Division-centric sites for season resumption - reported to be Edmonton and Toronto

[Flukeshot]

The ideal venue for these guys is the closest thing to an all inclusive resort so that their families can come and be there during off times.

I would be interested if the NHL really expects players to be away from their families for the balance of the season and playoffs. I just don't see it.

I also think all the remaining reg. Season games would need to be intra-division. The goal is to eliminate as much travel as possible.

I would look at altering divisions or the wildcard format to allow for those hub cities to stay in place until the conference finals.

 

[Ernie]

What are the rules for quarantining in the US? In Canada people who come here have to quarantine for 2 weeks by law, as Trudeau mentioned yesterday. Are there places in the US that are enforcing this?

 

[KevFu]

This brings up another point I've stated elsewhere.. It's one thing to get all the players into a quarantine bubble within a hotel because you have a league and a union that would be agreeing to do so. But how are you going to convince hotel staff ( whom today are either at home because their hotel is shutdown or more likely they are working but get to go home to their families every night ) to start living in a quarantine bubble for the next 2-4 months? Will the hotel that's picked by the NHL tell their staff they have to quarantine with the players or they lose their jobs? And if they don't quarantine with the players, you have left the door open to the virus.

Like I said, it's easier for the league and it's players to agree to something, but you have to convince a lot of support people to follow along, people that probably won't want to.

You don't need to "force" the employees of ONE hotel per city to to separate from their families or be fired.

- 70% of hotel employees are ALREADY furloughed or laid off.
- locking in a job for months is something most of those 70% would jump at.
- 40% of hotel employees nationwide are 29 years old or younger and make an average of $23,000. Which also means they're more likely to be single and willing to quarantine in.

Getting volunteers would be pretty easy to find across the industry. You don't need to find ONE HOTEL where all the workers say "sure, we'll come back!" Each hotel corporation owns dozens of hotels in a metro area.

So you put a division in Columbus, you don't need 75 volunteers from the Hilton Columbus Downtown a block from the arena.

You need 75 HILTON employees to volunteer across all Hilton's Columbus-area chain hotels. The Hilton Columbus Polaris, the DoubleTree, the Homewood Suites, etc, etc.

 

[LadyStanley]

MGM has apparently offered Mandalay Bay (and Four Seasons and Delano) hotel(s) to NBA for entire league to come. Convention space can be sectioned off into up to 20 basketball courts (it's where the WNBA Aces play; five would be used to have games on), and entire block would be barricaded off. Employees would be quarantined "across the street" at Excalibur.

I'm guessing something similar might happen with T-Mobile Arena for division play (they can barricade off NYNY and Park MGM, across the street from arena).

 

[cbcwpg]

What are the rules for quarantining in the US? In Canada people who come here have to quarantine for 2 weeks by law, as Trudeau mentioned yesterday. Are there places in the US that are enforcing this?

As of now, from the CDC:

Foreign nationals who have visited one of these countries in the past 14 days may not enter the United States:

• China
• Iran
• European Schengen area (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City)
• United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)
• Republic of Ireland

American citizens, lawful permanent residents, and their families who have been in one of the countries listed above in the past 14 days will be allowed to enter the United States but will be redirected to one of 13 airports.

Americans returning from international travel: If you have traveled internationally in the past 14 days, stay home and monitor your health.

****

I don't believe there is a law in place to isolate after travel for U.S. citizens, just a recommendation.

 

[Ernie]

MGM has apparently offered Mandalay Bay (and Four Seasons and Delano) hotel(s) to NBA for entire league to come. Convention space can be sectioned off into up to 20 basketball courts (it's where the WNBA Aces play; five would be used to have games on), and entire block would be barricaded off. Employees would be quarantined "across the street" at Excalibur.

I'm guessing something similar might happen with T-Mobile Arena for division play (they can barricade off NYNY and Park MGM, across the street from arena).

That makes a ton of sense for the NBA.

Too bad there aren't more arenas, or the NHL could have jumped on this.

