The Kenai River Brown Bears hockey homestand, scheduled for the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex beginning on April 16th has been rescheduled for an April 23rd with the series against the Fairbanks Ice Dogs moved to May 14th.
The move follows the increase in COVID-19 cases on the Kenai Peninsula and the resulting initiating of the City of Soldotna Resolution 2021-009, Section 6, which states,
“Should the number of COVID-19 cases in the Central Kenai Peninsula exceed an average daily case rate of 10 per 100,000 population over a 14-day period, the spectator capacity allowed at any ice event at SRSC shall automatically reduce to 250 people and the Council will reevaluate the SRSC COVID- 19 protocols.”
Soldotna City Manager Stephanie Queen on Resolution 2021-009…
” Back in February was when the Council approved a Resolution that increased the capacity to 750 spectators for the sports center and at that time there was a lot of discussion about what would the decision be if numbers increased again. So part of that same resolution that bumped it up to 750, there was specific language that said that if the number of COVID-19 cases in our area put us back in that “high risk” category; then the spectator limit would automatically revert back to 250 because 250 was the capacity that was previously in place at the sports center when we were in that higher risk zone.”
The Brown Bears management holds that a spectator limit of 250 per game at the SRSC is not feasible and will not generate enough revenue.
Queen elaborated on the move to 250 spectators…
“Unfortunately, I became aware on Friday of last week that we were nearing that threshold and so when I saw that we were likely to cross that threshold, I reached out to our parks director and asked him to get in touch with the Brown Bears leadership right away. I know that they have been in communication back-and-forth all over the last week since so that we can support them as they decide what they want to do next.”
“We had been consistently dropping in numbers for a couple of months. At the end of February when we had the Council make this decision, they were feeling pretty good about where we were at-things had been on a downward trend. Unfortunately now, we see a little bit of a reverse of that–the central Kenai Peninsula we started to see numbers pick up, specifically in the Soldotna but also in the areas around us. And it seems that now the Borough as a whole has enough cases that were above that 10 per 100,000 threshold.”
The City of Soldotna, SRSC and the Kenai River Brown Bears will monitor the Kenai Peninsula’s 14-day covid counts and will make adjustments based on the numbers summited by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.
The Brown Bears will open an eight-game, homestand on April 23rd against the Chippewa Steel at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
The Kenai River Brown Bears will play under mitigation protocols at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex which will include mask wearing by all spectators and social distancing.
Advance ticket sales will be a major component to the attendance restrictions in the SRSC. More information on ticket sales will be available on Kenai River Brown Bears website.
Brown Bears home game schedule revised:
4/23 vs Chippewa Steel 7:30 pm
4/24 vs Chippewa Steel 7:30 pm
4/25 vs Chippewa Steel 5:00 pm
4/29 vs Janesville Jets 7:00 pm
4/30 vs Janesville Jets 7:30 pm
5/1 vs Janesville Jets 7:30 pm
5/14 vs Fairbanks Ice Dogs 7:30 pm
5/15 vs Fairbanks Ice Dogs 7:30 pm
