There are a lot of questions about the 2020-21 NHL season.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed at the draft that the league was looking at a Jan. 1 start date. Outside of that, not much is known about their plan. The NHL has said in the past that they’d like to play a full 82 game schedule, but even that remains a question.

And for owners, the question of whether fans will be allowed in the building when games do start remains a major concern. The NHL, unlike NBA or NFL, is a gate driven league and relies heavily on paying customers filling the seats at arenas.

MLB did not play in front of fans over the summer or during their postseason and the NFL and college football have some teams allowing spectators inside venues for games. The New York Jets and New York Giants — both of whom play in New Jersey — do not allow fans at Metlife Stadium for home games and the Buffalo Bills also play in front of vacant seats.

So it raises the question for the New York Islanders, along with the New York Rangers and nearby New Jersey Devils, about the prospects of fans being in the seats come a Jan. 1 start date.

Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk doesn’t forsee fans being in back in NHL venues until February, and only at small numbers. He told the Financial Post that the Senators have created a plan for fans to be back at the Canadian Tire Centre with a capacity of 6,000 fans.

Their plan includes scaled-down concession options and fans being kept distanced from one another at a safe space.

But could that work for the New York Islanders at an already small venue like Nassau Coliseum? Using the model that Melnyk has come up with, the Senators are utilizing a little over 25 percent of the capacity at the Canadian Tire Centre, which has a capacity of 19,153. 

Nassau Coliseum, which Lou Lamoriello confirmed would be the Islanders home rink next season, seats about 13,900 for hockey. That means the New York Islanders would be limited to roughly 3,400 spectators for any home games on Long Island.

That is also under the assumption that New York State is allowing large gatherings like that at that point in time.

Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley isn’t sold that a crowd of that size would allow for an NHL club to make it through the next season. Foley told KSHP last week that he didn’t think that the season would start until Feb. 1 and that teams would need 40 to 50 percent of the building full for things to work financially.

“I have no clue how it’s going to work,” Foley said. “We need to get up to 40 or 50 percent attendance, and then we can come up with some kind of program where every other game you can go to, that sort of thing. But with 1,800 people in the arena? That’s not enough.”