late November and December.
These dates have been agreed to allow teams to start to put in place the arrangements needed to safely and effectively return to play and to start planning for the new season.
There are, however, several factors that will need addressing before a return to anything resembling normality can be considered, ie:
It is highly likely that social distancing rules will still be in place and that this may restrict attendances at matches. Whether this is a fixed number (e.g. 800) or a percentage of a venue’s capacity, (e.g. 40%) is still to be determined and will be led by local and national Government guidelines, the findings from various non-ice hockey test events taking place and EIHA policy.
The level at which attendance is restricted will be critical as to whether it is financially viable for teams to compete.
Some arenas are still without ice and venues would need to be operational for fixtures to take place so it would depend on when ice is relaid ice in those venues.
A consistent set of Covid protocols will have to be finalised and implemented across all NIHL venues regarding access and exit, changing room provision, cleanliness etc.
A flexible fixtures model needs to be developed to accommodate as simply as possible any fixture changes (e.g. through local lockdown), or changes to the overall season structure.
The sport in England is currently at Phase 3 of the EIHA’s five-step “Return to Play” plan, this began on Monday August 31 and it needs to get to Phase 5 before competitive games can be played in front of crowds.
The next step, obviously, is Phase 4, which would allow for challenge matches to take place but not with spectators in the buildings. Unfortunately, unlike English Premier League football and NHL Play Off hockey in North America, British ice hockey – even at Elite League level – does not have the benefit of lucrative TV deals and huge sponsorship income so it is financially unfeasible to play senior matches without gate income.
While a larger venue such as Blackburn Arena with its 3.200 capacity – and an average hockey crowd of less than 1.000 for NIHL games – could probably cope with the reduced capacity or social distancing measures, Planet Ice Widnes with its smaller capacity and regular sell-out crowds would find this more difficult to overcome.
Further meetings between the EIHA, team owners and rink operators will take place later this month to review progress in these important areas and updates will be issued when available.
According to Wild’s league update earlier this month, there are not expected to be any significant changes in terms of the teams competing other that Deeside Dragons not participating and the welcome return of the Coventry Blaze NiHL team.