Signing announcement

osh

Well-Known Member
I think we're better off starting the season in a different manner. Start now with five imports behind closed doors, we get our hockey fix via webcast and the team can start to settle things down, then after x set games 2x2. We start the 2nd have of the season with 10 imports and potentially reduced capacity. No season for me would be worse than a slightly less prosperous one (obviously the clubs need to agree the numbers) . And it'll give business and fans confidence with flexibility, but simply put some form of hockey is better than no hockey and business waiting on the unknown.
Got to agree with Wannabe2 on this one.
Your first suggestion of 5 imports behind closed doors : that would mean 2 line hockey at best, 5 imports plus a Brit netminder plus 5 Brits for a second line, let’s say we have Batch, Richardson, Myers, Duggan and possibly Ben Davies. We are hardly likely to be able to bring in a worthwhile 3rd line of Brits.not practical at all and can’t see imports wanting to do that to be honest.
2nd half of the season with 10 imports ? What have the other 5 imports been doing since the start of your season, hardly sat on their backsides waiting to join up with Cardiff. I would suspect that any import would be looking elsewhere where there is a definite start date to a full season. its Hardly likely we will see permission to allow a full house capacity at the arena this side of Christmas and many like myself are still very wary of being in crowds who don’t observe basic rules concerning Covid and that’s why I think the 20/21 season may well be a write off.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
Exactly as Osh has describe, it will never ever happen, 5 imports appear from no where when your ready, no one in the building, a webcast that with inferior hockey bringing in not enough to pay 2 imports, 5 imports flights. 5 imports accomodation, 15 players equipment, no sponsorship as there’s no one there, staff to pay on match night, etc, etc. All or nothing unfortunately, for me there’s no alternative, also 9 other clubs would never buy into a huge loss exercise.
 

tim78

Well-Known Member
Remember ITS CLOSED DOORS, there's limited staff and it's TV revenue/webcast only. Doesn't mean sponsership won't be there just more than likely lower under the circumstances. If the Ice rink opens it needs as many revenue streams as possible.

I'm happy to pay a smaller fee to watch my team online over this season, which gives my fix and provides the club with a revenue (Support).

I'm thinking a smaller business model is needed in this uncertaintly with relevant players/import's the number just need to be crunched. But if you want hockey to start back up bang in the midle of flu season or wirte the year off then that's your concious descission, it just sounds bizarre.

To write off a year off based on negative ifs, rather than a more calculated model just seems silly to me. Think the leagues around the world can't accomidate all the players and stopping a season could mean the players missing an entire season of competitve games (though quality won't be as good, it would surely be better than a training session).

For me the players in the 4-5 import Henikein era, easily made the jump back up to ISL in one seaon. I just think it's better to get the ball roller than waiting on something that isn't going to be well predicted.

As for closed arena ice hockey games... that's a a grain of sand to me in relevance to the spread of COVID.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
Love your passion and positivity, but it won’t happen unfortunately. It was 3 imports in the early days which at the time was all we knew. It’s all or nothing buddy believe me.
 

Devil94

Well-Known Member
Agree with Wannabe, it's all or nothing.

You can't start the season with the hope that after Christmas fans will be allowed in or we can go up to 10 imports. It's very possible if not likely that by then we'll be back up to peak case numbers or even worse. And if that does happen, clubs preparing for some sort of season and then it getting cancelled again with hardly any revenue will be a lot more detrimental to the clubs and league.

The best way for the league and its 10 clubs to survive is to make an early decision to cancel the season, and make plans hopefully for a full 21/22 season. In my opinion.
 

pjj365

Well-Known Member
Think it was Black who said the very worst case scenario would be to start and then stop or suspend during the season.

Devil94 mentions starting in hope but that would be all we would have - hope. A proper analysis of viability is surely impossible with local lock downs coming weekly.

Sorry but I'm with the all or nothing brigade
 

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #107
Think it was Black who said the very worst case scenario would be to start and then stop or suspend during the season.

Devil94 mentions starting in hope but that would be all we would have - hope. A proper analysis of viability is surely impossible with local lock downs coming weekly.

Sorry but I'm with the all or nothing brigade
Things are not really helped by having teams under four separate jurisdictions. I can see no way a season would start before April.
 
