Obviously the fans in the host city want to see their home team in the Memorial Cup tournament. But as someone who's home teams lone Memorial Cup championship came as a result of them hosting the tournament (They lost in the WHL semi finals), it feels somewhat like a tainted victory.
Would fans in the host city still show up if, hypothetically, instead of the host city getting an automatic berth into the tournament, they hold a wild card game for the two teams with the best records out of the three conference losers to play to decide the fourth team in the tournament?
I am personally not a fan of having the host team get a pass into the Memorial Cup, but I completely understand the business behind it.
No, I really don't think it would be financially successful. You kinda need the host team there.
Although that doesn't mean there isn't an alternative option available. I've been thinking about potential options for a while, when bored, because (as I understand) the CHL has at least some desire to open the tournament beyond 4 teams. Now I've kept in mind the need to still have a host team, and since in my opinion the most intriguing games are the ones between league winners (therefore, a WJC-like pool a/b is out as it would split up the league winners)....and here is what I've come up with.
Pool A - the 3 league winners
Pool B - host team, 2 league finalists (not-host league).
Each team plays two games, then playoffs would look like this...
Wildcard Wednesday - 3rd place Pool A vs. 2nd place Pool B
Thursday (Semi-Final 1) - 2nd place Pool A vs. 1st place Pool B
Friday (Semi-Final 2) - Wildcard winner vs. 1st place Pool A
Sunday - final
So no team from Pool A can get eliminated until their 3rd game, which as champions earns them this.
RR schedule would look something like this (using the 2014 cup as a example)
Fri: London (host) vs. Portland (WHL finalist)
Sat: Guelph (OHL champ) vs. Val d'Or (Q champ)
Sun afternoon: London vs. Baie Comeau (Q finalist)
Sun night: Val d'Or vs. Edmonton
Mon: Portland vs. Baie Comeau
Tues: Guelph vs. Edmonton
Two teams still play back-to-back (a common complaint with the current schedule), but it would rotate between leagues - of course, and one of them goes afternoon to evening (so that's like a second day!
), and the other one is in Pool A where they can't be eliminated directly because of it.