Multiple sources, including players and parents effected, are reporting that the NAHL’s Corpus Christi IceRays will be taking the 2020-2021 season off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other sources are also reporting that there will be no hockey in Alaska during 2020 and that the soonest it can return will be January 2021. The two NAHL teams based in Alaska are both said to be looking to play in Minnesota until the end of December.
If Minnesota can not be worked out for the Alaska teams, they too are said to be close to taking the year off.
Other teams are also rumored to be looking at taking the year off, while no firm information has been made available.
The North East Generals have confirmed that due to restrictions in Massachusetts, they will be playing their home games in Connecticut and Rhode Island until those restrictions are lifted.
With States limiting or completely eliminating seating capacity for many teams, more teams, at every level are expected to face these decisions. Revenue is critical for all team survival, and those teams and league who are ticket revenue and advertising revenue dependent are now seeing that time for a season is running out.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the United States, we completely expect a lot more teams to take the year off, or get shut down by State and local health authorities.
As I said five months ago, if you don’t have a backup plan, you might be a little too late to get one now.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
