When players for the Coquitlam Express step on the ice Sept. 22 for the BC Hockey League team’s first exhibition game at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex against the Merritt Centennials, they can expect to see something they haven’t seen in 18 months.
Fans.
But just how many and what protocols they’ll have to follow has yet to be fully worked out, says the team’s general manager, Tali Campbell.
He said the team will limit capacity at Poirier to 50% of its 2,200 seats “until the new year at least,” even if the province determines it’s safe to move to Stage 4 of its reopening plant later in the fall. That milestone was expected to be achieved by Sept. 7, but with infection rates on the rise again due to the highly-contagious Delta variant of COVID-19, it’s anticipated that date will be delayed.
Campbell said masks will be mandatory for fans and staff in the building.
Other rules, such as how a provincial vaccine passport fits into plans for letting fans back into arenas, could be implemented after further direction from the provincial health authority and ViaSport, the organization that regulates amateur sport in B.C.
Campbell said the team is currently mapping out the grandstands at its Coquitlam arena to determine seating configurations that best allow for social distancing to minimize potential transmission of the COVID-19 virus and fans that do attend will be assigned specific seats.
“It’s the job of our security and volunteers to make sure everyone is sitting in their seats,” he said.
And Campbell is hopeful more of those available seats will be filled, after the team announced a new partnership with Sussex Insurance on Monday that will allow all kids under the age of 18 free admission to Express home games this season.
He said it’s all about giving people the opportunity to get out of the house after more than a year of pandemic public health restrictions that limited social interactions and confined the team to playing limited exhibition and pod seasons in empty arenas.
“We have all been bundled up in our homes for over a year now, and this will be a great family event for families to come and enjoy some local hockey.”
Jason Armstrong, vice president of Sussex Insurance, echoed that, adding, “Let’s face it, after the last year we have all gone through, a night out watching some amazing hockey sounds pretty good.”
The Express last played in front of fans in March, 2020, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled the BCHL’s playoffs just after the team had eliminated the Langley Rivermen in the first round. The league was able to convene a five-week exhibition season last fall with teams playing regional rivals in empty arenas before the schedule was suspended by further public health restrictions in November.
Last April, teams played a 20-game schedule of games in five regional pods across the province, but again fans weren’t permitted. The Express won six games, lost 11 and dropped another three in overtime against pod-mates, the Surrey Eagles and Powell River Kings, at the Scotia Barn in Burnaby.
The Express opens its exhibition season against the Eagles on Sept. 20 in Surrey, followed the next night by a game against Langley at George Preston Arena. After the team’s first home exhibition game on Sept. 22, they’ll host the Eagles again on Sept. 24 and the Rivermen on Sept. 29, before closing out the pre-season Oct. 1 in Chilliwack against the Chiefs.
The Chiefs will be the visitors for Coquitlam’s first home game of the regular season, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m., at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex.
