Report: NHL to potentially return in North Dakota in August

[shrader]

15 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

I would support doing something like this to hand out the cup, especially if we figure out via antibody tests that way more people have had this virus than we realize (I read that Iceland has tested a higher percentage of their population than any other country, and 50% of positives were asymptomatic) and it becomes clear that immunity is a thing. 

But August is way too late. A *potential* normal start for next season takes precedence for me over handing out a cup this year, which as dark points out, the nhl doesn't care THAT much about since they're willing to not do it roughly once every seven years 

Cup lottery!

[Brawndo]

Buffalo is a potential site as well

 

[PASabreFan]

59 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

I would support doing something like this to hand out the cup, especially if we figure out via antibody tests that way more people have had this virus than we realize (I read that Iceland has tested a higher percentage of their population than any other country, and 50% of positives were asymptomatic) and it becomes clear that immunity is a thing. 

But August is way too late. A *potential* normal start for next season takes precedence for me over handing out a cup this year, which as dark points out, the nhl doesn't care THAT much about since they're willing to not do it roughly once every seven years 

It's hard to imagine how we get to herd immunity (60 to 70% infected) quickly. Or how we even find out. How can anyone have confidence that our government will be able to get everyone tested for antibodies? A sampling, sure.

You lost me on the second part. The only time a Cup hasn't been awarded was in 2005.

[inkman]

3 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:

Maybe more than any professional league in North America, the NHL is desperate to have games, generate some gate revenues.

They act sooooo cash poor.  I'd love to have insight into their finances but me thinks a few of these owners aren't printing $$$ based on hockey revenues.  

[inkman]

Why are they even thinking about playing hockey right now? 

[PASabreFan]

7 minutes ago, inkman said:

They act sooooo cash poor.  I'd love to have insight into their finances but me thinks a few of these owners aren't printing $$$ based on hockey revenues.  

It's a hobby for most of the owners, like Terry. They make some, they lose some, there's a huge cashout when they sell, like OSP. The idea they have to somehow, some way re-open the business to survive is off the mark. They're not the corner bakery. Right, let's rush to support the Pegulas.

1 minute ago, inkman said:

Why are they even thinking about playing hockey right now? 

It's mind-boggling.

[dudacek]

15 minutes ago, inkman said:

Why are they even thinking about playing hockey right now? 

Because it is what every business needs to be doing in order to be ready when society gets back to normal?

I mean I get the relative unimportance in the big scheme of things, but it is their livelihood. What should they be doing instead?

[PASabreFan]

33 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Because it is what every business needs to be doing in order to be ready when society gets back to normal?

I mean I get the relative unimportance in the big scheme of things, but it is their livelihood. What should they be doing instead?

Not to put words in inkman's mouth, but I think the question is: why is the NHL even thinking about finishing this season? Of course they have to think about the future. That future should be training camp in September.

[nfreeman]

4 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Not to put words in inkman's mouth, but I think the question is: why is the NHL even thinking about finishing this season? Of course they have to think about the future. That future should be training camp in September.

Why?

What if holding a no-fans playoff tournament in a couple of neutral sites over the summer would net the NHL, say, $200MM in TV money, of which half goes to the players?  What's wrong with them wanting to do that, or at least looking into the feasibility of doing so?

[Curt]

3 hours ago, shrader said:

Exactly.  I heard one yesterday on one of the espn shows saying that the NBA is exploring televised horse games between two players.  If what the NHL is doing here is embarrassing, what exactly is that idea?

It’s a relatively safe way for a league to generate income.  All you need is a few camera people for each player.  The players don’t even need to be in the same locations.

[Neo]

Doers think of doing.  Hallelujah.

[PASabreFan]

5 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Why?

What if holding a no-fans playoff tournament in a couple of neutral sites over the summer would net the NHL, say, $200MM in TV money, of which half goes to the players?  What's wrong with them wanting to do that, or at least looking into the feasibility of doing so?

I'll think about it. But nobody really knows how this thing is going to play out in the next couple of months. The pandemic won't be over, we know that.

