Canada wants to host WJC every 3 years. Good/bad?

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*Scott*

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Every 3 or 4 years would be nice, but I can see why other countries are upset over this. What I do suggest is that they stop holding the tourney in country's like Austria (where the World Championships are this year). There is like no intrest in hockey in these countries. Why should they be rewarded with a big tournament?
 

RorschachWJK

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Dec 28, 2004
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In summary, money seems to be the main justification for having the WJC every three years in Canada. But I'm sure that everybody also wants to see hockey becoming more popular in the so called 'minor' countries (Switzerland and Germany for example). One of the best ways to do this, IMHO, would be to have the WJC organised in these countries more often than once in 15 years or so. After all, what could be better advertisement for the sport than this tourney, considering that the target population is kids?
 

Panopticon

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*Scott* said:
Every 3 or 4 years would be nice, but I can see why other countries are upset over this. What I do suggest is that they stop holding the tourney in country's like Austria (where the World Championships are this year). There is like no intrest in hockey in these countries. Why should they be rewarded with a big tournament?


Because if they never get these tournaments, there will never be any interest. And that's what IIHF wants and that's what most people want. To spread the interest.
 

Vic Rattlehead*

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tommi462 said:
And the other games? Finland vs. Switzerland? How many people? My guess, somewhere between 5 and 200. Mad profits.

Hey, hockey is hockey up here in Canada. There will be plenty of people watching it.
 

Nash

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Jul 23, 2004
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wilka91 said:
The World Cup ... lol ... very funny. What does the word "World" stand for?

And the Olympics? Yeah sure, you did win it ... did any other team ever get to face Belarus in a semifinal game?

Wasn't the World Cup played in both Europe and North America last year? I know that the finals were held here, but that should be rotated to Europe next time around if they want to give this tournament more legitimacy. On the flip side of that, when has Canada ever hosted the World Championships?

As for having Belarus as a semifinalist, that is not our fault. We still had to win the Gold Medal game. You had Germany as a quarter finalist and we had Finland. Who cares? You lost your game against the USA and we beat them.
 

FLAMESFAN

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Feb 27, 2002
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tommi462 said:
And the other games? Finland vs. Switzerland? How many people? My guess, somewhere between 5 and 200. Mad profits.

For an example there was about 6000 people at the EXHIBITION Fin vs Sui game in Winnipeg
 

Epsilon

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Nash said:
Wasn't the World Cup played in both Europe and North America last year? I know that the finals were held here, but that should be rotated to Europe next time around if they want to give this tournament more legitimacy. On the flip side of that, when has Canada ever hosted the World Championships?

The main reason Canada hasn't hosted the WCs is because the NHL doesn't want it to happen, thinking it will interfere with the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Personally I like the WJCs when they are in Europe. It's fun getting up early to watch them during the holidays, and it doesn't overlap with Bowl Season either that way.
 

QcS

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i don't think Canada should have them every 3 years.

Yes, finances show that it makes more money, BUT, in the interest of hockey and promoting the game, i think all countries should have it on a regular basis.

Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland..

As for the World championships, i do not really care if north america never gets them, it's right during the Stanley cup playoffs, and the best players in the world are playing in those Stanley cup playoffs. It's as interesting as the Spengler cup to me.

World cup should be made into a real world cup.. have the semis and finals be hosted by the top seeded teams, no matter who it is. :)
 

RorschachWJK

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Epsilon said:
The main reason Canada hasn't hosted the WCs is because the NHL doesn't want it to happen, thinking it will interfere with the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Personally I like the WJCs when they are in Europe. It's fun getting up early to watch them during the holidays, and it doesn't overlap with Bowl Season either that way.

