No place to be and miles to go

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If all goes to plan, ice hockey fans will converge on Nottingham for the Magic5 weekend on October 3-4.
In putting the dates into the public domain, the EIHL added a hefty caveat - they were "very provisional" and subject to the Government lifting the ban on mass gatherings.

You could sense the hesitancy in the PR.
There's little else the league can do now but cross its fingers - and hope.
The state of suspension continues for it and every sport around the globe, and the final decision on when it ends is outwith its control.

Planning continues as normal with weekly conference calls of all ten teams. 

 That way, in the event of lockdown and all restrictions ending, ice hockey is, hopefully, ready to roll.

 The Magic5 would see the ten teams play derby games for league points across the two days on the one ice pad. That makes for a busy and fun weekend of hockey and, of equal importance, a chance for fans to meet up and have a few beers.  Those friendships sit at the very heart of the sport.

 It isn't finals weekend, but it's a pretty decent Plan B to relaunch the sport given the abrupt way the 2019-20 season ended and the traditional weekend jamboree was lost.

 The key question is whether restrictions on mass gatherings of over 5000 will be lifted in time.
October's showcase opening weekend is what all fans, and teams need, but the reality is it probably won’t happen.



 The Irish Government has just extended the current ban on large crowds until at least

September, and the briefings in the UK this week started to soften us to the prospect of “some” social distancing in place for the rest of the year.

 As long as that “some” is in place,  sport is frozen. It's a horrible state of limbo to be in.

 They are in the hands of Government Ministers, and they in turn are guided by the science, and the experience of countries further along the curve.

 If “some” special distancing remains in place for the rest of the year, that raises the prospect of the most condensed season outwith war time when occasional games featuring select squads against military teams were staged adhoc.

 And, while no-one has yet come out and declared it 'game over' for sport,  the reality is that might happen. 

 Lock down, shut down and start again 2021.

 That would have a profound, deeply damaging impact on every club and every league.  Some simply wouldn't come back.

 Hockey's past has some deep fallow periods where leagues disbanded and teams folded, but enough people hung around to provide a guiding light for others.

 We may yet need to learn from their experience if we are to fashion a road ahead into 2020-21 and beyond

 'No place to be and miles to go' sang Bruce Springsteen on his Western Stars album.

 Guess we're all there right now.

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