Season tickets and a summer of uncertainty
Sport is facing the most uncertain future as we start to look ahead to emerging from lockdown.
There is every prospect it won't re-start until 2021, and -worst case scenario - the 2020-21 season could be lost in its entirety.
Sport needs an audience, and that means mass crowds.
That cannot happen until the coronavirus pandemic has subsided and we can be confident of lifting all social distancing measures.
In the middle of April, with at least three more weeks in lockdown, that still feels like a point on the horizon.
The new ice hockey season is slated for a late August start, and some clubs have started talking about season tickets, but that simply raises one question: what exactly are they selling?
The desire to carry on as normal is compelling and wholly understandable - and there needs to be a degree of pre-planning right now. The summer recess is a busy time for coaches trying to build teams and recruit, while administrators have much to organise before a puck is dropped.
Fans also need that sense of normality - that their team is busy behind the scenes and things will endure - in such uncertain times.
They want their teams to survive, and one way of doing that is to invest in a season ticket which delivers precious revenue in the long summer recess.
And they WILL get a seat when the action finally resumes.
It's just, right now, no-one knows for sure what the EIHL will look like, how many games it will feature, or even which competitions will run.
No-one knows when it will even start, and what happens if there is a second wave of coronavirus and social distancing is re-introduced.
Governments are already talking of a 'W' shaped recovery - one that sees social distancing lifted and then re-instated in response to further outbreaks of the virus.
Potentially, everything will change, probably forever.
How sports, like ice hockey, are meant to have a disaster recovery plan for such eventualities is hard to see.
It has dealt with individual teams folding, and battled through the pain of reconstruction before, but, right now, it is hostage to a virus that has halted society in its tracks.
Sport, along with the live music scene, cinemas, festival, and theatres, faces the specific challenge of operating with audiences that could be quarantined at short notice, or finding a new model built around games streamed online without crowds who buy cyber season tickets.
It sounds alien and fanciful - and it still is - but it may be part of an unchartered reality which lies ahead.
Buying a season ticket to ice hockey right now is little more than a donation and an expression of support for your team. In a time of uncertainty that commitment is important.
Clubs such as Manchester are taking names and holding off payment until July, possibly even longer depending on how the summer pans out.
That seems about the right approach given the whirlwind of uncertainty blowing around the league right now. If we're still in a state of flux come late summer, then the 2020-21 season may as well be packed up in a box and put back on the shelf.
But ice hockey is also a business, and cash is king.
Very soon clubs need to turn those expressions of support into direct debits.
But, right now, they stand at the back of a very long queue waiting to emerge out of lockdown.
Sport needs an audience, and that means mass crowds.
That cannot happen until the coronavirus pandemic has subsided and we can be confident of lifting all social distancing measures.
In the middle of April, with at least three more weeks in lockdown, that still feels like a point on the horizon.
The new ice hockey season is slated for a late August start, and some clubs have started talking about season tickets, but that simply raises one question: what exactly are they selling?
The desire to carry on as normal is compelling and wholly understandable - and there needs to be a degree of pre-planning right now. The summer recess is a busy time for coaches trying to build teams and recruit, while administrators have much to organise before a puck is dropped.
Fans also need that sense of normality - that their team is busy behind the scenes and things will endure - in such uncertain times.
They want their teams to survive, and one way of doing that is to invest in a season ticket which delivers precious revenue in the long summer recess.
And they WILL get a seat when the action finally resumes.It's just, right now, no-one knows for sure what the EIHL will look like, how many games it will feature, or even which competitions will run.
No-one knows when it will even start, and what happens if there is a second wave of coronavirus and social distancing is re-introduced.
Governments are already talking of a 'W' shaped recovery - one that sees social distancing lifted and then re-instated in response to further outbreaks of the virus.
Potentially, everything will change, probably forever.
How sports, like ice hockey, are meant to have a disaster recovery plan for such eventualities is hard to see.
It has dealt with individual teams folding, and battled through the pain of reconstruction before, but, right now, it is hostage to a virus that has halted society in its tracks.
Sport, along with the live music scene, cinemas, festival, and theatres, faces the specific challenge of operating with audiences that could be quarantined at short notice, or finding a new model built around games streamed online without crowds who buy cyber season tickets.
It sounds alien and fanciful - and it still is - but it may be part of an unchartered reality which lies ahead.Buying a season ticket to ice hockey right now is little more than a donation and an expression of support for your team. In a time of uncertainty that commitment is important.
Clubs such as Manchester are taking names and holding off payment until July, possibly even longer depending on how the summer pans out.
That seems about the right approach given the whirlwind of uncertainty blowing around the league right now. If we're still in a state of flux come late summer, then the 2020-21 season may as well be packed up in a box and put back on the shelf.
But ice hockey is also a business, and cash is king.
Very soon clubs need to turn those expressions of support into direct debits.
But, right now, they stand at the back of a very long queue waiting to emerge out of lockdown.
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