NHL sponsors leak plan scenario for 2020-21 season!

The National Hockey League and its Players’ Association are doing everything they can to make sure they can hold the 2020-21 season, but with the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising numbers of a second wave hitting America, it sounds like the NHL will have to get even more creative to get players back on the ice for the upcoming campaign. 

It has been reported that several scenarios have been put together by the league and its players’ association, and there is also a sense that action for the next campaign might get started in February or even later. This is a major change from what was first expected when commissioner Gary Bettman announced his Return to Play plan, hoping that the 2020-21 regular season calendar would be underway at the beginning of December, however, it has become obvious that most teams need to safely welcome fans during their local games, in order to earn significant additional income.

To make that possible, the NHL needs to find a way to protect fans and players but for now seems to focus on the latter with a similar plan to the one we saw this summer for the playoff tournament. 

TSN’s Rick Westhead has reported that “executives with several companies that sponsor NHL teams tell me talks for 2020-21 season deals presuppose teams will at least begin play in bubbles of some sort.”

“Both the NHL and NHLPA hope to avoid this but cross-border travel and crowds at indoor events are unlikely for many months.”

Westhead adds that “NHL team sponsorships in many markets hang in the balance.

Why would beer and soft drink companies pay millions for pouring rights at arenas where there are no games, concerts or other events?”

It sounds like fans are still in the equation to make things work for the NHL and that could get tricky. What makes it trickier is thinking of how players would react to being caught in a bubble city once again, and that for much longer than they have been during the postseason. 

Sounds like quite a complicated plan. 

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman explained on Tuesday on the Writers’ Bloc, that the NHL could draw inspiration from the National Football League, saying that the NFL allowed fans at games in Jacksonville and KC and possibly the Premier League allowing a certain amount of fans in the stadium is different cause they are all outdoor stadiums. He wonders if the NHL will look at the possibility of holding outdoor games for 2020-21 and therefore have fans in the assistance and more money in teams’ pockets.

We can’t say what it would mean location wise and how the ice quality would be affected in different cities or states. Players must be getting nervous at this idea, or the thought that bubble cities are once again needed to get the next campaign underway.