I Wonder What Things Will Be Like Inside the Arena When the Devils Season Starts

The American Hockey League announced on Wednesday that they were postponing the start of the 2020-2021 season to February of 2021. Prior to that announcement, the target date for the AHL to start play was this coming December.

The Coronavirus put an end to the Binghamton Devils possible Cinderella Run for the Calder Cup back in mid-march. The B-Devs  where the hottest team in the AHL when the season came to a grinding halt winning nine of their last 10.

As I've stated before, I've been the backup music guy for the Devil's and the Senators before them since resigning as the full-time music guy after the Binghamton Senators third full season, I was wondering if the games started in December, what things would be like inside the arena. Would any fans be able to attend? And if so, I'm sure they would only be allowed to fill a small percentage of the seeds inside the arena.Which by the way, when the Devil's drop the puck in February, if indeed that's when the season starts, it will then be the Visions Federal Credit Union Veterans Memorial Arena.

I was wondering if the game started in December, and there were no fans there, whether they would even have music playing inside the arena. I know when the NHL went to hub cities and we're not allowing fans in, they had each team reach out to their season-ticket holders and encouraged them to send in cheers. So they would have them cheering as if their team scored a goal, chanting for the team as in “let's go Devils”, and also have them sing along to their team's goal songs. All that was played inside the arena during the games.

I wonder if the Binghamton Devils even thought that far in advance yet. I know I have. I can imagine me having the fans send chants of “ref you suck”, and playing that over the PA after a bad call. I'm sure the refs would stick around after the game to have a chat with me if that was the case.

If there were no fans in attendance, would I have cheering and booing sound effects that I would play after plays along with playing the music? Would they even need a music guy at all? I would imagine they would need somebody there to play the music because the players warm up to what's called the “pregame skate music”. That's about 15 minutes worth of music that the players choose. Truth be told, even the players would be able to play that music themselves. Someone would just have to push play as they came out of the locker rooms.

But you also need somebody there to control the microphone level of the PA announcer even if there is no crowd there, if for any other reason, to inform the press in the press box of who scored the goal, who got the assist, and what the penalty calls were. But then again with an Ipad, the PA announcer could control that as well.

It would be interesting for sure, and I hope I don't have to deal with that. I hope by the time the season rolls around in February, that the Coronavirus will either be a thing of the past or at least under control enough that we can get back out and enjoy seeing hockey live and in person.