Rumblings of a potential big delay to the start of the 2020 - 2021 NHL season.

In the early days following the suspension of the 2019 - 2020 the National Hockey League regular season the NHL made it clear that, whatever their plans to restart the current would entail, their top priority moving forward would be to preserve the integrity of the 2020 - 2021 season moving forward. It seems as though those plans may have changed. 

Not only is it difficult now to envision how the players could finish out the season, in a 24 team playoff format no less, quickly enough to see the 2020 - 20201 season start on time, but there are now rumblings that the NHL itself may look at significantly delaying the start of the season. A recent report from NHL insider John Shannon, formerly of Sportsnet, indicates that the veteran NHL reporter has been hearing from his sources that the league will not begin that season without the possibility of fans being in attendance for their games. 

From Shannon:

Truly believe, and in talking to many in the NHL world, a 2020-2021 season will not begin until people are sitting in the seats.

Shannon is extremely well connected in the hockey community and he would not make this kind of statement lightly given his reputation as a journalist. In order for this to happen however every city that currently houses an NHL team would not only have to lift it's current guidelines on social distancing, but would also have to allow people to gather by the thousands at sporting events once again. Given the way government officials have treated the pandemic thus far it seems highly unlikely that we are anywhere close to stadiums being filled to capacity once again, and who knows when government officials from every single NHL city will come to a consensus in that regard. 

Now do not get me wrong I do understand where the league is coming from here. The NHL relies on ticket revenue more than any of the other major sports in North America, primarily due to the fact that their television deals are nowhere near as rich as those of the National Football League or Major League Baseball League for example. The current salary cap and player contracts were all put in place based on the fact that the ticket revenue would continue pouring in, but the current global crisis has completely changed the game. 

I only hope that the NHL does not push the 2020 - 2021 season too far back as I am sure most of us would prefer to focus on hockey during the winter months.