IIHF World Junior Championships Dir Riley Wiwchar said ticket demand for the '19 hockey tournament -- slated for Dec. 26, 2018-Jan. 5, 2019 in Vancouver and Victoria -- has "exceeded expectations," according to the CP. Attendance will be "watched closely at this year’s event after disappointing turnouts -- and complaints about ticket prices -- three of the past four years" in Buffalo and Toronto/Montreal. Attendance last year in Buffalo was "dismal, with thousands of empty seats for many games," as fewer than 10,000 people "came out for Canada’s games in the preliminary rounds and just 5,533 showed up for the team’s quarterfinal win over Switzerland." IIHF President Rene Fasel said that having either Toronto or Buffalo host the event three out of four years "may have been a mistake." The tournament "will be in the Czech Republic" in '20, before "returning to Canada" in '21. Venues for this year’s tournament are "slightly smaller than the main arenas in Toronto and Buffalo, which hold 19,800 and 19,200, respectively." Vancouver’s Rogers Arena has a "capacity of 18,910 and Victoria’s Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre has room for 7,400" (CP, 10/12).
