Ice Hockey: The challenge of retaining the fanbase when there is no season to engage them

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The decision to can the 20-21 ice hockey season was no surprise. Like a doctor confirming the time of death, Tuesday, September 15 was when the EIHL finally put us out of our misery.

The emptiness which will follow for ice hockey fans will not have fully sunk in.

Right now, we all crave re-establishing routines, but lockdown has erased so much of our social fabric.

For some, that is gigs, for others it’s meet-ups with special groups, and for hockey fans, it ‘s rinkside every weekend where familiar faces are all around, and the noise, the shared songs and chants, and the ebb and flow of the game is our escape.

Those bonds cannot be fully replaced by endless re-runs from the archives - is anyone really still absorbed in them? - while the desire to play our part by buying tickets for online 50/50 raffles will surely wither to near zero. 

Lockdown has changed everything, and its ripples will continue to extend to the very horizon.

For ice hockey, the challenge isn’t just surviving without a full season - it’s firing everything back up a full calendar year from now.

And one question nags: How do you keep a fanbase engaged when the structure which draws them rinkside ceases to exist for so long?

Without games to analyse, refs to criticise, systems to debate, and rivalries to spark banter, what exactly is there to keep them focussed?

The journey from season ticket holding die-hard to casual armchair  fan is not as difficult to make as many people think.

Hockey’s fanbase sits in geographical clusters around the UK. It isn’t mass market. There is no mega-bucks TV deal or major sponsor to cushion the blow.

It relies on fans rolling up, buying raffle tickets and pouring remarkable sums into season tickets and kit sponsorship packages. The commitment of many is quite remarkable.

Hockey fans wrap everything around the schedule which runs from September until April. 

“We interrupt this marriage to bring you the hockey season” was a sweatshirt which used to sell by the box-load in the concourse at those fabled Wembley Weekends.

A year out - and not through choice - will shape, possibly even buckle, those ties that bind.

So, the EIHL has a real challenge - one that I am far from convinced all its teams will meet.

With no games to talk up, no signings to unveil, no post-match analysis, I fear some will simply shut up shop and go into slumber mode until late summer 2021. That could be fatal.

The full extent of the challenge facing the sport, ice rinks and teams, is only just beginning to emerge.

While rinks and arenas can, and are, preparing operations without their EIHL team- that work has already started in Fife - clubs have to work out the safest way to mothball, while also coming up with a strategy for return 12 months down the line.

And that work has to start now.

Right now we can’t gather in groups, but, the time will come when we can - and when it’s safe to do so, clubs need to look at what they can do to get fans together.  on a bleak news day, the blog from from Gareth Chalmers at Glasgow Clan hit the right note when he talked of all the positive ideas for engagement being discussed.

That has to be adopted by every club - and every idea shared round the circuit.

Hockey is a huge part of people’s social life.  The sense of belonging has to be wrapped in cotton wool.

Doing nothing is simply not an option, Do nothing and your fanbase will drift and you may return in September 2021 to find social distancing rinkside really isn’t a problem after all.

The decision to suspend the season was a no-brainer given where the UK is right now with coronavirus, but it’ll still hurt like hell for fans who have been rinkside every weekend from September to April for decades. It’s so much more than just a game to them. It's their life.

Look after them  and we will also  protect the sport we love.

(Main pic: Steve Gunn)


Location: Kirkcaldy, UK

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