The thing I can't process at the moment is the idea of having games in "safe" places. Safe for whom? The players? The residents of the communities? The people who will have to work at these events? If it's still unsafe in NHL cities, that answers your question about the wisdom of playing in North Dakota.

4 minutes ago, Neo said:

Doers think of doing.  Hallelujah.

Do it at MSG then.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Because it is what every business needs to be doing in order to be ready when society gets back to normal?

I mean I get the relative unimportance in the big scheme of things, but it is their livelihood. What should they be doing instead?

Trouble is 'this' is the 'new normal'.  I really believe 'that' 'old normal' is not coming back.  I don't hink going forward long-term will be 'this' bad, but ...

[shrader]

22 minutes ago, Curt said:

It’s a relatively safe way for a league to generate income.  All you need is a few camera people for each player.  The players don’t even need to be in the same locations.

Right.  But it's a concept that I couldn't see having much longevity.  At least the hockey proposal here is actual hockey.  With televised horse, I think the interest would fall off really quickly, even among the bouncyball junkies.  If the NHL tried a skills competition right now between a few people, it wouldn't even get 5 minutes of my attention.

My point of view on the whole thing is that they should just focus on the widespread restart and not waste much time on the gimicky short term stuff.

[inkman]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Because it is what every business needs to be doing in order to be ready when society gets back to normal?

I mean I get the relative unimportance in the big scheme of things, but it is their livelihood. What should they be doing instead?

Staying safe with their families.  Plan for next season.  

[Randall Flagg]

2 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

It's hard to imagine how we get to herd immunity (60 to 70% infected) quickly. Or how we even find out. How can anyone have confidence that our government will be able to get everyone tested for antibodies? A sampling, sure.

You lost me on the second part. The only time a Cup hasn't been awarded was in 2005.

You can read about new advancements in any part of fighting this new disease daily. We couldn't test anybody merely weeks ago and have now given what, almost 2 million? Months is a long time. This stuff isn't being made or even directed in the halls of congress, either, so I'm not worried about "our government"'s ability to get people tested. What will, IMO, end up happening is that you'll be able to test a large and representative sample of people as to have an understanding of how prevalent this virus was, and go from there.

 

And while that's true, the prevailing sentiment of everything I read about the last lockout from a vast majority of posters and internet people, is that the NHL is generally completely willing to go without hockey for a season again like they did in 2004. It was written here, and not heavily contested, a million times in 2012, and was also brought up before the CBA was just extended a few months ago. 

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, inkman said:

Staying safe with their families.  Plan for next season.  

They are staying safe with their families while they plan for all contingencies.

I don’t get the big difference between planning for a playoff four months from now and planning for a training camp five months from now. Each are moving targets that may or may not hit because of the risk involved. Each is predicated with a “can we?”

Conventional wisdom Is that things aren’t going to return to normal until effective vaccines and/or treatments are in place, but also that some relaxation is possible prior to that, if and when conditions allow. All business should be looking for creative ways to return to operation within public safety parameters.

I don’t see why the NHL should be behaving any differently.

Edited April 7, 2020 by dudacek

[nfreeman]

2 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

I'll think about it. But nobody really knows how this thing is going to play out in the next couple of months. The pandemic won't be over, we know that.

The thing I can't process at the moment is the idea of having games in "safe" places. Safe for whom? The players? The residents of the communities? The people who will have to work at these events? If it's still unsafe in NHL cities, that answers your question about the wisdom of playing in North Dakota.

Well, I don't think the NHL or anyone else is saying that they're going to do this, regardless of the status of the pandemic.  They're just looking into the feasibility of various options.  Will those options inevitably involve weighing health risks against a big pile of cash?  Yes indeedly -- but that is no different from the calculation that any other business will find itself having to make. 

[Curt]

52 minutes ago, shrader said:

Right.  But it's a concept that I couldn't see having much longevity.  At least the hockey proposal here is actual hockey.  With televised horse, I think the interest would fall off really quickly, even among the bouncyball junkies.  If the NHL tried a skills competition right now between a few people, it wouldn't even get 5 minutes of my attention.

