Life’s a bubble in downtown Toronto
Hub city includes theatres, player lounges and patio decks to enjoy
Walked by the Fairmont Royal York Hotel on Thursday and what a strange site to behold: Signs, in Toronto of all places, promoting the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Personally, never saw that before. Not in Toronto. I’ve seen them in every other city where I’ve covered the Stanley Cup final. It’s part of the hype. But I’ve never seen it in Toronto. For reasons we all know too well.
Now the signs were on fences, barricading the hotel off from the rest of the city. That means we are getting close to Hub Cities. That’s Sunday, when 12 teams, including your Maple Leafs, settle into the Royal York and Hotel X and 12 others go to Edmonton to get this show on the road.
So now I’m a bit of a believer that the NHL is going to pull this return off. I never worried that much about the hub cities themselves. I don’t think this is going to be much of a public health threat.
I worried the NHL wouldn’t get there, that players would be testing positive left, right and centre — especially in those American hot spots. Remember, two teams had to pull out of Major League Soccer’s World
Cup, or whatever that elimination tournament is. The NHL came out with a video and story about what Hub City Life is all about. Weirdly, NHL.com got the big scoop. Some highlights:
➤ The Cannon. When the Blue Jackets are the “home team” for Game 3 of their series with the Leafs, that damn cannon is going to go boom in the Scotiabank Arena. (Also, get ready for the Chelsea Dagger to be played Edmonton.) We know this because the NHL says it has gotten “goal songs, goal horns, inarena music compilations and motivational videos from each of the 24 teams participating. The league also received specially produced videos from fans that will replicate some of the chants that go on in teams’ home arenas.”
Other tidbits: The league will use EA Sports’ library of ingame sounds to mimic some crowd noise. Hopefully that means we’ll hear “Potvin Sucks” when the New York Rangers are the home team and I can write the story of what that means.
➤ NBC in Toronto and Sportsnet in Edmonton will use 32 cameras per game, 12 more than normal.
➤ There will be a fencing system running through each location to keep everyone inside the bubble secure and away from the general public. There will be 97 security guards and health ambassadors in Toronto and 125 in Edmonton.
➤ Restaurants in the secure zones, some already in place and some the league is creating with the help of local chefs, will be open early in the morning until late at night.
➤ The league created a concierge system by working with outside delivery companies to allow anyone in the bubble to get food, pharmaceutical needs and goods delivered from outside vendors.
➤ The layout in each hub city includes designated space for indoor and outdoor activities, including movie theatres, player lounges, patio decks and recreational space. Players in Toronto will have use of BMO Field.
➤ There will be six locker rooms used in Rogers Place, including the Oilers room, the visiting NHL room, the home room for the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League and the visiting WHL room. The NHL created two more locker rooms.
➤ Scotiabank Arena will have four locker rooms, including the Maple Leafs room, the visiting NHL room and two popup rooms. On a day with three games in Toronto, the league will have to co-ordinate moving teams in and out during games because there are fewer rooms.
➤ Teams will have one hour following a game to vacate the room so it can be cleaned and disinfected. A compliance officer will have to sign off on each room before another team can move in.