[Honest]

I am impressed (?) that they shut downtown Edmonton for Hockey Games.

Is the game and the revenue (with no/limited crowds) worth shutting down the guts of the city?

Someone thinks it is I guess

Honest

[nobthehobbit]

It will be. And the exceptions around all the SportsBall people and their families is one of the points being raised by the advocacy group I joined.

Yeah, the exceptions being made for professional sports are incredibly foolish. I'm pretty sure one of the main reasons Vancouver isn't a hub city for the NHL is because the province wouldn't compromise on making the players follow the same rules as everyone else. And a good thing, too.

Bending over backwards for professional sports just puts public health at risk for little gain, except for the votes of sports fans.

[AllenGould]

I am impressed (?) that they shut downtown Edmonton for Hockey Games.

Is the game and the revenue (with no/limited crowds) worth shutting down the guts of the city?

Someone thinks it is I guess

Honest

Well, this is where it gets weird. Lot of people haven't figured out that no, we don't get to go to the arena to watch the games, you'll have to watch them on TV like everyone else. And cordoning off streets wasn't part of the pitch either, so I suspect they're going to bleed goodwill once it becomes official just how much we're giving up for this.

On the other hand, the original pitch was relatively "safe" - the arena is new and self-contained, with a pedway connecting to the arena owner's shiny new (and empty) hotel tower. So the theory was you can put all the staff in the hotel, they can walk over the pedway to/from the arena, and the "bubble" is literally those two buildings.

And then they added the community rink for "practice ice" (which I think is also the newest/nicest one in town, but is also the furthest), and we haven't heard if they're enforcing bussing or how everyone is getting across town without contaminating everything. And now it looks like the bubble is getting bigger for amenities...

We haven't heard anything about spouses/families beyond the CMO saying that if you're in the bubble you're *in*. So hopefully family decides to stay put, because our arena ain't *that* interesting, y'know?

Yeah, the exceptions being made for professional sports are incredibly foolish. I'm pretty sure one of the main reasons Vancouver isn't a hub city for the NHL is because the province wouldn't compromise on making the players follow the same rules as everyone else. And a good thing, too.

Bending over backwards for professional sports just puts public health at risk for little gain, except for the votes of sports fans.

Agreed - I'm not a hockey fan (and definitely not an Oilers fan!), but I was OK with the original plan when they were going to fill up a couple empty buildings and stick to themselves. But like most Things Hockey, the deal gets worse all the time.

But I can steal the premier's pitch video on why everyone should come to Edmonton!
https://twitter.com/jkenney/status/1275133805880197120

[Hoss-Drone]

It will be. And the exceptions around all the SportsBall people and their families is one of the points being raised by the advocacy group I joined.

Yeah, the exceptions being made for professional sports are incredibly foolish. I'm pretty sure one of the main reasons Vancouver isn't a hub city for the NHL is because the province wouldn't compromise on making the players follow the same rules as everyone else. And a good thing, too.

Bending over backwards for professional sports just puts public health at risk for little gain, except for the votes of sports fans.

I wouldn't call sports fans a voting Bloc though so......

[Marquetry]

The exceptions for athletes and their families provide a good reason to expand their far-too-narrow definition of family, though... so I'm all for it, if it helps more people be able to see their loved ones soon.

[AllenGould]

I wouldn't call sports fans a voting Bloc though so......

No, but sports owners, who are all looking at their broadcast contracts and realizing they don't get paid if there ain't no games... those guys are absolutely a voting bloc of money, especially at the local scene.

To Maquetry's point, assuming that my gov't doesn't shit the bed on this, you wouldn't *want* to be in this exemption - the whole exercise is that us locals shouldn't be exposed to any of the Covid-infected foreigners invading our downtown so they can play pucknet. (For instance - the JW Marriott hotel that links to the arena has plain old residential housing on the upper floors. News reports are that while they have their own entrance, they're not locked out of the shared amenities like the gym and pool, because those are now Off Limits.) So even if you did sneak into a hockey player's luggage, you'd just be stuck in an Edmonton hotel for two months. (Again, assuming that our idiot government doesn't decide to let them roam around and visit all those places in the ad I linked earlier, which are all of Banff and a solid 400km away.)

[nobthehobbit]

And anyway, it might get you into Alberta (and I think Ontario)... but BC? See above re: following the same rules.

I'd refuse to vote for any candidate who proposes policies that would put at risk a record of success that sees 50 new cases in a day being considered a worrisome increase.

There's people to be angry at for everything that's happened. Responsible political leaders are not among them.

[Marquetry]

I have plenty of feelings and anger to go around... would be more of a Dark Phoenix kind of mutant, probably good I don't have those kind of abilities! But then I could fix things, so...

[AllenGould]

And anyway, it might get you into Alberta (and I think Ontario)... but BC? See above re: following the same rules.

I am slightly cranky that the AB-BC border is open one-way, though. My boss (who lives in BC) is allowed to visit AB to go hit the mountains, but guidelines say I'm not supposed to go into BC.

But only slightly cranky, because then I see that my province has decided to blockade a chunk of downtown for hockey, plus blockade off *another* stretch for drive-in hockey-TV (with beer garden!) at the request of the Oilers, plus won't mandate masks indoors, but *did* just commit that all the kids will be in-class all day come September with what I will charitably call the most useless set of guidelines I have ever had the mispleasure to read.

[jadziadax8]

My kids' school district just reversed course on in-person learning. Initially we were able to choose between in-person and online schooling. As of last night, the Board decided to go fully online until at least October.

I know it's the right thing to do, but it's so hard to stare down the barrel of remote learning again. At least there will be direct instruction this fall, rather than the Google doc of assignments and once-a-week Zoom calls my son had in the Spring. I don't know how my daughter is going to manage kindergarten, though. She doesn't read yet!

The one good thing that's coming out of this is that ALL the kids in the district will be receiving Chromebooks for the year. Last year only 5th grade and up had them, so this will be a distinct improvement on the $100 tablets we bought them in March.

I just need to remind myself over and over that I am lucky. I have good internet. I can work from home and so can my husband.

[Marquetry]

Dammit... sorry they took the choice away.

[jadziadax8]

Dammit... sorry they took the choice away.

As I said, it's the right call. It doesn't mean I can't be disappointed.

[monty42]

We've been through this before! Even though we didn't know it at the time...



So whether you need to home school your kids or take a deadly dose of radiation... Let Nimoy be your guide!

[Boffo97]

"Now I'm radioactive! That can't be good!" - Spock. (Or maybe The Doom Guy.)

[SudenKapala]

As I said, it's the right call. It doesn't mean I can't be disappointed.

Indeed to both. Good luck. I hope it all finds its way.

It's been going relativelt well here for some weeks, infection-wise; but now things seem to be slipping down the slope again.