a) The NAI does not cancel games due to weather and will never force a team to go to a game in extreme weather situations. Games will be considered for very short notice postponement only due to bad weather and/or unforeseen circumstances. The common definitions for bad weather will be due to heavy snowfall causing dangerous road conditions, freezing rain, etc. Cold weather/wind chill is not considered a reason to postpone a game with short notice, and will not be accepted.
b) It is up to the traveling team to decide if it is unsafe to travel or not and then communicate that per the policy. The expectations are that when poor weather is encountered that affects travel, the two impacted team managers discuss this and then contact their Tier Governor and Senior Governor and have a conversation regarding the travel in the potentially weather impacted areas. It is not acceptable to just tell the home teams that you are not coming. If they are all in agreement (confirmed in writing through e-mail, copying the league President and V.P.’s) then the game is not played and the two teams split the costs of the ice and referees and the game must be rescheduled within 24 hours.
c) Normally these requests will be considered for approval only if they are within 24 hours of game time. The Notice of Game Change form is required for these situations, and the Tier or Senior Governor must be contacted by phone in order to give approval. It is important to remember that making a decision to not travel to a game should not be made until a reasonable time before you would have to leave. For example, if you have an 8 PM game and it takes 2 hours to get there, normally you would leave at about 5 to 5:30 PM. Calling and having these discussions about not traveling should happen in the time just before that, ideally about 1 to 2 hours before you would need to leave.
d) Both parties will split the costs evenly of the ice and referees for the game affected by the weather. The home team will invoice the visiting team for 50% of the game costs associated with the weather interruption. The visiting team member will have 30 days to pay the invoice. Failure to pay the invoice will result in disciplinary action by the league (including suspension from regular season play or removal from the playoffs).
