Admirals ready to get back to hockey next season
MILWAUKEE (BVM) — On Jan. 4, the Milwaukee Admirals announced that they would be opting out of the 2020-2021 season due to economic reasons.
Due to the COVID-19 restrictions in Milwaukee, the Admirals were not going to be allowed more than 10 fans at any home game held at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. For a team that regularly has 5,000 fans attending games, this would have made it very hard to financially make it through a season.
“Our economic model is very simple,” Admirals Owner/CEO Harris Turer said in regards to why the fan limitations meant the end of the season.
Milwaukee operates on ticket sales, concessions, merchandise and sponsorship as their main sources of revenue. The limitations on fans at the arena meant that most of the revenue the organization would need to operate during the season would not be possible.
Although the announcement came in early January just as the AHL preseason was underway, the Admirals had known for a while that missing the season could happen.
Going back to last year when the AHL postponed the 2019-2020 season on March 12, Turer had a feeling that this was not going to go away quickly. Turer recalls the night that NBA All-Star Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
“You knew like, ‘Oh man, here we go,’” Turer said.
The AHL officially canceled the season on May 11. It was hard to accept especially for the Admirals who were putting together a special season. In their 50th season, the team was first place in the AHL with a 41-14-5-3 record.
“It was just a weird time and I think the hardest part was that was a really special team that we had,” Turer said. “Our team was a close-knit group of guys and the locker room was really strong. I’ve owned the team now going on 16 seasons and it was probably the second-closest group we’ve ever had. I thought we could’ve done something special.”
The Admirals would finish the 2020 season with regular season titles for the Central Division, Western Conference, and the entire AHL.
With the season officially over, the Admirals’ organization began finishing up the business of the 2020 season and looked towards the 2020-2021 season.
“You’re trying to close your business year,” Turer said. “There were so many loose ends you were trying to tie up.”
Turer praised his staff for how hard they work to finish the 2020 season. However, as the summer went on and plans were being made for the upcoming season, Turer still had a sense that the upcoming season was going to be unlikely to happen as well.
“There came a point during the summer I already knew we weren’t going to have, at least in my mind, I couldn’t see us having a 2021 season,” Turer said.
The Admirals still worked with the AHL and their NHL affiliate the Nashville Predators, but one problem with planning for the season was the NHL’s late restart to finish the 2020 season.
In August, the NHL reconvened to finish the 2020 season and that did not end until September. The NHL then took their time coming up with a plan for the very quickly approaching 2021 season. They took their time to give their players time to rest after just finishing the season as well as wanting to see if there would be any changes to COVID-19 regulations.
Once the NHL announced how it was going to approach the 2021 season, the AHL began the same talks to figure out what they would do to go along with the NHL.
“Once the NHL came up with their plan we started right into, ‘OK, here’s what it could look like,’” Turer said. “I could only talk from a Milwaukee perspective or from a perspective of some of the towns where I knew teams were that their government officials were never going to allow fans.”
To address that issue, other AHL teams will be playing in their practice facilities rather than arenas to limit the operation cost of hosting games.
The issue the Admirals faced was that there are no other rinks in Southeastern Wisconsin that meet AHL regulations with curved class near the benches. In the end, opting out of the season was the Admirals’ only option.
“I think because we were open and honest with our reasoning and laid it out there, I think our fans reacted incredibly well,” Turer said.
Admirals fans have been showing their support by buying merchandise, voicing their support of the local teams and trying to help any way they can.
“It really meant a lot to me,” Turer said about the support from Admiral fans. “I am very grateful.”
Turer was also grateful for how the organization has handled everything since the original postponement of the 2020 season last March. The hard work they have put in day in and day out during this time of uncertainty was one of the reasons he decided to pay for the 19 full time Admirals staff personally.
“I have a very special group of people,” Turer said. “One of the most important things that I learned and wanted to have when I bought the team was have a real family atmosphere at the organization. To create a place where we all care about each other, we enjoy being with each other and working with each other.”
As they turn their attention to the 2021-2022 season the Admirals are more than ready. They have been preparing for this season since the summer and now that they will not be playing this season, they are moving all those plans for next season.
It is still a year away and the Admirals are excited to get back on the ice.
“I’ve thought about it a lot. I’m so excited for that day,” Turer said.