Wow, what an attitude! You just scored a hat trick :handclap:
I'd like to be able to say the same, but I can't spend too many nights/early mornings watching hockey because I think that would pretty quickly cause my marital status to change to single. :D
 

Iceman23

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Dec 26, 2003
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If the European countries don't support the tournament then why bother? If the idea is to grow the game then you need people in the seats watching. I currently reside in Halifax and when we received the World Juniors, the response was amazing! I think nearly every seat was sold for every game. If I recall, before single tickets were available, there was a 98% sellout for the tourney. I don't think the game is served very well if the tournament is given to the Swiss and then they can't even sell out their home games. If the kids aren't in the stands, then the game isn't growing. I completely agree with giving Canada the tournament every 3 years. If other countries can show that they can support the tournament well, then I would have no problem seeing them get the tournament more often. Otherwise, what is the point?
 

octopi

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Dec 29, 2004
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Every third year? Okay by me. Canada has the biggest following, so why not? Its not such a big deal in other countries. BTW, whoever siad it'd interefere with playoffs, its the World Junior, not the World Cup. World Junior is always Dec/Jan and doesn't interfere with much.
 

Mountain Dude

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tommi462 said:
Our arenas don't hold that much people. I saw the Finland - Canada and Finland - Czech Republic games and both were pretty much sold out.

And how many Finnish fans would see the games in Canada? Even on TV? We got two games on TV this year, both played in the middle of the night. Yeah, that's really fun. But I guess that doesn't matter since only thing that matters is making money.


Shouldnt a lightbulb be turning on in your head? You only saw two games...I wonder why...maybe there wasnt enough interest in the country to even bother televising the event! Hmmm!!!
 

Habsfan 32

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I think it's great for Canada but other countries will not like it but I'm Canadian so i like but the other countries like Germany should host this event just to see if people are interseted in coming to see juniors play. If they are not it should only be held in countries that will help the sport get exposure to promote the game.
 

RorschachWJK

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Mountain Dude said:
Shouldnt a lightbulb be turning on in your head? You only saw two games...I wonder why...maybe there wasnt enough interest in the country to even bother televising the event! Hmmm!!!

Have you heard about things like 'Prime time'? I can assure you, that 12 midnight to 5 AM is not exactly prime time in any country. That's when the games were on in Finnish time. Just maybe that played a role too.
 

RorschachWJK

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Habsfan 32 said:
I think it's great for Canada but other countries will not like it but I'm Canadian so i like but the other countries like Germany should host this event just to see if people are interseted in coming to see juniors play. If they are not it should only be held in countries that will help the sport get exposure to promote the game.

If it's not held in these countries, the exposure will be very limited, perhaps nonexistant, and the game certainly will not be promoted. That's the problem.
 

God Bless Canada

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The reason why

I saw it posted earlier that the average attendance in Halifax averaged 10,000 fans a game. That's a bloody sellout every game in that arena. They sell out games involving marginal teams. Halifax could have had a 20,00 seat arena, and they still would have sold out every game. That's how big the tournament is over year.

I'm sure the players would love to play in front of large crowds, even if it involves lesser teams battling it out for 7th place. Do you think they'd get big crowds playing a 7th place game in Russia? No, but they would in Canada. Do you think anyone but the host team draws well in Europe? No. But everyone draws well in Canada.

Anyone else remember the sea of empty seats at Switzerland in 1997?

If the tournament catches on in other parts of the world, I'd have no problem with Canada hosting it every five years, or even less. I'd love to see European countries have 1/10th of the passion for this tournament that Canada does. If it were another country that had the amazing success of hosting the tournment, and not Canada, I'd have no problem with them hosting every three years. But in Europe, the WJC is generally just a blip for the casual fan, nowhere big as the world championship (which Canada has never hosted. Same thing with the Junior World Cup or the WU18. Canada has had the Olympics once).

It is in the best interests of the tournament to be in Canada every three to four years at this point in time, continuing a cycle that has successfully taken place for 15 years. Once other nations show they can successfully host a tournament, without getting a big boost from Canadian fans (this means you, U.S.), then we can look at going to other countries more often, but Switzerland-Slovakia will always draw peanuts in Sweden, Finland, Russia and most other European countires, and that is unacceptable.
 

Tb0ne

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If the NHL, IIHF, and Hockey Canada have any interest in the future of hockey they won't make Canada host the WJC every 3 years.

