SPHL 2020-21 Season Plans

JMCx4

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From: The Southern Professional Hockey League > News
SPHL announces target start for 2020-2021 season
July 28, 2020

HUNTERSVILLE, NC (July 28, 2020) – The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) today announced that it is targeting mid-to-late December for the start of the 2020-2021 regular season.

“With the continued spikes in COVID-19 throughout the country and the challenges other sports are facing in their attempts to resume play, delaying our start to December gives us the best chance of completing an entire season with all 10 teams,” stated Commissioner Doug Price. “In addition, various state restrictions on large gatherings and the economics surrounding the uncertainty of having fans in our arenas in October or November, even at reduced capacity, make it difficult for teams to guarantee the ability to generate the revenue needed to operate if we were to start any earlier.” ...

Read more at: SPHL announces target start for 2020-2021 season
 

GindyDraws

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The problem with the SPHL is that a good portion of the franchises are in states where COVID-19 was taken lightly or dismissed outright, so who knows if they will be in any condition to play come December.
 

Atlantian

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So according to BLH the Fed is likely looking to start in December as well so that would mean 4 of the 5 pro leagues would be starting in December. We can likely assume the ECHL schedule that has been released is obsolete now.
 
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royals119

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So according to BLH the Fed is likely looking to start in December as well so that would mean 4 of the 5 pro leagues would be starting in December. We can likely assume the ECHL schedule that has been released is obsolete now.
Has the AHL made any announcement yet about a schedule? Seems like it might still be the ECHL and AHL opening first so players who haven't played since March can get camp and some games while the NHL playoff survivors get some time off to recover, and then players get called up as NHL camps open. Sort of the reverse of a normal year.
 

royals119

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So currently ECHL in October, AHL early Dec and NHL late Dec. Will certainly be a different dynamic. Obviously everything is subject to change at this point, but both AHL and ECHL teams are announcing player signings pretty regularly. Royals at least have been pretty aggressive with their marketing on social media this summer. They just announced a new program for new STH where you can put $1 down and make no payments until October. Parking for all games will be free for STH's also - previously it was $6-$12 per game depending on location.
 

Barclay Donaldson

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So currently ECHL in October, AHL early Dec and NHL late Dec. Will certainly be a different dynamic. Obviously everything is subject to change at this point, but both AHL and ECHL teams are announcing player signings pretty regularly. Royals at least have been pretty aggressive with their marketing on social media this summer. They just announced a new program for new STH where you can put $1 down and make no payments until October. Parking for all games will be free for STH's also - previously it was $6-$12 per game depending on location.

Mind you, those announcements are all dependent on them being able to host fans. No season will be played until they can get fans in the building. All those leagues, especially as you go down the minor league ladder, rely increasingly more on fans.
 

royals119

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Mind you, those announcements are all dependent on them being able to host fans. No season will be played until they can get fans in the building. All those leagues, especially as you go down the minor league ladder, rely increasingly more on fans.
Of course, and I think a lot more will be known by September, if Baseball can get their act together and play a schedule without players getting sick and having to continue to cancel or reschedule games that would be a plus. The NHL and NBA games with the players in a bubble isn't applicable obviously. Local markets will have to approve their buildings to open with whatever rules they put in place for masks, distancing, lower capacity, maybe no food or alcohol sales, etc, and then the owners need to figure out if they can make enough money with those restrictions.

Would be interesting also to see if there are any different clauses in these contracts. Will they have to cut the players in order to avoid paying if they don't start on time - effectively making everyone a free agent, or is there a provision for the teams to hold the players rights and defer the contract if the season is delayed? Will the players get any pay in those cirucumstances? What if the season starts and then stops and starts up again? Lots of things that could happen, and I assume they have some contingencies planned out - but of course nothing public yet.
 

Barclay Donaldson

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Local markets will have to approve their buildings to open with whatever rules they put in place for masks, distancing, lower capacity, maybe no food or alcohol sales, etc, and then the owners need to figure out if they can make enough money with those restrictions.

Would be interesting also to see if there are any different clauses in these contracts. Will they have to cut the players in order to avoid paying if they don't start on time - effectively making everyone a free agent, or is there a provision for the teams to hold the players rights and defer the contract if the season is delayed? Will the players get any pay in those cirucumstances? What if the season starts and then stops and starts up again? Lots of things that could happen, and I assume they have some contingencies planned out - but of course nothing public yet.

You can bet the house the no professional hockey league will be starting play next season in a situation other than full or near full capacity with no chance of ceasing the season. The MLB and NFL have already run into issues the NHL haven't and look unlikely to run into because Bettman and Daly do two things better than everyone else in pro sports: they know what the best courses of action are for their league and they ensure through exemplary planning and indefatigable negotiating the NHL goes down that chosen path.
 
