Hurricanes making contingency plans for resumption of season
The Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL are on hold, the 2019-20 season suspended and the future uncertain because of the coronavirus pandemic.
But contingency plans are being made for a possible resumption of the season, Hurricanes president and general manager Don Waddell told the Centennial Authority on Friday during a board meeting at PNC Arena.
Waddell said the league has asked for tentative playing dates at PNC Arena through the end of July.
“There’s no time frame because no one knows how big (a crisis) this is going to be,” Waddell told the authority, the arena landlord. “The Stanley Cup playoffs are the most important thing to the league and (the NHL) has asked internally for the dates. The hope is to come back and play some regular-season games, then the postseason.”
That’s the hope. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, in announcing the season postponement on Thursday, referred to it as a pause or hiatus, although no one can say for now when or if the season will resume.
“I think we’re doing the right thing as a league,” Waddell said in an interview. “We’ve got to get this thing under control. Have we seen the height of it yet? Probably not. So let’s do the proper things and keep people as safe as we can.”
The Hurricanes, who had won three straight games and were in a wild-card playoff position, were in New Jersey on Thursday for a game against the Devils. The team flew back to Raleigh after the announcement was made by Bettman.
The Canes’ last game was against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday in Detroit. The team shared the same Detroit hotel, the Westin Book Cadillac, that had been used by the Utah Jazz, which had a Saturday game against the Detroit Pistons. The Jazz have had two players --- Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell -- test positive for the coronavirus.
Waddell said none of the Canes players or staff members have taken the coronavirus test or been symptomatic.
“You can’t test unless there are symptoms,” Waddell said. “No one in the traveling party had symptoms. There were some issues with a couple of people having the hotel rooms (at the Westin) but there were no symptoms.”
John Forslund, the Canes’ longtime television play-by-play man, told the N&O on Friday that he was in the same hotel room used by Gobert in Detroit and was in self-quarantine at his home in Apex.
The authority again met in closed session Friday to be updated on the lease negotiations with Gale Force Sports & Entertainment, the Canes’ parent company.
Before the closed session, arena manager Dave Olsen told the authority all scheduled events would be postponed after the Millennium Tour 2020 event Friday. Olsen said the Billie Eilish Show on Thursday had a crowd of 14,000.
Olsen said promoters whose shows are being postponed are being open to booking future dates. Refunds will be made, Olsen said.
Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday that he was recommending the cancellation or postponement of all gatherings with 100 or more people to help combat the spread of the disease.
“Everyone is cooperating, everyone understands the crisis internationally,” Olsen said. “We’ll just keep moving forward a day at a time. We are trying to adhere to all the requests from the Governor. Once we get through (Friday) night we’re shutting ‘er down.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 12:37 PM.
