Saskatoon unlikely to host NHL playoff games, says Sasktel Centre boss

On Friday, ESPN reported that one of the options for a potential return of the National Hockey League season would be to hold neutral site playoff games and Saskatoon was one of the cities listed as a possible location.

However, according to Sasktel Centre’s CEO, Will Lofdahl, the likelihood of this happening is low.

“Originally when the coronavirus issue initially cropped up a couple months ago we were contacted about it. But with this issue things change in a rather quick manner. So who knows what next week is going to hold or next month or three weeks from now,” he said.

“Of course all of the sports leagues are trying to plan for when they might be able to get back into operation as is every other business in North America and around the world. But as of right now there is nothing definitive as to when we will re-engage in event activities.”

He says any events they might host would have to be within the guidelines that health and government officials have in place at that time.

“In other words if someone wants to do an event here and that contradicts what the guidelines are then we are not going to do it,” said Lofdahl.

And waiting until everything is safe and the restrictions are lifted brings up the flaw in the whole idea of neutral site games. According to Lofdahl, if it is safe to hold events then “why would you do a neutral site game if you could also do one in the home city of one of the teams. It doesn’t make very much sense.”

Lofdahl would love to host NHL games in Saskatoon and he commends the ingenuity of sports leagues to come up with ways they might be able to resume their seasons but at the end of the day “you can’t get back into business until it is safe and no one knows when that would be.”