tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
I heard yesterday that one of our public rinks will have fairly strict measures in place when they re-open. Best case is the rinks will re-open in mid-July based on the time-frame outlined by our government.
No spectators or parents allowed inside
No access to dressing rooms whatsoever
Players are expected to arrive no earlier than 10 mins. prior to their ice session
Players are expected to remove their skates and leave immediately afterwards
Players must provide their own water bottle
Players are expected to arrive fully dressed with the exception of skates/helmets/gloves
Players will be given a chair inside the rink to tie their skates. The chairs will be adequately spaced apart to enforce physical distancing
After each 1 hour session, the rink will be closed for the following 1 hour for sanitation, effectively cutting the available ice-slots in half
Will be interesting to see if the local government imposes these same regulations on the private rinks in the area. Our amateur hockey community is made-up of a mish-mash of publicly-owned and privately-operated rink. It's pretty much monkey-see, monkey-do around here in regards to governmental regulations, so I wouldn't be surprised if these are made the regulations across the board, which may put more than one private rink out of business and this area was already hurting for ice surfaces. A consultant recommended in 2008 that we needed at least 4 new ice surfaces moving forward to meet the demand and thus far we got zero.
Not to mention the available time slots cut in half. Who decides which groups are going to get the short-end of the stick and lose their weekly time-slots? Many groups may have played their last games as their slot simply won't be available moving forward.
I play on a regular Monday night pick-up and these are basically the guidelines at my local rink. I agree that the temperature check is probably the best precaution available. Otherwise, "social distancing" simply isn't possible in hockey-even non-contact. Our first skate is tonight (later than normal). I signed up to play but my wife doesn't like it. We'll see where I am later today.
Yeah, I'm starting to see this in NC as well. No league play yet, but pickup hockey is coming available with the rules above in place.
Personally, I think this is being driven much more by economics than by best practices. The rinks have to make money somehow, and they're doing the best they can. But realistically -- you cannot play hockey without exhaling into a common space. There's a reason we tell guys not to come to games with the flu, and this virus is a lot more easily passed than the flu.
I thought about going to the last session, but I have a family at home and I genuinely cannot justify to myself the possibility that a family member/close friend/random stranger ends up on a ventilator for weeks because I couldn't resist playing one game of pickup hockey. I'm gonna sit tight and let this play out a little more, same with the kids.