Love the optimism Tim but honestly there is absolutely no chance of what you're saying happening unfortunately. If the club were to play behind closed doors and run webcasts, do you honestly think every fan who had to pay to enter the arena would be buying a pass? For example there are loads of families who attend and would normally buy 4x tickets which might total at say £50/£60, paying £10 for a live stream, not to mention all others who would be gathering with friends to watch (you know it would happen despite covid) and others who are simply too skint to pay for things like this as a result of covid. That coupled with loss of revenue from things like the corporate sponsorship packages and the corporate boxes/bar takings + the fact that whatever sponsorship packages we would be able to sell would most likely be at a reduced rate and a much harder sell in these very difficult times - you only have to see how many businesses are struggling. Also no 50/50 or SOHB or posters/programmes to sell. It all adds up. Also, take all these things and then apply them to teams like Manchester or Dundee. If this went ahead, no doubt it would kill off multiple teams or at the very least put them in ridiculous amounts of debt. I wish I was wrong, but I just can't see this season happening.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
I really hate saying this, believe me it rips my heart out and shreds it big time, but it really is all or nothing. Not being able to see the club I love and we all love, is truly gut wrenching . Every single fan that posts on here posts because they care, they care with a passion that we all share, we may not always agree with our points of view, but we all agree with our passion and dedication to the club that we all love. These are uncharted waters at the moment, moments that have never been encountered before by anyone on this planet, Guys we rejoice together and we hurt together, but as long as we do these things together we will come thru this thing stronger than ever. HAPPY REALLY STRANGE HOCKEY DAYS.
 

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
From what I've been led to believe by a source close to the club the Cardiff Devils are planning on voting to cancel the league this year. The financial loss for the club would be too high for the games to go ahead without fans & with no sign of crowd restrictions ending in the near future players are looking to leagues with more certainty. Im told cancelling the league is a financial loss to the devils ( I wont post figures here) but it's a just a fraction of whats been estimated if the league is played behind closed doors. The CHL place is naturally going to be forfeited. A couple of months back I was optimistic the league would restart but my optimism has faded over the last week and following what I've been told I think it's a dead cert that the league wont be going ahead this year. The recent singing announcements by the devils and Steelers being cancelled I'm afraid are an indicator of this.
 

Devil94

Well-Known Member
Will be a shame that forfeiting the CHL place and us possibly being the only European league not to run wont be a good look for the league, but I'm afraid it's the only option.
 

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #112
Will be a shame that forfeiting the CHL place and us possibly being the only European league not to run wont be a good look for the league, but I'm afraid it's the only option.
The way things are going in mainland Europe I can't see them all finishing a full season.
 

BostonBart22

Well-Known Member
As said before, it seems we have lost our main sponsors and prob more and with nothing in the pipeline for new main sponsors its not looking good is it, the CL should be scrapped until sept 21/22 especially with travel restrictions changing weekly to all parts of europe . plus I cant see any sport not being disruptive especially winter months and if the crowds are allowed back to football games that would be a killer blow with R rates going through the roof big time..
 

tim78

Well-Known Member
Maybe I'm being pessimistic but i feel/think once this type of behaviour and virus is in society it's here for the long run.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53875189

If you had to ask yourself how long would you reduce living for the fear of dying, a week, a month, 1 year, 2 years. From my perspective I'm young (ish) and probably looking at the statistics would survive. I wouldn't and don't want any one to pass away with any suffering, but I do wonder if I was in the vunerable category could I look out of my window knowing that others who are healthy athletes or young children restrict their lives.

The only view I can hold that makes our worlds actions sound, is that this virus isn't that deadly and is simply a precurser to something worse.
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
Not going to bore you but viruses can mutate and even though it's not effecting the younger as much as the older IF virus mutates it could effect everyone in the future. The flu strain has mutated many times over years this is why they still test people with the flu virus.

Younger people have caught covid and died so not all younger people are immune and no one knows if they are immune or not, bit of Russian roulette really.
 

matbur

Well-Known Member
Yeah, it's a pretty ominous sign but the writing has been on the wall for months.

Some people are too foolish or ignorant to realise how ridiculous an idea it was to even seriously consider we'd be operating no social distancing measures in a 3,000 indoor arena - at all, let alone by December!

I can understand the Devils for trying to plan but I sincerely hope that the sport has been using this time wisely for contingency planning otherwise, the game here is in serious trouble.
 
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