The current NHL doesn't have a deep enough talent pool. They MUST PROMOTE HOCKEY IN NON TRADITIONAL MARKETS, not just in the Southern United States, but also Countries with emerging hockey programs. (Swizterland, Denmark, Norway, Belarus etc). Norway should be a prime target for the expansion of hockey, I would think, especially given that it is so close to Sweden.

You don't promote Hockey in other countries by making 1/3rd of the premier Junior Ice Hockey Tournment in Canada. Simple as that.
 

HockeyCritter

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Carl O'Steen said:
Interesting information, in 1999 the tournament was held in Winnipeg, the Swedish team averaged 7,286 fans a game... second most in the tournament.

In 2001 (Russia), the average attendance for the Russian team was around 5,000.

In 2002 (Czech), the average attendance for the Czech team was around 6,000.

In 2004 (Finland), the highest attendance mark in the entire tournament was about 7,500.

In 2003 (Halifax), 5 countries averaged atleast 10,000.
How does that relate in terms of capacity percentage? Some might say that 10K average is low, but if your arena only holds 10K that's pretty darn good.
 

Carl Spackler

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wilka91 said:
Man of course I knew from the beginning that Canada was going to win this tourney no matter what because this team was just exceptional and we all share this view. But still, if Canada faces any team on US soil except the USA of course, they'll be like home (especially in Minnesota).


Wouldn't games in Finland then be like home games for the Russians if they were as passionate about the World Juniors? The simple fact is that Canadians support this tourney like no one else does. For that reason alone they should get priority in hosting it. If other countries can't muster a decent crowd then should lose any chance of holding it again.
 

Bill McNeal

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Jul 19, 2003
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Epsilon said:
The main reason Canada hasn't hosted the WCs is because the NHL doesn't want it to happen, thinking it will interfere with the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Personally I like the WJCs when they are in Europe. It's fun getting up early to watch them during the holidays, and it doesn't overlap with Bowl Season either that way.

I do enjoy when the games are in Canada, but you reminded me of one of my favorite aspects of the tournament when played in Europe: The early games. It's almost tradition to wake up during the Christmas holidays early in the morning to watch Canada play. I really missed that this year.
 

RorschachWJK

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Carl Spackler said:
Wouldn't games in Finland then be like home games for the Russians if they were as passionate about the World Juniors? The simple fact is that Canadians support this tourney like no one else does. For that reason alone they should get priority in hosting it. If other countries can't muster a decent crowd then should lose any chance of holding it again.

The Finland-Russia border is also the border of EU, which means that it is slightly more difficult for Russians to come to Finland than for Canadians to go to USA and vice versa. They need a visa for example. Far from a home game.
 

BCCHL inactive

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NYRangers said:
Canada should shut up. They don't own the sport like they think. There is no benifit to having it in Canada all the time.

Yes there is. Profits for the IIHF...something that only Canadian fans can make happen at a U20 tournament. Whether or not the started the tournament for profits, money is what makes such events happen in today's economic society. The IIHF needs to go where the tournament will be popular.


tommi462 said:
Because if they never get these tournaments, there will never be any interest. And that's what IIHF wants and that's what most people want. To spread the interest.

The IIHF has ran this tournament for going on 30 years, and Canada is the only country who has really sunk their teeth into the U20 event. The home team, no matter where the tournament is, will always draw well...but in Canada, every game is a near-sellout. When I watch this tournament when it is hosted somewhere in Europe, odds are that unless Canada is playing the home team, there won't be more than a few hundred people in the stands.
 

*Scott*

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Boucicaut said:
Have you heard about things like 'Prime time'? I can assure you, that 12 midnight to 5 AM is not exactly prime time in any country. That's when the games were on in Finnish time. Just maybe that played a role too.

If the games were in a huge demand to be shown on TV, why didnt they just put them on tape delay and show them the next morning/afternoon. It happens all the time with the Olympics. Doesnt seem to affect there ratings.
 
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