Hurricanes planning for home games with no fans, limited attendance
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The Carolina Hurricanes are making sure they're prepared to play games at PNC Arena either without any fans at all or in front of a limited crowd.
"We have multiple plans. We have a task force that we've put in place internally to talk about all of these options. One of them is that we come back with no fans, and how we're going to deal with that," general manager Don Waddell said on a video conference call Thursday, according to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski.
"The second option is we come back and can only have - pick the number - 5,000 or 8,000 people in the building. The third option is that we can be totally open. We've talked at length and have plans for all of those situations."
The Canes are one of the first teams to publicly acknowledge the possibility of hosting home games with a limited spectator capacity when - or if - the NHL returns to action after postponing its season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
If the league is able to resume play, it may be forced to use neutral sites. Grand Forks, North Dakota, has reportedly been mentioned as one possible location.
"If you look around what's going on in the country, there are probably some cities that you don't think you can play in. If you're going to play regular-season games, it makes sense to come up with some neutral-site places. Obviously, if you're bringing 31 teams back, you're going to have multiple sites to go to," said Waddell.
The Hurricanes were seeded as the Eastern Conference's first wild-card team when play came to a halt March 12.