The Jacksonville Icemen’s scheduled Dec. 26 game is postponed indefinitely after the ECHL members of the Professional Hockey Players’ Association went on strike.
Postponed for now is the Icemen’s scheduled game against the Orlando Solar Bears at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, in addition to other games around the 30-team hockey league.
The union served notice of the strike on Dec. 22, following a vote of membership authorizing the move last week. The league has operated without an active collective bargaining agreement since the previous deal expired in the summer.
Negotiations have turned increasingly tense in recent days, with both ECHL management and the players’ association releasing dueling statements on social media.
What does the strike mean for Icemen fans?
For now, only the Dec. 26 game is officially postponed, but if the work stoppage continues, additional games — beginning with the Dec. 27 and 28 games at the Greenville Swamp Rabbits — will likely bump from their scheduled dates.
The Icemen announced Friday that tickets for the Dec. 26 game can be applied toward the rescheduled date for the game, which remains to be determined.
Subsequent games on the Icemen schedule are Dec. 30 at Orlando, Jan. 3 and Jan. 9 at home at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, Jan. 10 at Orlando, Jan. 14, 16 and 17 at the Florida Everblades and Jan. 19 at Orlando. So far, the Icemen have played 26 games in a planned 72-game regular season schedule.
However, rescheduling games will be complicated because of arena availability both in Jacksonville and elsewhere. For example, the dates from Jan. 16-19 are unavailable at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena because of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth circus.
Other event dates already booked at the arena are Jan. 11 for the Winter Jam music concert, Feb. 20-21 for the Professional Bull Riders Unleash the Beast series, March 3-9 for the ASUN men’s and women’s basketball tournament and March 27-29 for Disney on Ice.
PHPA statement on strike
PHPA executive director Brian Ramsay issued a statement on Dec. 23:
“Earlier today, after sending a written request to the ECHL to resume talks last evening – which went unanswered – the PHPA contacted the ECHL with an offer to avoid missing any games and use a mediation or arbitration process to find a settlement. The ECHL responded within minutes, rejecting any interest in this solution and demanding ‘significant movement’ and concessions from the players. This approach continues to align with the increased threats our membership has faced over the past 12 hours.”
ECHL statement on strike
The ECHL office released a statement Dec. 26 as the strike took effect.
“Unfortunately, union leaders deprived players of the opportunity to vote on our last, best, and final offer – an offer that would dramatically raise player salaries by 20 percent in the first year, boost the per-diem rate, guarantee more off days, and expand the top-of-the-line equipment available to players. We did everything possible to avoid this outcome, and hope that the union leadership will drop its unworkable scheduling demands, let the players vote on our offer, and make it possible for players to return to work.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Icemen game postponed as ECHL hockey strike begins
Reporting by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