I don't believe there is a law in place to isolate after travel for U.S. citizens, just a recommendation.

Interesting stuff. Seems like the US government would be more open to easing border restrictions on a limited basis (oddly enough) given Trump's desire to open the economy. In Canada there is much stronger public support for these measures, I doubt we'll be seeing any easing soon, so it's probably easier to cherry pick some locations in the US where local authorities are happy to work along with the NHL. Also makes it MUCH easier for US teams to travel from their home cities.

Curious question though - when it says foreign nationals, does that include people who have US work visas?

 

[KevFu]

NBA is the easiest one because it's the smallest courts, and you can literally put one down in almost any room.

There's college tournaments where they put down a floor in a banquet hall and play 4 games a day for three days where the benches are banquet chairs and the scorers table fan/seating are just tables and banquet chairs.

I went to one and the scoreboard was hanging from the ceiling, but it was so heavy they put a ladder under it to take some of the weight off. Shot clocks just sitting on the floor in the corners. It's weird to see a jump shots get close to the tied up chandeliers.

Vegas also has like 7 basketball venues. TMobile, MGM, Thomas & Mack, Cox Pavilion, Orleans, etc.

 

[LadyStanley]

Vegas also has like 7 basketball venues. TMobile, MGM, Thomas & Mack, Cox Pavilion, Orleans, etc.

Thomas & Mack and Cox Pavilon are out - UNLV has cancelled all campus activities/classes for the summer. (That's where the NBA was planning on holding the Summer League)

 

[Ernie]

Relevant:

Bundesliga to become Europe's first major league to resume

Bundesliga teams resumed training in small groups in early April as the DFL worked on plans to bring back the league with a medical concept for training and match operations required by the government and its federal states.

Players and staff are tested regularly for the coronavirus, and in a first wave, 1,724 tests were conducted on all 36 clubs of the upper two tiers late last week. Ten cases of COVID-19 were identified and reported to health authorities. Not all cases were made public, as the DFL asked clubs not to report cases individually. Full results from a second round of testing have yet to be released, though on the eve of Wednesday's decision, second-division club Erzgebirge Aue put their entire squad in home isolation after a member of staff tested positive.

Infected people must isolate, but the DFL's plan does not require full-squad isolation. The league has asked clubs to go into the final part of the season with a big squad that can be filled up with reserve or under-19 players.

Political decision-makers have sent mixed signals on what will happen if a player or staff member tests positive for COVID-19.

Bundesliga is back: Date to be set for return

 

[KevFu]

Thomas & Mack and Cox Pavilon are out - UNLV has cancelled all campus activities/classes for the summer. (That's where the NBA was planning on holding the Summer League)

By that logic, every facility is out... they're all currently closed.

 

[LadyStanley]

By that logic, every facility is out... they're all currently closed.

Houston, Portland and Denver scheduled to open NBA facilities Friday.

YMMV

 

[LadyStanley]

31 Thoughts: How will NHL broadcasts look when season resumes? - Sportsnet.ca

Friedman speculates that if NHL returns, it may just be 24-team "playoff". Might have to move a team from their "division" hub to the other conference hub to make things even.

So, Minnesota or Winnipeg might join the Pacific division and NYR might join the Atlantic.

 

[LadyStanley]

More from Friedman: could get big #s if they reveal "who plays where" and schedule for resumption.

 

[Fenway]

More from Friedman: could get big #s if they reveal "who plays where" and schedule for resumption.

It seems like the NHL is leaning towards 2 hubs - East and West and the Top 12 in each will play on.

Larry Brooks is suggesting

https://nypost.com/2020/05/07/nhl-restart-would-go-directly-into-24-team-stanley-cup-tournament/

Brooks might be hated by players and coaches but the NHL has been known to leak stuff to him and he IS in the media section of the HHoF.

As Brooks points out doing it by conference and not division you get the Rangers and Blackhawks into the mix.

