Both of St. John’s professional sports teams have had the remainder of their seasons suspended indefinitely as their respective leagues, along with many other circuits, sports organizations and tournaments, have decided to shut down in light of the expanding COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
The announcements from the National Basketball League of Canada, whose eight teams include the St. John’s Edge, and the 26-team ECHL, which has franchises all over North America and whose defending champion is the Newfoundland Growlers, came within an hour each other Thursday afternoon.
Both leagues says they will continue to monitor the situation, but there is no expectation about if, or when, their 2019-20 seasons might resume.
The announcements followed similar decisions by the NHL, AHL, CHL (major junior hockey), MLS, NBA, and NBA G-League, and by Major League Baseball, which has suspended spring training.
The NCAA has cancelled its March Madness men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and all remaining NCAA championships.
The PGA, NASCAR and IndyCar say they will continue to hold scheduled events, but without fans present.
“The realization must be, and continue to be, that this is something bigger than hockey games, bigger than sports,” said Growlers chief operating officer Glenn Stanford after participating in the ECHL board of governors conference call that led to Thursday’s decision.
“This needs to be done in light of what has obviously become a very serious world-wide problem. This is the responsible thing to do.”
Both the Growlers and the Edge were on the road at the time of the announcements.
The Edge had four games remaining on an Ontario road trip, including a contest in Kitchener, Ont., Thursday night which became the first NBLC game to become postponed.
The basketball team hopes to fly from Toronto to St. John’s today.
The Growlers were to have played in Kalamazoo against the Wings tonight, but in light of what were fast-moving developments, had delayed travelling to the Michigan city from Brampton, Ont., where they had played Tuesday night. That allowed to team to fly home from Toronto late Thursday night.
Neither team will hold practices, workouts or team meetings, while their Mile One dressing rooms will be closed to all but necessary personnel. The Growlers are also curtailing travel for their staff.
Further measures and instructions will be forthcoming as they are developed by the teams, the leagues and perhaps, in the case of the Growlers, their parent NHL organization, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Presumably, among the things to be decided is whether players will remain in St. John’s or be permitted to return to their off-season homes, and policies regarding player and staff compensation during the shutdowns.
NBLC players are not unionized, but ECHL players are represented by a union, the Professional Hockey Players Association, and have a collective bargaining agreement with the league.
“There will be another ownership call with the (NBLC) on Monday,” said Edge head coach Steve Marcus. “We should learn more then.
“In the meantime, we won’t be practising. In any case, we’ve already been on the road for a week and the guys are pretty tired with games we’ve played and travel and everything, so we’ll let them get back to St. John’s and to their apartments to relax for 72 hours.
“Then, hopefully, we’ll have more news about how we will proceed one way or another.”
Stanford said his team is also working on plans to address season-ticket holders and other who have tickets for future ECHL games at Mile One.
“Of course, that’s very, very important, but things have happened so quickly, it’s among a lot that need to be done,” he said.
The North Division-leading Growlers have a dozen regular-season games remaining, including six at home. The team, which had also already clinched a berth in the Kelly Cup playoffs, was to begun its final six-game homestand this coming Tuesday.
The Edge have 16 games remaining, with 10 of them set to be played at Mile One. Their next home game was to have been March 24.
Twitter: @telybrendan
