It seems like someone jumped the gun last week when news came out that the Ontario Hockey League was in the process of setting up and getting approval for the creation of two to four bubble centres where the league members would play a compressed 20 to 24 game schedule.
A number of hub city centres have been thrown around including Ottawa in the East and London in the West.
This rumour mentioned early April as a target start date to start the shortened season.
North Bay currently is not in a position to host an event of this fashion.
Aging Pete Palangio arena's twin pads are too small for U15 hockey let alone major junior.
But the same cannot be said for our neighbours to the West in Sudbury.
Countryside arena, which is ideally located right off the Highway 17 bypass in the Nickel City, is close to multiple hotels on Regent - a five minute drive from rink to hotel.
It also is a twin pad arena that is home to both the men's and women's Laurentian Voyageurs hockey teams.
I have seen this arena work like magic for northern Ontario hockey minor hockey tournaments and have witnessed the effectiveness of the facility when it hosted the Northern Ontario Junior 'A' Showcase event back in the fall of 2018.
It has multiple dressing rooms and I believe would be an ideal location to host as many as 4 to 6 teams if Sudbury was chosen as an OHL hub city.
That facility would be the best facility in the north - for now - which could host division rivals North Bay, Barrie, and Peterborough.
It will be interesting to see if this model will work, but the only place it will work in the north right now is at the Countryside arena in Sudbury.
