Quote:
Originally Posted by chummer
Chris Johnston saying they are looking at two hubs now, Vegas and Columbus.
Fewer governments to deal with if they stay in one country. Also teams coming from the States to Canada would have to quarantine for two weeks, that just wouldn't wyingork.
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It was pretty obvious a cross border tournament was going to be impossible with the firm extension on border closures and quarantine requirements.
I remain entirely unconvinced that they're going to be able to make it work in two cities even.
some issues i see immediately:
- How many ice surfaces are there in Vegas that are playable for NHL games? Ditto Columbus. With ~14 teams playing games, there's either going to be a really ####ed up condensed schedule with teams playing all throughout the day, or many teams will be playing in sub standard rinks. Would they even be able to televise the games in the sub standard rinks effectively? If not either of those, they could just stretch the number of games out over more days, but without doing the math it seems we'd be playing out the playoffs until November at that pace.
- Vegas is in the desert. I know it's a brand new arena, but how good would the ice surface reasonably be after 3.5- 7 games per day?? I would guess the ice is going to be dog#### at best. Anyone who has been to Ohio knows it can be a humid swamp during the summer too. Can't imagine the ice there will be any better.
- If a team does become infected, what happens? No one has effectively answered this. In the bundesliga it meant that whole team sits and is quarantined. That might work during a regular season setting but certainly wont in a playoff setting. Does it mean forfeiture? I can't imagine the teams will like that.
- If Vegas sees a huge resurgence in cases 2 weeks in as people flock to the strip, what would the league do if a whole hub got shut down?
- Will all international players be forced to live away from their families for the entire duration of the playoffs? We're talking at least 3 months imo. That seems untenable.
These are basic level questions. No answers at all imo. The more complex questions (i.e. what to do if 2 team members test positive? What is the threshold for antibody tests if a player has already contracted the illness?) certainly don't have valid answers yet. It seems woefully irresponsible to charge down this path still.