Current Plan to finish the 2020-21 PHA Season
There have been many inquiries as to what the season will look like when we return. Also, because of the Government mandated extended layoff, will the PHA membership receive or be entitled to some form of refund?
Ideally the PHA would like to return to exactly the way things were operating prior to the Christmas break and before the Ontario lockdown. Other associations within the OMHA, some within our region of the OMHA, have elected not to return to play after this recent shutdown. This is not the PHA’s preference. We will abide by rules and regulations set out by the Peterborough Public Health Unit and the City of Peterborough.
Our 2020-21 Season plan had Tier 2 running until the beginning of March and Tier 1 running until the
end of March. The PHA Board has now elected to run both groups until the last weekend of March.
With the announcement from our governing hockey body, the Ontario Hockey Federation, that there
will be no Rep program Tryouts until the Fall of 2021 for next season; there is no real reason to stay on
ice longer than the end of March. Furthermore, ice availability remains uncertain after March. The City
has scheduled maintenance for some ice surfaces and in order to complete on time it must start
immediately at seasons end. This in conjunction with the needs of other user groups such as lacrosse,
who lost almost their entire season last year, and will deserve use of the arena facilities
Will there be a refund due to the extensive shut down?
There may very well be a refund yes. As to how much and who will be entitled to one has yet to be
determined. This cannot be completely known until closer to season’s end. This is very difficult to
answer because our final costs are undetermined. How much Ice will we have to complete the season?
What amount is needed to pay Referees and timekeepers? All will depend on how many games we can
get scheduled.
What we can say is that there will be one of two options we believe at this point. Either there will be
some form of refund for all in the association (one amount for Tier 1 players and a second amount for
Tier 2 players). The second option is a refund for Tier 1 players only.
In short, we charged $1500 per Tier 1 player and $600 per Tier 2 player. Tier 2 was originally set to end
the beginning of March but has now been extended to the end of March. Therefore, Tier 2 will have
little to no loss of ice time. Tier 1 has not received all the programming originally planned. However,
Tier 1 has received a great deal more than Tier 2 in terms of overall programming such as; increased Ice
time, professional development for both goalies and position players, more games, and more practices.
The PHA board will be presented the numeric facts surrounding the finances of the 2020-21 Season and
be able to review at season’s end. At that time, the board will be presented with options in terms of
refunds and they will then be able to vote on a decision. The decision regarding refunds will then be
posted on our PHA website homepage. We are hopeful this will happen at the end of March, or at worst
mid April.
This year proposed a unique problem. We had no idea what our registration numbers would look like.
Our enrollment is about 150 less than expected. Also, our entire U16-U18 group elected for Tier 2
programming which is $900 less revenue per player at those age groups.
We were fortunate to enter the year with a surplus from the previous season. We anticipated issues
with budgeting this year due to the uncertainty of COVID and we as an executive have prepared to take
a loss on the year using up some of the reserve, but we will proceed with caution and concern. What if
next year is the same? Ideally the less we use of our reserves, the better financial position our
association remains. We have implemented new accounting measures whereby we have incorporated
as an association and thus must file taxes annually. This will be completed by a professional accounting
firm for further checks and balances. Other associations are having trouble meeting debt obligations or
just staying solvent in general. They have repeated requests to their membership asking for more
money or mandatory fundraising activities to meet expenses. We have not and we will not be in the
position where this is necessary for our membership.
We will get back to you as soon as we can, closer to season’s end, with what, if any refund will be
available and to whom would qualify for said refund.
Thank you on behalf of the PHA Board of Directors and Staff.
Peter Simon
PHA President.