For the second time in three years, Hockey Canada has had to "answer for poor attendance" at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Toronto and Montreal, according to Sunaya Sapurji of YAHOO SPORTS CANADA. The '15 tournament was "held in the same two cities" and that year, Bell Centre "was relatively empty. As as a result, Hockey Canada and the organizing committee "re-evaluated the pricing" for the '17 tournament, "focusing on boosting the Montreal market." This time, however, attendance in Toronto was "equally as bad, and it appears world junior fatigue might finally be setting in amongst the ticket-buying public." Hockey Canada COO Scott Smith said, "If we knew then what we know now, we might not have gone back-to-back, but that has no bearing on the fact we’re very pleased that we came to Toronto and Montreal." With the '17 tournament still "poised to make a profit," the issue for Hockey Canada will become the '19 World Juniors in Vancouver and Victoria. Once again, Hockey Canada has "vowed to reassess ticket prices." The poor attendance in Toronto "should also be a red flag for USA Hockey," which put the '18 tournament back in Buffalo for the "second consecutive time in the American rotation" (CA.SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/3).
TIME FOR CHANGE: THE HOCKEY NEWS' Ken Campbell noted Bell Centre on Monday night was "less than half full for Canada’s quarterfinal against the Czech Republic -- something that would have been unheard of in previous years -- in part because hockey fans in Montreal are clearly not willing to pay top dollar for junior hockey." Campbell: "Let’s get it out of Canada for just a little while." By the '19 event, it will have been "played for eight of 11 years in a Canadian venue or American border city." That not only gives Canada a "huge advantage," but it also "creates the excess and fatigue that has been the biggest contributor to the malaise we’re seeing now." Going to Toronto and Montreal twice in the space of two years was a "huge miscalculation" by Hockey Canada. For Canada’s preliminary round game against Slovakia, each volunteer was "offered two free tickets for the game and there were still more than 6,000 empty seats." Campbell: "That’s where the complacency comes in. There is virtually nothing in Montreal that indicates the tournament is even going on and, partly because of unforeseen circumstances, it got buried in Toronto" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 1/3).
NOTHING SPECIAL: In Ontario, Morris Dalla Costa writes Hockey Canada has to "face the embarrassment of what their decision-making process has done to what was one of this country’s showcase events." The "swaths of empty seats in Montreal with Canada playing the Czech Republic in a playoff-round game Monday was the product of Hockey Canada milking the cow so hard, it simply dried up." Hockey Canada is "taking a public beating, rightfully so, over the dwindling attendance figures." Most critics are "blaming the ridiculous cost of tickets for a junior hockey event; fewer are blaming just as important a fact -- that there simply isn’t as much interest in junior hockey in big cities like Toronto and Montreal, who don’t support junior hockey 99% of the time." The empty seats may be "momentarily embarrassing" to Hockey Canada, but officials "haven’t risked anything." Cities that bid for the tournament "offer them a profit guarantee" of anywhere from C$10-16M "regardless of how much money the tournament makes." What Hockey Canada must do is "redefine its priorities." They must look at bid documents and "judge not by the bottom line figure but by which plan is the best overall; and the best for junior hockey and its teams" (LONDON FREE PRESS, 1/4).
