The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced that they will play tomorrow night’s home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins with restricted attendance. The game will be closed to the public, with admission limited to club personnel, credentialed media, broadcast partners, NHL officials and essential arena staff.
This will be the first NHL game played without fans in the stands, though the San Jose Sharks are facing a similar decision when they return off their current road trip.
The rest of the Blue Jackets’ home games are also scheduled to be played with restricted attendance. Columbus has five games remaining during the regular season, but are also in a race for the playoffs.
Today, the World Health Organization classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic, causing several sporting organizations to cancel or restrict attendance at upcoming events. The NCAA Men’s and Women’s basketball tournaments have been closed to fans, and this is likely not the final NHL team to close their doors.
Frank Seravalli of TSN wrote today how the outbreak could affect the NHL’s financials, including examining the impact it could have on next year’s salary cap. The cap is based on a projection of hockey-related revenue, something that would obviously decrease without ticket sales. At this point it is entirely too early to say what exactly could happen to the league, especially if playoff games are affected this season.
I hope we can hear the trash talk
The minor component in all of this is that the players probably haven’t faced this type of situation since they were kids. No pity party for the players, mind you, but this will be downright bizarre for the broadcasters, as well as us listeners. Games will no doubt sound like they’re being played in a mausoleum. Might not be a great idea for the cannon to go off, either. A global pandemic is no joke.
Are they still going to fire the cannon when they score
Lmao the burning question we all want answered
If it’s going to be anything like the Charlotte Checkers(AHL) games during the hurricane last year then I reckon they will.
wait – you mean the affiliate of the Carolina HURRICANES? fitting.
If you haven’t seen it, look it up. Looked like they had a blast considering the circumstances.
The sad part about this is that the primary worry of arena owners and operators is of being held legally liable for someone contracting this virus. Highly unlikely any reasonably healthy person will get sick by attending a game (unless your team really stinks it up that night, lol!), but no one wants to get sued in case someone did.
Well no. It’s that the Gov of Ohio is going to announce a ban on gatherings of 1,000 or more to try and contain the spread of the virus. It’s why the NCAA is playing March madness without fans.
It’s also that this is 10x more deadly than the flu and something like 300x more contagious than the flu. It is possible that half the population could get it. Even though most will experience mild symptoms that will mimic the flu or a bad cold, the reality is that it’s a novel virus. We’ve never seen it before, so we don’t have antibodies built up (some might have a small amount of antibodies built up that can protect against a mild flu), and we don’t have a vaccine or a treatment other than supportive therapies.
So those are the main reasons, not legal liability as I’m pretty sure any lawsuit would be thrown out in a court.
Substitute the words SARS or MERS virus for the current strain. They were also supposed to devastate us, but it didn’t happen. Do you not think Governors and Mayors are being overly cautious due to the blowback they might receive if a few deaths did occur due to people contracting this virus at big public events?
And if you think lawsuits over something like this would be thrown out so easily, you may want to look at some settlements over much less serious things than this. And that’s not to mention the pins and needles insurance companies are standing on in case some venue they insure is the source of an outbreak.
I have concerns going to a game. I have a friend that’s a 30 yr old iron-man tri athletic competitor that caught it at the office
@healthyinil – If that doesn’t hit close to home, nothing will, eh?
No disrespect to those that have been affected by this disease , and the league , on a positive note hopefully no one in arena gets sick which maybe helped with the closing arenas to prevent contamination spreading to teams , staff, media will hate to see this affect salary cap but on medical pandemic is serious.
On a brighter note Never been to Columbus game thou back in 80’s went to a AC/DC concert in Memphis , thou was large audience that cannon they used in their album tour was loud and echoed for while and things fell from roof, cannon going off was louder than music , now as said can imagine how it will sound with limited people in large arena.
NBA cancels game schedule starting tomorrow, as breaking news Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for Coronavirus, NHL will discuss scenario tomorrow with owners and NHLPA and medical experts.
I can almost guarantee you that they will postpone the season in some fashion. Better to be super safe than have a fan in an arena infecting people because they think they have a cold. Also better to be super safe than to player comedown with the virus.
I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I just feel like it’s better safe than sorry at this point.