I did not say that hockey will be cancelled for sure but it could very well happen.
Should the cases continue to rise in the GTA, Peel region, etc. I do not see the Ontario Government letting the games happen. Too bad many of the teams are in and around these current Red Zones.
I really do enjoy the OHL but I have my doubts about seeing hockey this season.
Just my opinion.
That’s fair.
The reality is there is a public message and private message. IT really depends on which way the OHL Falls in the eyes of the Province.
The Public Message is we are in a bad situation. We really aren’t but the message is meant as a means of keeping people in line as much as possible to potentially prevent what would constitute a bad situation. The Private message is, “We want you to operate successfully. Provide us your SOP’s and we will provide additional feedback to help you get up and running safely.”
The Province has been working with many business groups in an effort to maintain as much business and economic growth as possible. IT just isn’t politicized because it can be misunderstood by those that hear things are really bad.
How this relates is very simple. EVERYONE that “matters” wants the OHL to operate in some meaningful manner. It just needs to be positioned in such a way that doesn’t upset the “things are bad message so we still have more work to do.”
All of this is happening behind closed doors. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The reason why is the OHL can operate outside of the normal public, meaning they can somewhat isolate themselves to a much larger degree than other businesses.
Costco cannot open for business and not allow customers inside their doors. Why would they operate without customers? They make $$ selling products off shelves. Therefore, they are under different rules than Amazon that is set up to not come into contact with customers. The OHL can set up to not come into contact with customers if they so choose. It is not ideal but it is an option. As such, provided they can open the arena’s to play a game, they should be fine.
As of right now, I am not aware of any teams other than Mississauga that is in a Grey Zone with full lockdown restriction. Oshawa, Kitchener and Hamilton are in a red zone so stringent measures are applied. There are the three US based teams but that is another issue altogether. So, yes, there is some current disruption but but only the Grey Zone precludes a team from facility access.
Right now I see no reason why the OHL will not be able to operate starting Feb 4th. The WJHC will have been completed with hopefully no significant issues. The NHL operated in a bubble as well with relatively no issues. MLB operated with a few initial issues but they were ok to finish. Same with Basketball. NFL has had some issues but nothing strong enough to shut the league down. QMJHL has had issues but they’ve managed to play many games. 15 of 18 teams have played 10-16 games. 44 of those games have had 900+ attendance.
To be completely honest, I believe I have pointed out many more reasons for optimism as opposed to pessimism regarding the OHL operating this season.
I think they will find a way to play a meaningful schedule. There will be more optimism as they roll out vaccines. I think people’s general optimism will start to grow as we go through Feb-Mar. We’ll see infection rates reduce as we escape from April similar to what we saw last year (regardless of vaccine). By the time the playoffs roll around, we will probably start seeing a strong push for reasonable attendance.
I think we should look at all of this from an optimistic viewpoint. There is a lot to be excited about.