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JMCx4

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... Bettman and Daly do two things better than everyone else in pro sports: they know what the best courses of action are for their league and they ensure through exemplary planning and indefatigable negotiating the NHL goes down that chosen path.
I see you are angling to become the 50-cent Word King of the Other Minor Pro Leagues forum.
 
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Barclay Donaldson

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I see you are angling to become to 50-cent Word King of the Other Minor Pro Leauges forum.

I can try. I lose a Scrabble game with <<indefatigable>> so I will never forget the word. But I just learned last week ESPN is said as each letter by itself and not as <<Espen>> so I have a big hill to climb.
 

JMCx4

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... The NHL and NBA games with the players in a bubble isn't applicable obviously. Local markets will have to approve their buildings to open with whatever rules they put in place for masks, distancing, lower capacity, maybe no food or alcohol sales, etc, and then the owners need to figure out if they can make enough money with those restrictions. ...
Anecdotally, the President of the SPHL's Knoxville Ice Bears reported on a local sports talk podcast that he had floated the idea of being an SPHL hub city. I presume that was rejected by the other BOG members, but stranger things are bound to happen as this brave new hockey world continues to wobble on its axis.
 

JMCx4

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I can try. I lose a Scrabble game with <<indefatigable>> so I will never forget the word. But I just learned last week ESPN is said as each letter by itself and not as <<Espen>> so I have a big hill to climb.
It's helpful to have native speakers around you who will mock your language skills until you learn how to talk much goodlier. ;)
 
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royals119

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You can bet the house the no professional hockey league will be starting play next season in a situation other than full or near full capacity with no chance of ceasing the season. The MLB and NFL have already run into issues the NHL haven't and look unlikely to run into because Bettman and Daly do two things better than everyone else in pro sports: they know what the best courses of action are for their league and they ensure through exemplary planning and indefatigable negotiating the NHL goes down that chosen path.
If what you say is true, then no hockey is happening until 2021 at a minimum, and maybe never again. "no chance of ceasing the season" is impossible to predict now, and may not be possible to ensure for quite a while. If that is their criteria, I don't know why they are continuing the charade or signing players and selling tickets.

You really can't compare the NHL's current situation to MLB or NFL. The NHL is trying to finish an interrupted season and was able to get the players to agree to be isolated until that is complete. MLB and NFL are trying to start a new season, and the players aren't going to be locked away with no travel or contact with the outside world. You can compare the NHL and NBA since they are both attempting the same thing - and so far the NHL has done better. The NFL and MLB seasons will be watched closely by the various hockey leagues, I'm sure, to see what lessons they can learn about what works and what doesn't, as they prepare to begin new seasons without players isolated in a bubble.

Arena capacities vary wildly in the ECHL, and the teams are located in various jurisdictions with different rules about gatherings, socical distancing, travel, immigration, etc. To make a blanket statement that they won't start the season without full capacity seems unlikely. If at some date the 75% of the league's arenas are open to 75% capacity and a few are at 50%, but those happen to be the big buildings like Orlando, Utah and Atlanta, that don't use all their capacity, then it seems likely they start the season (assuming travel, immigration, etc are all OK).

The Royals, who I know the most about, average just over 3000 fans in a building that seats just over 7000. Their current marketing plan involves concentrating on getting a big crowd to several Saturday night games with lots of promotions and groups, and not making a big effort at selling the Wednesday night games. If the arena is available to have 3500 fans at a game, they could potentially achieve the same attendance, but they would have to change their approach so they get close to a "sell out" at every game. Might require the league eliminating weeknight games, and back to back home games - which wouldn't be easy, and would probably require less games played.

All I'm saying is it might not be impossible with some out of the box thinking. I'm not holding my breath at this point, but the fact that they haven't admitted defeat yet, even with every indication that the governer of PA is not going to lift restrictions on theaters and arenas before the end of the year at the earliest, means they are still trying to find a way to make it happen, and haven't exhausted every alternative. Either that, or they just want to collect as much money as they can from STH's before they cancel or postpone, and then they are going to hope that many of us agree not to ask for our money back right away - essentially floating the team a loan. The risk of that is, if you wait too long you piss people off, and they demand refunds immediately - especially if it becomes know that the team knew they weren't going to play in July and didn't announce it until October.
 

JMCx4

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If what you say is true, then no hockey is happening until 2021 at a minimum, and maybe never again. "no chance of ceasing the season" is impossible to predict now, and may not be possible to ensure for quite a while. If that is their criteria, I don't know why they are continuing the charade or signing players and selling tickets. ...