The format of a 24-team tournament has not yet been established. But if the league goes with the top 12 teams in each conference, that would include every club at NHL .500 or better when play stopped on March 11. That structure would include the Rangers and Chicago.

If the league were for some reason to go with the six top teams in each division — the NHL hasn’t had a division-based playoff system since 1992-93 — that would mean that the Sabres (.493) would replace the Rangers (.564) and the Ducks (.472) would replace the Blackhawks (.514).

If they go this route I would assume the 1-4 teams would play for seeding (1-4 and 2-3) while 5-12 play to see who continues

This is a guess on my part but I think you might see the playoff hubs would all be in Canada as it might be easier to get everybody into Canada than the US

(Toronto as the East hub - Vancouver as the West hub )

These 7 teams are in the lottery for the #1 pick

It is far from perfect but it gets big market teams Chicago, Rangers, and Montreal a shot ( the latter gets the francophone market engaged )

 

[LadyStanley]

Paywall.

Does it come down to players willingness to play? With or without families?

 

[Henkka]

It's interesting that they are thinking of trying to complete the regular season as well. The push must come from NBC contracts, I would guess. But, at the same time, there are enough regular season games left to make it worthwhile for the players of the teams who are out of contention to come back and get into shape.

A little calendar work:
If a training camp can start on May 15, then games can start on June 1. The most games any one team has remaining is 14. Play every other day, and it's done in a month. So, about June 29. There are many logistical complications to this, not the least of which is that there are still a few interconference games left on the schedule. So, if the games are played in Edmonton, St Paul and 2 eastern cities, then there will have to be flights back and forth between them all. You could still have some awkward back-to-back situations there.
There are 189 games left to be played. .

Just checked the sitation, and I think the season could be cropped to 76 games, and as priority 1, complete all the Divisional games which are left.

Teams who have already completed more Divisional games than there would be left to hit 76 games, could work as a game-balancing teams to play against the same conference, but another division.

I think the schedule could be completed with these fixings, and there would be only one travel from location A to B for teams who have to play these conference-fixing games.

76-game regular season, then 12-team (conference) playoffs.

 

[LadyStanley]

Paywall. LeBrun with insight from player participants. In, bubble and out of playoffs players representing on committee.

Definitely bubble without family is an issue.

Still working things out.

 

[LadyStanley]

Someone has a tee time tomorrow?

 

[LadyStanley]

Arizona allowing major league sports to resume in its state Saturday

Arizona is open for business, sort of, which could be relevant to the NFL teams residing in California.

Governor letting stay at home order expire. Explicitly inviting pro sports to get back to playing (without fans).

 

[Golden_Jet]

LA county says likely extending stay at home until end of July.

 

[LadyStanley]

Well, there's that.


WRT LA county...that would impact Kings. But as many have speculated only 20-24teams might return to play, the Kings are not one of those teams.

 

[MeHateHe]

BC Premier John Horgan will be speaking with Bettman today to pitch Vancouver. Keep in mind that the provincial health officer said yesterday that she wouldn't bend any of her rules to let the NHL set up shop.

Horgan will speak with NHL commissioner on Wednesday

 

[Ernie]

Would be interesting if they balance out the divisions by adding Winnipeg to the Pacific. That would mean 4 Western Canadian teams would be in a battle, and if the division center was in Calgary or Vancouver would reduce the need for quarantine to the 2 US teams that would be joining them.

 

[KevFu]

AZ and FL governors are trying to entice pro leagues into setting up shop.

MLS' latest restart plan is to put all their teams in Orlando, quarantined in a resort and play at the ESPN/Disney sports complex, on TV.

 

[TheLegend]

AZ and FL governors are trying to entice pro leagues into setting up shop.

MLS' latest restart plan is to put all their teams in Orlando, quarantined in a resort and play at the ESPN/Disney sports complex, on TV.

MLB can do this easily because all the spring training facilities are all located in those two states. The Diamondbacks ownership has already offered Chase Field as an alternative for the extreme hot days. For the NFL, there's already talk of AZ hosting the California teams.