There are no plans to limit the number of spectators to the Junior Hockey World Championships in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta.
Ontario cut capacity in its sports stadiums to 50 percent, and the Montreal Canadiens played in an empty Bell Center on Thursday to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The Men’s 10 Nations U-20 World Cup opened in Alberta on December 26th.
“We speak to the province every day, to Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services,” said Dean Macintosh, vice president of events for Hockey Canada on Friday.
“You are closely watching what is going on in other districts. We have had discussions about what it might look like, but at this point there is nothing more. “
“At the moment there is no plan to reduce the number of fans. We’ll continue with the full building plan. “
The 2021 Junior World Championships took place without fans at Rogers Place due to the Edmonton pandemic.
A year ago, active COVID cases in Alberta soared to nearly 16,000 in the province on the opening day of the tournament.
There were 4,212 active cases in Alberta as of Thursday.
Over 90% of the tickets are sold out
Macintosh said just over 90 percent of tickets for the 2022 tournament were sold.
Canadian hockey will be ready if the Alberta government suddenly calls for a reduction in attendance.
It’s always part of our contingency plans, ”said Macintosh.
“The challenge, of course, is figuring out what this emergency might be, knowing you have everything from what the Montreal Canadiens did in Montreal, to an empty building, to half capacity in Ontario and other drains between.
“All we can do is move in a direction, I think that is the challenge we face.”
The teams arrived in Canada this week and were quarantined on Friday.
Macintosh said players and staff were asked to take two negative tests prior to leaving for Canada and have been tested every day since they arrived.
Those who test negative can have ice cream on Saturday.
Pre-tournament games are slated to begin on Sunday, including games in Canada and Switzerland at Red Deer.
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