The Columbus Blue Jackets were informed today that they will not play host to the NHL’s 24-team playoff reboot of the 2019-2020 season, tweets Blue Jackets’ reporter Jeff Svoboda. Minnesota has also been eliminated from consideration, per The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline and Michael Russo (via Twitter).
Columbus had been one of ten cities under consideration to host the remainder of the NHL season. With two arenas to utilize, there was at least some logistical cause for Columbus to merit serious consideration. There was no reason given for their elimination, so it’s hard to know at this time what the thinking was behind the process.
Las Vegas is believed to be a frontrunner for one of the two spots. It’s widely believed that Canada would house the other hub, though where exactly has remained up for debate. If indeed Vegas does take one of the spots, that could be reason enough for Columbus to fall out of the running. It’s been widely assumed that one hub city would be in the United States and one in Canada.
Portzline provides a quote from Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekäläinen, who said: “They had a lot of positives about our presentation, but they’ve gone in a different direction. It’s disappointing, but we were also among the last few cities to be considered. You take the positives along with the disappointment and you move on.
There is a decent chance that the final decision on hub cities will be announced this week, and perhaps even as early as today. Presumably, the NHL will not want to make their decision public until the logistics are worked out and finalized. That could still happen today, though that’s not a guarantee.
For now, what we know for certain is that Columbus and Minnesota are out. Per Russo, Vegas, Chicago, and Los Angeles are thought to be frontrunners on the U.S. front, while Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver are the likeliest hub cities north of the border.
Columbus would of been a good choice with 2 major arenas to hold games at plus several other full sized rinks that could of been used for team practices
Like van and Vegas
West Coast bias
Let’s be clear here. The NHL doesn’t give one shit about what city has the least amount of covid cases, or the housing situation, unless all things are equal. It was always going to come down to LA, Vegas, and Chicago. And they will try and make Vegas work as their #1 option. The same is true for Toronto.
So can someone explain to me how this works? My understanding is that if you cross the border from Canada to US or from US to Canada you must quarantine for 14 days. Are teams able to still operate under quarantine since they are all together in a “bubble”? Or is there a quarantine period the resumption of team activities?
Prime minster came out and said that they will basically be exempt from the rules
Canada has made an exception if a Canadian city is picked. that being said, that restriction is only coming into Canada, not coming into the US
I know the NHL doesn’t care about the covid cases in each city, cuz Vegas has been one of the worst, my opinion is that amount of covid cases and ability to keep players safe should be the only things considered, almost every city except for Las Vegas probably has 10+ rinks available for practice, more in surrounding suburbs, and then you can probably do 2-3 games a day in the NHL rink and more if that city has college teams, like MN, Boston and probably others, I’m too lazy to use rational thought at the moment, plus my breaks about to end
I’d be shocked if you see 3 games in an arena.
Should’ve been Columbus. The coronavirus is hitting international and coastal cities hard. Thus making Ohio a great state for some hockey.
To continue. It should also be Edmonton for the same reason above.
more cases in Columbus than in Toronto with smaller population over the last week.
Los Angeles and Chicago shouldn’t even be in consideration, IMO. If those states are still limiting the freedoms of their citizens due to Covid fears, then why would they deem it safe for sporting events?
Columbus got hosed.
Columbus has seen a spike over the last week in cases. actually seeing as much as Chicago.
not saying they are any better or worse to host just that people who believe Columbus is too smalltown to get the virus needs to look at recent trends
It would have been more business savvy to pick a state that doesn’t care how many bodies pile up like TX or FL.
nba beat them to it
Positive cases not deaths. Not even hospital stays. Stop the madness and overreactions
Yeah, states like Florida, Texas and Georgia are really doing poorly versus lockdown states like NY, NJ, PA, MI and Illinois. Stop watching fake news and look at actual numbers.