WHEELING — The ECHL announced Friday that 13 teams, including the Wheeling Nailers, will begin the upcoming 2020-21 season on Dec. 11 under a split-season format.

The Nailers, along with Indy, Allen, Florida, Greenville, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Orlando, Rapid City, South Carolina, Tulsa, Utah and Wichita will embark on a 72-game season with the remaining teams beginning on Jan. 15 for a 62-game campaign.

Atlanta, however, is the lone team to opt out of the season at this time.

“We’re really pleased that we could put a season together,” Nailers Governor Don Rigby said. “We’ve been working hard on it for months. We’ve worked close with the health department, the city and the arena and we are pleased that we are one of the teams starting on the 11th of December.”

The season will conclude on June 6.

Rigby is hoping there will be fans inside WesBanco Arena when the season gets underway and is working toward making that happen.

“We are working on it,” Rigby said. “The health department has been great to work with and we have asked for a waiver for 1,500 fans. We believe we can do that very safely. It will be socially distant — 6-feet apart, every other row and masks will be mandatory in our facility.

“We think that with that, hand sanitizers, all the procedures that the arena has put in place, there is a lot of plexiglass at concession stands, we believe we can do 1,500 safely in this facility.”

As for the players, precautions will be taken to ensure they stay safe throughout the season.

“We have a 28-page ‘Return to Play’ negotiated with the union,” Rigby said. “It will be in flux for awhile. There is testing. Any players who come in will be tested and quarantined until we get those tests back as negative.

“We’ll have a procedure if we get positives during the season. We have rented additional apartments if we have to quarantine, too.”

Mark French was named the new Nailers head coach in the midst of the COVID-19 breakout and was relieved to hear some good news on the upcoming season.

“A lot of us were thinking the start date might get pushed back further so for me and the players who we’ve talked to, I think it’s a real positive thing to get back to doing what we are passionate about.

“I think a lot of people are going through uncertainty during these times, so it’s no different with me. Moving a family across borders is always interesting but obviously during a pandemic it brings it to a whole new level but it’s nice to be here.”

With Indy being the only divisional opponent for the Nailers also opening in December, the two squads may be seeing quite a bit of each other or the Nailers may have to do some traveling but scheduling will be done at a later date. For now, French is focused on getting his players ready for hockey.

“I think it’s how to best use this time right now to get ourselves ready,” French said. “First for training camp and then for regular season games.”