All I'm saying is it might not be impossible with some out of the box thinking. I'm not holding my breath at this point, but the fact that they haven't admitted defeat yet, even with every indication that the governer of PA is not going to lift restrictions on theaters and arenas before the end of the year at the earliest, means they are still trying to find a way to make it happen, and haven't exhausted every alternative. Either that, or they just want to collect as much money as they can from STH's before they cancel or postpone, and then they are going to hope that many of us agree not to ask for our money back right away - essentially floating the team a loan. The risk of that is, if you wait too long you piss people off, and they demand refunds immediately - especially if it becomes know that the team knew they weren't going to play in July and didn't announce it until October.
Selling season ticket packages without knowing if/when the team will play again is darn near as common in NA minor pro hockey as fudging attendance numbers during the season. So I would ignore ticket sales as any credible indicator of a team (or its league) having confidence that the upcoming season of play is an eventual go. And just because a fan demands immediate repayment, that doesn't mean they receive such responsiveness.

As for the signing of players, I have no insight into what the contract conditions are nor what verbal promises have been made to convince those who signed that they'd begin/resume play in the League at a given time. I can certainly imagine some percentage of players in the A-level or AA-level talent pools being willing to sign a contract with written conditions that allow them to seek other options before a given date without penalty (which may be common already at this level of pro hockey). I can also imagine others in that pool - primarily older guys with families & rookies without career networks/connections - signing up based on verbal promises made of certain start dates for the season. I haven't tracked SPHL or ECHL signings since the first couple of weeks, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a large percentage of those signed being at the extremes of the age range.
 
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royals119

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I saw somewhere recently, but can't find it now, that the BOG is having a phone meeting and will make an announcment regarding the season soon. I guess there isn't much point in discussing it any further until they announce something.
 

JMCx4

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I saw somewhere recently, but can't find it now, that the BOG is having a phone meeting and will make an announcment regarding the season soon. I guess there isn't much point in discussing it any further until they announce something.
Pardon me for asking, but are you new around here? :wg:
 
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tarheelhockey

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The Royals, who I know the most about, average just over 3000 fans in a building that seats just over 7000. Their current marketing plan involves concentrating on getting a big crowd to several Saturday night games with lots of promotions and groups, and not making a big effort at selling the Wednesday night games. If the arena is available to have 3500 fans at a game, they could potentially achieve the same attendance, but they would have to change their approach so they get close to a "sell out" at every game. Might require the league eliminating weeknight games, and back to back home games - which wouldn't be easy, and would probably require less games played.

Even if we set aside the capacity issues, think of what a gameday experience would be like under current conditions.

You get to the arena and get in line to enter. There are 100 people ahead of you. Except now, those people all need to maintain 6 feet of separation. So the line is 600 feet long and stretches halfway into the parking lot. Let's hope the weather's good!

Once you get to the front of the line, it's time to walk the concourse and get to your seat. Except you can't just have huge crowds shouldering past each other. The only way it can work is if the concourse is separated into "lanes" and the 6-foot rule is tightly monitored at choke-points like stairs and intersections. This is experience is about as relaxing as an airport security line.

Finally you get to your seat... watch the game for a while. Take some time to ponder the distance a COVID-laced droplet can fly when someone's screaming at the top of their lungs from a location behind and above you. And whether that distance increases when projected from a vuvuzela...

But it's late and you're getting hungry. Time to go to concessions, where the 6-foot rule has created a massive line that stretches halfway around the concourse. And about an hour from now, you'll be ready to get in the bathroom line which similarly stretches hundreds of feet into the concourse space. Fortunately you had the foresight to do it during gameplay, knowing what happens at intermission when those two lines try to co-exist in the same space.

Time to leave and go home... feel like cramming into the exits with 3000 of your closest friends? Maybe kill some time checking out the merchandise stand. Go get in line...

What this is all leading to, is an extreme level of tension and discomfort simply being in the arena. People will fight over personal space, how masks are supposed to be worn, whether kids should be running around, whether kids should even be there.

There's absolutely no way this works without a widely distributed vaccine. People buy tickets to entertainment events, not anxiety events.
 
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royals119

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Pardon me for asking, but are you new around here? :wg:
Nope. Just found that everyone here is already convinced there won't be a season, and thinks the league office and team staff knew that months ago and just lying to us to steal our money and are going to fold the league/teams after they have bled us dry. Not much point in continuing a "discussion" when everyone has their mind made up. I'm still holding out hope that they are trying to figure out something that will work, and enough fans would support it, even if it isn't at all like a normal season.
 
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