The BCHL remains hopeful for this year and U Sports is not.
When it comes to playing in the fall, BCHL commissioner Chris Hebb is trying to remains optimistic while Canada West, which comes under the umbrella of U Sports, made the decision to scrap almost all Canadian university athletic activity until at least January.
First, the hockey where Hebb spoke recently to Brendan Pawliw of MyPGNow.com on a range of topics.
On having a partially full building:
“We think we could start at a 25% arena capacity at the beginning and as the province allows, we would like to move it up to 50% or more in the new year so we’re talking about a phased approach, which is something that is attractive to the government.”
On having no fans at games:
“For us, that’s not a way we can run our business. We’re based on having bums in seats and that means ticket sponsorships based on having people in the stands.”
On the relationship with fans:
“There’s a lot of things that we have taken for granted, we’ve always expected our fans and sponsors to be there for us and we know that relationship is tenuous. While we don’t think our fans are going to not come back I think it’s been hard on them because we’ve got folks out there that have lost their jobs and have taken cuts in pay.”
On the 2020-21 schedule:
“If things go well and we get the municipal authorities and the provincial authorities on board, we could start the season on time, we’re not counting on it and we are definitely building schedules that will allow us to move the start date back. We believe that we will come out with a schedule that starts in the normal period of time and then what we will do is react in two-week increments and pull back from our 54-game schedule.”
On the 2020 playoff financial hit:
“It wasn’t just the playoff revenue, which we all count on to get back to break-even, teams in our league are not moneymakers, we have a collective loss every year and this additional loss we think collectively was about three million dollars.”
On the Spruce Kings show home lottery:
“The Spruce Kings are one of our strongest franchises and we feel that the lottery is a terrific opportunity for the team to make the money it needs.”
The full interview and the entire story can be found right here.
.@GoBCHL Commissioner Chris Hebb spoke with @mypgnow about the status of the upcoming season | https://t.co/7E4wxzIWiW #CityofPG pic.twitter.com/1NEY9gpRvN
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) June 5, 2020
The UNBC Timberwolves got word this week that their soccer season has been cancelled and their basketball season will only run January to March if at all.
U Sports and three of its conferences — Canada West, Atlantic University Sport, and Ontario University Athletics, needed to give its disappointed athletes enough time to make other arrangements (if necessary) for the fall since
it is highly unlikely the ban on large gatherings will change by then.
BREAKING: A heartbreaking day for @UNBCATHLETICS, as @CanadaWest has made the difficult decision to cancel all 2020 first-semester competition. Read the details here: https://t.co/0FJ6xJhneR pic.twitter.com/7zhd0UnXAr
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) June 8, 2020
“As a former student-athlete and coach I feel deeply for everyone who won’t be able to experience the joys of university competition this fall,” said Canada West president and University of Victoria athletic director Clint Hamilton in a news release.
“While cancellation isn’t the outcome anyone associated with university sport wanted, I’m confident in the fact that this difficult decision is in the best interests of our student-athletes. Health and safety are at the forefront of everything we do and simply put there was no way to adequately ensure the safety of everyone involved in university sport during competition this fall.”
.@CanadaWest President Clint Hamilton on University teams returning to play, “If there’s no vaccine and the physical distancing requirements have not changed across our 4 provinces it’s going to be hard to envision us playing a January to March season.” #usports #canwest
— Claire Hanna (@clahanna) June 8, 2020
#
Prince George lost a huge hockey fan and community booster this week with the passing of Bill Bond.
The husband of Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond passed away from a stroke. He was 70.
Tributes, condolences, pour in over social media following passing of Bill Bond https://t.co/AnTyioiiem
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) June 9, 2020
Our thoughts are with Shirley Bond and her family at this difficult time. pic.twitter.com/dKRVwBSMON
— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) June 9, 2020
I would like to add my deepest condolences to Shirley and her entire family.
FROM THE QUOTE RACK
With the NHL announcing its training camps for the 24 teams resuming play will open on July 10th, I think it is safe to suggest that this season’s Norris Trophy winner will be a stay at home defenceman.
*Contributor Marc Ragovin of New York
One of the options that MLB is looking at is a 76 game season. Well, good news for those who worried the Baltimore Orioles would lose 100 games this year.
*Comedy writer Janice Hough of Palo Alto, California www.leftcoastsportsbabe.com
Next up on ESPN’s ’30 for 30′ series is ‘Long Gone Summer’ which features, among other things, Mark McGwire’s 1998 steroid-fueled chasing of Roger Maris’ season HR record. So, they’re going from ‘The Last Dance’ to ‘The Last Dunce.’
*Contributor Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, California
One of the first sports to return to England after lockdown restrictions were eased after 2½ months was pigeon racing. The hard part, insiders say, was getting the birds to fly 6 feet apart while keeping their little N95 masks on.
*Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times http://www.seattletimes.com/author/dwight-perry/
IN CASE, YOU MISSED IT:
Reuters reports an elephant in the Washington, DC, zoo took up playing the harmonica. Zookeepers nicknamed her CFL because she plays for peanuts.
*Canadian comedy writer RJ Currie www.Sportsdeke.com
Hartley Miller is the news and sports supervisor and morning news anchor for 94.3 the GOAT and Country 97.
He also is the 94.3 the Goat radio colour commentator for P.G. Cougars home games.
His column appears Fridays on myprincegeorgenow.com.
Send along a quote, note, or anecdote to [email protected]