The Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association, the USA Hockey affiliate for New Jersey, Delaware, and Eastern Pennsylvania, has begun the Let Hockey Play initiative to lobby state governors and legislators in their area. The goals of Let Hockey Play are to:
- allow hockey games to occur following the plan submitted by the Atlantic District to the respective state governor’s offices,
- exempt team personnel and game officials from the overall number of people allowed in an ice rink at once.
This would allow full hockey games to occur in the three state region where The Atlantic District of USA Hockey is the primary amateur hockey governing body.
Until the ruling by U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV, Pennsylvania was limiting occupancy of indoor ice surfaces to 25 persons, despite the fact that a 200-by-85-foot ice surface is 17,000 square feet. New Jersey and Delaware have similar restrictions imposed by executive orders from their respective governors.
The Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association, USA Hockey, The National Federation of High School Associations, and other hockey organizing bodies believe that hockey is “moderate risk sport for COVID-19 transmission”. USA Hockey has provided scientific research that “indicates players spend less than {three} seconds in close proximity to another player, and less than {three} minutes total during the entire course of a game.”
State governments have to protect public health, which is why restrictions were placed on indoor athletic activities in the first place. Any relaxation of safety measures must be balanced against the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks, such as the recent discovery of a COVID-19 cluster that involved Middletown Sports Center in Middletown, New Jersey. However, members of the hockey and skating communities can easily argue that individual attention to the safety of ice hockey, figure skating, leisure skating, and short-track speed skating has not been paid by the legislatures or governors of New Jersey, Delaware, or Pennsylvania.