3/25/2020

Spring session is postponed with no definitive end time in sight.   Some people seem unaffected with whats going on and some aren't.   I work in the Healthcare field managing 70 nursing homes in 8 states.  More on the financial side, but still in tune with what is going on out there.  My company is working from home for the time being, and many of you are as well.

Rink 1 is down and rink 2 will be going down shortly.   I don't know if its public knowledge, but I really want to be honest with people.   It makes no sense hiding this from our players. There is a rink in spain that is being used as a morgue because of the virus.   Think of this as a silver lining.

Politics aside, we wont be playing anytime soon.   With the scare, youth tournaments cancelled and with both governors from both Michigan and Indiana basically shutting down non essential businesses the rink made a decision to close as well temporarily.   The South Bend mayor pretty much did the same thing.   Whether one could argue that an ice rink is an essential business can be entertained, but we aren't playing for at least a month or possibly longer. Might be a good time to rest your knees or hips that have been abused all these years. I can tell you nobody wants to play more than I do, and I will be monitoring this very closely.

I would tell people to hold off for spring summer session right now until we number one, know we can go back to our normal life, and number two, that we have ice.  My gut is telling me mid to end of  April, but if I told you a week ago the state was going to be effectively shut down, any logical person would have scoffed.   Things are very fluid and you just can't make any reasonable predictions.  Those who have dropped off checks, they haven't been deposited and the one person who paid via venmo has already been refunded.

As far as finishing winter session, because of the shutdown, the rink will take a huge financial hit.   We were actually ahead from last year before this occurred.   I don't want to issue refunds, because they would be going to the captains to distribute and doing that when we are locked at home is counterproductive. If that's what you want for your unplayed games, I can still do so.  I would rather schedule the unplayed games when the rink comes back up and I am sure guys would rather play them.  I want to make sure the rink is financially sound, because without our rink, we would be going through bigger withdrawals than we are now.  We might go with a shorter summer session and start obviously later.   I have a lot of hockey to make up and its only been a couple weeks.

I think once this is all over, people will appreciate things more and not take things for granted, and then after a few weeks we can go back to being our same asshole selfs once again.

I will keep everyone posted as things roll in, and please feel free to shoot me any questions you still have.

Stay safe!