My point of view on the whole thing is that they should just focus on the widespread restart and not waste much time on the gimicky short term stuff.

I’m sure they are working on the restart also.  The horse idea is something they could do in the meantime, before a restart would be feasible.  They also are doing an NBA 2K tournament with nba players playing the NBA video game against each other, on TV.  I didn’t watch any, but I’m sure it could be slightly entertaining, with trash talk and what not.

The league wants to keep exposure/interest up and the networks are desperate for content.  It’s more than what the NHL is doing.

[Radar]

5 hours ago, Neo said:

This is the sort of tortured analogy one gets when one ties everything back to some class struggle narrative.  Try this one ...

Sally made muffins for the first time, and they failed to rise in the oven ....  because ...

(Thought starter ...  I provided a name, assumed a gender, described a cooking implement and a food category .... you can write PAGES with this)

Although class struggle is a real thing.

[PASabreFan]

1 hour ago, Randall Flagg said:

You can read about new advancements in any part of fighting this new disease daily. We couldn't test anybody merely weeks ago and have now given what, almost 2 million? Months is a long time. This stuff isn't being made or even directed in the halls of congress, either, so I'm not worried about "our government"'s ability to get people tested. What will, IMO, end up happening is that you'll be able to test a large and representative sample of people as to have an understanding of how prevalent this virus was, and go from there.

 

And while that's true, the prevailing sentiment of everything I read about the last lockout from a vast majority of posters and internet people, is that the NHL is generally completely willing to go without hockey for a season again like they did in 2004. It was written here, and not heavily contested, a million times in 2012, and was also brought up before the CBA was just extended a few months ago. 

You know who's taking credit for that testing ramp-up? Government. Probably rightly so. Government paid for it, ordered it, administered it etc. The NIH is government. Your NY County Health Department is government. Universities get funding from the government. But I'll change my wording. I'm not confident that the system can get that many people tested. Of course I don't know what number that is. I do care where that testing will occur. I seriously doubt it will make its way to my remote PA county with 43,000 people. And re-opening the country, according to Dr. Birx, relies on every nook and cranny of the country having the ability to test. Test, locate, quarantine, contact trace — containment and not mitigation. That all has to happen by the time                                                         wants to hang the shingle back up. End of April, I'm guessing.

[PASabreFan]

1 hour ago, nfreeman said:

Well, I don't think the NHL or anyone else is saying that they're going to do this, regardless of the status of the pandemic.  They're just looking into the feasibility of various options.  Will those options inevitably involve weighing health risks against a big pile of cash?  Yes indeedly -- but that is no different from the calculation that any other business will find itself having to make. 

That's all fine. I want Bettman and the board of governors and players to weigh the health risk to each respective NHL city, that's all. Not West Bumblefudge, where the men are men and the sheep are scared.

[shrader]

8 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

That's all fine. I want Bettman and the board of governors and players to weigh the health risk to each respective NHL city, that's all. Not West Bumblefudge, where the men are men and the sheep are scared.

It's not like the NHL states that they're playing games out of Englestad whether North Dakota likes it or not. 

[PASabreFan]

4 minutes ago, shrader said:

It's not like the NHL states that they're playing games out of Englestad whether North Dakota likes it or not. 

I know.

You know what all this feels like to me? There's a massive buildup to a monster hurricane, but as soon as it hits, we're ready to move on to something else.

Let's get through wave 1 of a worldwide pandemic first. You all can discuss how on earth the NHL manages to award a Cup this year. I am done. And I'm taking my ball.

[shrader]

3 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

I know.

You know what all this feels like to me? There's a massive buildup to a monster hurricane, but as soon as it hits, we're ready to move on to something else.

Let's get through wave 1 of a worldwide pandemic first. You all can discuss how on earth the NHL manages to award a Cup this year. I am done. And I'm taking my ball.

It's a hockey board.  Do you really want the entire world to be consumed with COVID conversation 24/7?  We've been hoarding TP but maybe we should have been hoarding antidepressants.