No parents, no tournaments: Big changes floated in minor hockey’s bid to return

James Bradburn does not know if it is possible to truly sanitize a hockey rink. There are dressing rooms and benches — “the dirtiest thing even on a good day” — and swarms of children passing through after every game and practice, leaving a trail that seems too wide to disinfect.

And that was before the pandemic.

Minor hockey executives across Canada are grappling with uncertainty this spring, waiting for any sign to indicate whether the game will be allowed to return to local arenas this fall. Hockey Canada does not know for sure, and some of its members have begun to prepare for a dramatically different landscape.

“I know, for a fact, that we’ll lose some families because they just won’t feel safe without a vaccine,” said Bradburn, president of the Peterborough Hockey Association, in Central Ontario. “There will be families who just won’t come out until that’s sorted. It’s too risky.”

Governing bodies have been developing contingency plans and considering changes to the way the game could be played under the cloud of COVID-19. Some potential changes seem obvious, such as forcing players to supply their own water bottles, and some seem destined to cause heated debate among parents.

On Tuesday, a governing body in Ontario announced it was putting “a stop to any further planning of minor hockey tournaments” for the upcoming season. The Ontario Hockey Federation has declared all existing tournaments have been “put on hold until further notice,” and that no team will be allowed to register for tournaments inside or outside the province.

Hockey Canada, meanwhile, said it is discussing a variety of plans. In a statement to The Athletic, the organization said its board of directors would decide when hockey would resume, “with guidance from public health officials,” and until then, it could not “provide an accurate or fair comment on the state of minor hockey.”

“At this point, for us, everything’s on the table,” said Nic Jansen, the executive director of Hockey New Brunswick. “We’re not eliminating any possibility. We’re willing to look at a number of options.”

He has read many suggestions about ways to make minor hockey safer. In order to limit contact on the ice, for example, the game might be played at four-on-four, or even three-on-three.

“We think sports are important for the physical and the mental wellbeing of youth across the country,” Jansen said. “But we fully understand that, until a vaccine is in place, in order for organized sports to happen, there will be changes that have to be made.”

Back in Ontario, someone raised a question about equipment during a regular briefing from the Greater Toronto Hockey League. Would it reduce the risk of transmission, the questioner wondered, if youth players moved from their regular wire cages to a full plastic face shield?

Another question executives are facing could result in a contentious answer. As public health officials stress the importance of limiting crowds, the stands in local arenas could become a hot spot. In order to play a game, local associations might have to limit the number of parents allowed into the building.

“We kind of kicked around an idea of one parent per child,” said Glenn McIntyre, the general manager of Brampton Hockey, in suburban Toronto. “I don’t know how that would actually get regulated, or cast in stone. How do you police it, even?”

He suggested it could also change traffic patterns in the arenas.

“Maybe the lobby becomes obsolete,” he said. “There’s emergency entrances to all the rinks, so maybe they open up those and not allow people back into the lobby area. I don’t know.”

McIntyre usually spends hours inside the arena every Saturday during the season. He is there to help, to answer questions and to direct traffic. If there is a concern about the number of people who are allowed inside the building, he said he would likely stay home to free up a spot for someone else.

“I’m not somebody who worries too much, health-wise,” he said. “But you know what? I don’t like going anywhere people are right now.”

Jordan Bateman is an executive with the Langley Minor Hockey Association, in suburban Vancouver, and he is also an executive with the Independent Contractors and Business Association in British Columbia, which are unexpectedly similar this year. Both, he said, have to demonstrate risk mitigation in the face of the virus.

“It’s one thing to try to get outside sports going,” he said. “But hockey is so much more complicated because it’s an inside sport. And it’s a contact sport.”

Bateman outlined many of those complications in an article published last month and circulated widely in minor hockey circles. (He stressed these were his opinions and not those of the association.)

It will take time to disinfect arenas, he said, which means time would have to be built into the schedule between ice rentals. It would no longer be enough to save 10 minutes for the ice resurfacer to clean the ice — it might take a half-hour for workers to clean up after a single use.

Especially for arenas with multiple ice pads, efforts would have to be made to stagger start times. That would ease concerns over traffic in high-use areas, such as washrooms.

Executives might also consider requiring players in the younger age groups to get dressed at home, and arrive at the rink needing only to tie their skates. (Goaltenders would likely be the exceptions.)

There would not be much time spent inside the dressing room. Or, for parents, time in the stands.

“That’s what really hurts the most — it’s that social component that’s going to get stripped out,” said Bateman. “You become a little team. You make good friends throughout the year. I can tell you the names of the two dads who I stood beside for almost 90 percent of my kid’s games last year.”

“We all have a role to play in minimizing the impact,” GTHL president Don West said in a message emailed to stakeholders around Toronto.

The GTHL warned executives they needed to “be prepared for a decline in registration” not only due to fears of the coronavirus but also because of the vast economic stresses it has caused. Some families might opt to send their children back to house league to minimize the cost of playing hockey, the email warned.

It also warned that even if the season began on time, it could be paused again if a second wave of infection swept across Southern Ontario.

Among the options being considered were having teams play fewer games, and competing in their geographic area of the city. The league also suggested games could be played with “fewer, if any, people in the stands.”

Ultimately, the GTHL note conceded the worst-case scenario: “There may be no return of hockey until there is a treatment or vaccine developed.”

In Peterborough, Bradburn is waiting for direction from the governing bodies. The association just met with the city to discuss its ice rental contracts for next season. No payment is due on those rentals until August, which leaves time for the minor hockey world to make some decisions.

“I really do foresee some big changes,” Bradburn said. “I don’t really think this can be done until there’s a vaccine, and people will feel safe in settings with a mass of people.”

(Photo: Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)