Oilers games, World Juniors limited to 50% capacity
By baggedmilk
2 years agoAs Omicron cases of COVID sore here in Alberta, the government announced today that they will be implementing capacity limits for Oilers games for when the schedule resumes after Christmas.
This afternoon, the province announced new health measures to curb the spread of the Omicron variant that will take effect on December 24th at 12:01 am, and one such item includes limiting the capacity at large venues like Rogers Place. Even though the Oilers aren’t scheduled to play at Rogers Place again until January 8th, the organization must now figure out how it’s going to operate under the new guidelines and what that means for ticket holders. What new guidelines, you ask?
Indoor facilities that participate in the Restrictions Exemption Program:
- Must limit capacity to:
- 50% if venue seats more than 1,000 people.
- 500 people if venue seats between 500 and 1,000 people.
- No food and drink consumption in seated audience settings or during intermissions in the above mentioned venues.
The capacity limit presents a real problem for the Oilers (and Flames) as many of the tickets to upcoming games have already been sold. Take the December 27th edition of the Battle of Alberta at the Saddledome for example. I’d bet that game is probably pretty close to being sold out if not there already, no? We doing a ticket lottery? These are all good questions and I am very interested to see what the answers will be.
The move to limit capacity to 50% follows what the Ontario and BC governments implemented last week, while in Montreal, the Canadiens played without any fans in attendance at the Bell Centre last Thursday.
WORLD JUNIORS TOURNAMENT GETS IT TOO
With Alberta health officials restricting the capacity for events with more than 1000 attendees to 50%, the upcoming World Junior Championship, which is set to kick off on Boxing Day in Edmonton and Red Deer, will also be played at half capacity. So what does that mean for ticketholders? Hockey Canada issues the following statement from CEO, Tom Renney, following the announcement:
“Following the announcement that the Province of Alberta will be implementing capacity limits for indoor sporting events, the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship will be reducing capacity to 50 per cent for all games, effective immediately.The event ticketing team is currently addressing the implementation of this change and will be in contact with all ticket holders by the end of the day on Thursday, Dec. 23. No further ticket information is available at this time, but we thank our ticket holders for their patience and request that they please wait to receive the detailed communication before inquiring about next steps.”
Hockey Canada’s statement also offers full support for the direction taken by the Government of Alberta.
“We will continue to do our part to maintain the health and safety of all World Juniors participants and the community at large.”
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