Railers won't play 2020-2021 hockey season

Photo | WBJ | File Michael Myers, chief operating officer of the Worcester Railers, in the DCU Center

Write a Comment

The Worcester Railers Hockey Club said Wednesday they won't play their upcoming winter hockey season while much of the rest of their league moves forward during the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision comes a little over a months after the team said it would play this season, starting in January. But the team's reversal joins steps being taken across the region as coronavirus cases spike, including UMass Memorial Health Care planning to use the DCU Center's convention center space as a field hospital, and Clark University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute making changes on campus with rising numbers of positive tests.

Railers owner Cliff Rucker said announcing the decision to sit out the upcoming season was extremely difficult.

“We tried everything in our power to make the 2020-21 season a reality for our staff, players, and the City of Worcester," Rucker said in a statement. "Moving forward, the Railers are committed to Worcester and will continue to be a large part of this community as we prepare to hit the ice again in October 2021.”

The Railers are joined by their ECHL entire division, based in the Northeast and Canada, in electing to sit out the season. Other teams making the same announcement on Wednesday included the Adirondack Thunder in New York, the Maine Mariners, the Reading Royals in Pennsylvania and the Newfoundland Growlers and Brampton Beast in Canada. The Boston Bruins' ECHL affiliate, the Atlanta Gladiators, had already decided to not play this season, along with the Norfolk Admirals in Virginia.

The league is now planning to have 13 teams start play in December, and others to start in mid-January.

The Railers canceled their previous season in March with eight games remaining when the pandemic first hit. The team had an average game attendance of just over 4,000 last season, roughly in line with the league average, according to hockeydb.com.

The cancelation of the Railers season is another blow to downtown Worcester's economic fortunes for the winter. The City of Worcester has canceled Worcester Common ice skating, and at least seven restaurants in the neighborhood have closed at least temporarily for the season.