The man in charge of hockey and business ops for the junior B Chilliwack Jets is optimistic his team will open its inaugural season in mid-October.
The Pacific Junior B Hockey League has identified Oct. 15 as the date when teams can begin playing regular season games.
“The City of Chilliwack has told us that we’ll have the opportunity to play games after Oct. 15, and we’re hoping to have our first home game on the 18th, if we’re allowed. But we don’t have a concrete answer yet.”
The Jets played Monday night at the Summit Centre in Abbotsford, losing 1-0 to the Pilots.
They’ll do it again Friday.
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The Jets plan to call the Sardis Sports Complex home, using the ice sheet that opened last fall. Right now, Robinson said he’s only allowed to have 22 people on the ice/benches — a problem when his roster includes 23-24 players plus coaches.
While that problem may be addressed by relaxed restrictions, the likelihood he’ll be able to add fans in the stands is somewhere between slim and none.
“It kind of sucks because I think we had a pretty good thing with the new team and the signing of all the local kids,” Robinson said. “I think we’ve got 15 Chilliwack kids on the team, and with momentum we probably would have had some pretty good crowds. But it’s not the end of the world and we’ll just have to get creative to find some other revenue sources.”
Robinson also confirmed the Jets will be in a cohort with the Pilots and Mission Outlaws up to the mid-point of the season.
At that point they’ll be shuffled into another cohort with two different teams.
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