NCHC commissioner Josh Fenton said Wednesday that the league does not intend to sell tickets to the general public for the event, which will feature all eight member schools playing a combined 40 games in 20 days.
"We don't anticipate anything from a public ticket-buying standpoint," Fenton said.
That doesn't mean the stands will be completely barren, though. The league is still discussing whether it will allow a "pass list," where players' families could attend.
"We're not all the way there yet," he said.
Fenton also said participating teams will be allowed to watch other games from specific areas in the lower bowl.
Without the usual college hockey atmosphere, the league and Omaha are looking for ways to spice things up. They've discussed whether to pipe in artificial crowd noise.
"We've talked about it," Fenton said. "Omaha has a great (production) team. We've been talking with their in-game presentation crew quite a bit. I do think you'll see some of those things like that.
"Although we may have no or limited (people) in the venue watching the games, we still want to try to provide an in-game experience that's somewhat meaningful to those that are participating in the games, whether that be videos or music or crowd noise or whatnot. Yes, we talked about any and all of that and we do expect that to be a part of it."
UND players crowd around coach Brad Berry during a 2018 practice at Baxter Arena in Omaha, Neb.
Nonconference still on the table
NCHC teams agreed not to play any nonconference or exhibition games before the start of the Pod.
"A decision was made to not allow (them) purely for protecting the health and safety of the Pod as we went into it," Fenton said.
However, that doesn't mean there won't be any nonconference later this season. Fenton said NCHC teams wanted to leave the door open to that possibility in the second half.
"The membership has said, 'Hey, let's re-visit potential nonconference opportunities later on,'" Fenton said. "We haven't brought that back up recently."
TV announcement coming soon
The NCHC is planning to put all 40 Pod games on NCHC.tv.
The league announced its pricing for NCHC.tv this season earlier this week. Fans can purchase a Pod-only subscription for $44.95. That will allow fans to watch all of the Pod games, but nothing thereafter.
They also can purchase a single-team season pass for $99.95, which will allow access to their favorite team's games all season, but not the others in the league. There's also the annual package for $112.95, which allows access to every game on NCHC.tv all season.
Who will be in charge of the Pod broadcasts?
The NCHC is finalizing that right now, according to Fenton. He said he hopes to have an announcement in the next few days but didn't give any hints as to who will be handling the production and the announcing.
Midco Sports Network has been in discussions with the league to broadcast at least some of the games. Midco has broadcasted from Baxter Arena the past couple of seasons.
The full schedule was announced earlier this week. Game times are expected to be revealed within the next seven days.
Arrivals in Omaha
All eight NCHC teams will be asked to do a seven-day quarantine period before leaving for the Pod. They're being asked to keep their interactions to their teammates and team travel party and eliminate interactions with the general public during that time.
Each team's 42-person travel party will be required to take three coronavirus tests on non-consecutive days before departing for Omaha with the final test coming within 24 hours of departure. Those tests will be certified with the league office. They'll also be tested again upon arrival.
Colorado College, Omaha, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan will arrive on Nov. 28 and open play on Dec. 1. UND, Minnesota Duluth, Denver and Miami are scheduled to arrive in Omaha on Nov. 29 and open play on Dec. 2.
The league has booked four hotels. Two of them will be completely closed off and limited to just NCHC Pod participants. The league is expected to have strict parameters for participants during the duration of the Pod.
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November 12, 2020 at 04:00AM
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NCHC does not plan on selling tickets to the Pod, but hopes to spice things up anyway - Grand Forks Herald
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