No Royals hockey in 2020-21
Reading, other North Division teams opt out of ECHL season
The Reading Royals wanted more time to decide if they could salvage their 20th anniversary season.
The ECHL, which is hoping to resume play on Dec. 11, didn’t grant the Royals that time. The league stuck to its Nov. 30 deadline for teams to determine whether they wanted to play through the coronavirus pandemic.
The Royals and the rest of the North Division, which includes Adi rondack, Brampton, Maine, Newfoundland and Worcester, collectively opted out Wednesday.
There will be no hockey at Santander Arena until October.
“As more and more teams started to say this was going to be their route, plus with how many fans we could have in the building, this was the only option at this point,” Royals general manager David Farrar said.
Farrar wanted to wait until Feb. 1 and start the season in concert with the AHL. The ECHL voted for a split schedule last month. Some teams plan to start in December. The rest, including the North Division, was going to wait until Jan. 15.
As the fundamentals of the pandemic continued to worsen, it made no sense to push forward at this time.
“The league held our feet to the fire to make a decision,” Farrar said. “I would have preferred to have waited and followed along with the AHL. Try to do something in February. My preference from Day 1 was to work with those guys and make a season happen.”
Royals coach Kirk MacDonald said he and the other coaches in the division were in favor of following the AHL’s lead.
ECHL teams rely on players from the higher levels to fill out their rosters. Starting ahead of them made little sense from a competition or quality of play standpoint.
“I think it’s a bad look with us not lining up with the NHL and the American League when we’re supposedly a development league for them,” MacDonald said. “I don’t understand it.”
Even if the Royals were given more time, there’s no guarantee they’d be able to play this winter. If games were held today, they’d be limited to fewer than 700 fans in the arena. Couple that with the added costs of testing and safety protocols and it didn’t add up financially.
The more prudent decision was to swallow the pain of a lost season and have a clean slate in October, when the pandemic is hopefully under control.
The Royals last played in March. Nineteen months will pass between games. Farrar said the Berks County Convention Center Authority is committed to putting a team on the ice again.
“I don’t have any doubt we can keep it together for a year,” Farrar said. “We’re already planning for next fall. I’m not concerned at all about the team not coming back.”
All of the players signed by MacDonald will become free agents who can join any ECHL team for this season. It’s not yet decided if the Royals will retain the rights to those players for 2021-22.
Eight of the 26 ECHL teams have opted out. Atlanta and Norfolk preceded the North Division. More could follow before the end of the month. It’s possible the league won’t be able to overcome the defections and still put together a schedule.
Many players likely will retire or be unemployed because of a shortage of jobs. The landscape of minor league hockey will be altered. It’s just a question of how.
“At least the players can plan their life a little bit,” MacDonald said. “I know that’s hard to do right now. At least there’s clarity on that end.”
Farrar said the Royals will remain a presence in the community and he hopes fans will be there when it’s safe to play games.
This will be a trying time for a franchise that has called Reading home since 2001.
“It’s tough,” Farrar said. “A lot of people on our staff, the players and coaches have put in a lot of work to get ready for what we thought was going to be a special 20th anniversary season. We’ll get ready for the fall and we’ll be good to go.”