Toronto as an NHL hub city has been a 'great success': Mayor Tory

Torontosun.com
September 3, 2020
Lance Hornby

As five weeks of keeping bubble wrap around 12 NHL teams in his city comes to an end, Mayor John Tory could find just one drawback.

“The only thing wrong with this whole thing was the Leafs (losing the play-in round),” Tory quipped. “They’ll be back to fight another day.”

Toronto as an NHL hub city has been a 'great success': Mayor Tory

For 2.9 million citizens, many who had valid concerns about how 500 players, staffers and NHL personnel would settle in and safely isolate, the games wrap up this week with so far zero positive COVID-19 tests from Hotel X, the Royal York or any exposure in transit from the practice rink or Scotiabank Arena.

With many in each 50-person team cohort coming from the United States given a controversial break from the Canadian government’s 14-day quarantine, the question was whether they’d adhere to daily testing and the bus/practice grind. Maybe a few would jump the fence, stir-crazy without family, especially those going to the end of Round 3. They could see the bustling streets, restaurants, parks or beaches from their rooms or bus windows, yet couldn’t get out and walk to them, other than the odd closely monitored field trip.

They had to make the most of entertainment the league provided in the hotels, such as a golf simulator. So they made the best of it, decorated their designated floors with team logos, or pictures of home and good luck messages from fans. They held hallway ping pong or pickleball tournaments. Those at Hotel X were allowed to get out and frolic on BMO Field.

The separation was worthwhile for the league and the city. Though Covid cases have begun to rise slightly in Toronto the past few days, most of the teams have already departed. The New York Islanders could eliminate the Philadelphia Flyers by Thursday and join the Tampa Bay Lightning en route to the Western bubble in Edmonton for the Stanley Cup’s Final Four.

“To my knowledge things have worked out very well,” said Dr. Eileen de Villa, Chief Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto, during a Wednesday media conference call with Tory. “The protocols were very carefully vetted. We certainly had a hand in that, I know our provincial partners did as well and our federal partners were actively engaged.

“From my perspective, the primarily objective as always is to make make sure it was safe for the people of Toronto. We were all happy to have hockey back, albeit at a different time of year than we’re used to.”

Tory had to be glad NBC kept showing aerials of the Toronto skyline, of the harbour and picturesque places such as Riverdale Park for a future tourism boost whenever Covid is conquered. But he was just as relieved the locals stayed out of the way.

There were concerns that such a gathering of NHL greats -- Sidney Crosby, Carey Price, Alex Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov, not to mention all the Leafs in one locale -- would prove too much to resist for autograph hounds and star gazers, thus increasing infection risk. But with dedicated walkways from the Royal York to SBA and all the added security, there were no reports of close contact, other than hits on the ice.

“I think people would have been hard pressed to know this was going on in Toronto,” Tory said approvingly. “But people co-operated as well by not hanging around these hotels and SBA. It’s been a great success with some economic benefit from it. Everything helps at this point in time.

“Let’s see it through to completion, but I think the model has worked.”

Mayor Tory also singled out Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment’s role. Now, its principal tenant will soon get back use of their Ford Performance Centre facility, something general manager Kyle Dubas was anxious to see. It has been a practice rink for other teams since late July.

With no summer development camp this year (usually attended by many new Leaf draft picks) and no rookie tournament in the cards with the off-season condensed, there will be more emphasis on the player development staff to make use of September and October.

“We’ve tried to maintain as much impact as we can on the player’s development while also knowing that this is a challenging time for them,” Dubas told TSN. “They’re at a pivotal time in their career and progression, and there really is nothing to do. They can’t come to Toronto for the camp, they have no games to play, no practices. But once the bubble clears out, we’ll be able to open that up for off-ice training and workouts. We’ve already got a lot of the players that have had their seasons done for a while now (wanting to train), so that accessibility will be a key.”

It’s hoped the 2020-21 NHL season will start in December -- with just one team calling Toronto home.