The Cranbrook Bucks are giving season ticket holders three options after hearing word that fans will definitely not be permitted into Western Financial Place for the start of the BCHL regular season.
The BC Hockey League (BCHL) still has a tentative start date set for early December, although the regular season schedule has yet to be released. Pre-season games are currently running through to Saturday, November 28th.
Nathan Lieuwen, President and Owner of the Cranbrook Bucks told MyEastKootenayNow.com that fans won’t be allowed in the stands, following news from provincial health officials, while also working alongside the City of Cranbrook.
“We will not have fans in our bowl to start the season here in December,” confirmed Lieuwen. “Obviously, this is not what we want as a team or for our fans but obviously the priority here is to keep everyone safe and hopefully as time goes on we’ll have some positive updates.”
Lieuwen and the Cranbrook Bucks are giving their season ticket holders three options as a result of the news – credit, deferral, or refund.
“If we do get fans in the building, fans will be able to still come and then any games that they obviously don’t get to come to will be credited to them for next year,” explained Lieuwen. “The second option is obviously some people aren’t comfortable coming to games this year so they could defer their ticket for an entire season.”
The third option presented by the Bucks is a refund, which Lieuwen said would be on a case-by-case basis for those that aren’t in a position to defer their season tickets to the 2021/22 BCHL season.
All Bucks season ticket holders should have received an email from the team on Monday, noting their various options.
While the news is assuredly not what the Bucks or fans want to hear, the team said there is still their broadcast partner to catch BCHL action.
“We feel horrible that fans haven’t been able to watch our games, especially for those who have season tickets with us, but they can through the third party of HockeyTV watch on BCHL TV and catch the games there. Our broadcast team has done an amazing job here of bringing quite an impressive display of broadcasts to that platform.”
All BCHL games are streamed and broadcast through the platform, which also includes the KIJHL and other Junior and Minor hockey leagues in Canada and the United States, as well as some professional hockey leagues internationally.
