As COVID-19 cases skyrocket in Canada and the United States, the NHL reiterated in a conference call held by the Board of Governors Thursday that the target date for the start of the 2021 season remains January 1.
Nothing has been set in stone – neither in a format nor in a start date – and the clock is ticking with training camps expected to begin in a month for a New Years start.
Players who also ran their own conference call update for the NHL Players’ Association board of directors on Thursday were not given a date to report to their respective cities.
The only concrete update on both calls, according to sources, is the teams’ growing appetite to open the 2021 season in each of their home arenas, rather than “hybrid” bubbles.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman discussed the details of the proposed hybrid bladders earlier this week, a concept TSN reported on back in September. They remain a possibility for the return of hockey.
However, given the significant cost of running the bubbles, as well as the potential loss of revenue from games played in neutral locations, it is preferable for each team to travel from city to city for a shortened regular season. The NFL and MLB both conducted their seasons this way. The NHL spent an estimated $ 75 to 90 million to stage the 2020 Stanley Cup playoff bubbles in Edmonton and Toronto.
A city-to-city 2021 schedule would include temporary realignments of the divisions, including a likely one-off, all-Canadian division – which rabid ice hockey fans might consider the only gift from the pandemic. (Good luck predicting the order of this division!)
Teams would be allowed to have limited numbers of fans in their arenas as required by local and regional health authorities. This would allow teams to generate marginal gate revenue in the hopes that capacity would expand as the season progresses, a vaccine would become widespread, and that revenue from signage and advertising in the arena would be recouped through regional broadcasts will.
Teams would likely travel to division opponents to play a short series of games, along the lines of a baseball plan with two games in a row or three games in four nights, before moving on to the next stop. This would reduce the travel and time the players spend on families.
The only certainty for the 2021 season is that it is not an 82-game table. There’s no concept on the table that includes a full-length regular season. There are numerous game plan models, ranging from 60 or 62 games to 56 and up to 48 games. This is traditionally the minimum required for an acceptable length in previous lockout-shortened campaigns.
With a shortened season, the NHL players have adjusted to a possible division of salaries. It is already planned that they will only receive 72 percent of their declared salary for the 2021 season, with 20 percent repaid to owners for 2019-20 season losses, plus a 10 percent salary deferment. (It’s 72 percent because it’s 20 percent from the top, minus 10 percent of the remaining 80 percent.)
To date, the NHLPA has not received a proposal from the NHL – and finances have not been discussed at the request of the Board of Governors – but NHLPA members have been told to expect a salary deferral for next season rather than a proration.
That would not change the amount of money players get just when they get it and it would appear to be a much more palatable option for union membership. In exchange for supporting the owners’ cash flow outside of the collective agreement ratified in July, NHL players would likely seek something in return.
What that could be remains to be seen. Almost every economic forecast predicts that players’ debts to owners will rise to $ 1 billion after the 2021 season, based on the system’s planned 50:50 revenue, which will be shared between players and owners.
The unknown is natural for 2020.
As cases rise across the continent, lockdowns will begin, as they did in Manitoba on Thursday – with gatherings mostly limited to household members. All athletics facilities have been closed and the jets are in need of an exemption to hold a training camp in Winnipeg in mid-December.
That remains a big “if” at this point as many governors and owners wonder if a February 1st start date is more realistic.
The NHL has continued to focus on the January 1 launch date as the league ideally wants to award the Stanley Cup by mid-July. An end to midsummer would not only allow U.S. television rights holder NBC to complete coverage ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, it would also allow the NHL to resume a more traditional schedule for the 2021-22 season and beyond – especially with winter Beijing 2022 Olympics should disrupt this season’s schedule in February.
It was Mike Tyson who famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
Up to this point, the NHL and NHLPA have not made a formal decision, knowing full well that a blow will occur with the second wave of coronavirus to surround the continent.
Contact Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @frank_seravalli
