WJC: Damian Cox: Canada's constant home-ice advantage is killing WJCs

[Vaclav Varada]

With Cormier as captain and Della Rovere as assistant i have a hard time cheering for this canadian team to be honest.

 

[doakacola*]

Hey, there's probably a shot that your son's tourney gets more coverage and attendance than March Madness. That's how it is in Boston where the new Garden sells out for two Mondays in February.

While I couldn't give a **** about the Beanpot and feel that Bostonians make it out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, it's one of those things which is a part of the local fabric. Everybody has that. For many Canadians, it's waking up on Boxing Day and tuning into the WJC to cheer for Team Canada. For me, it's the Minnesota High School tourney. And for you apparently it's your son's amazingly important basketball tournament.

I'm a native bostonian who has watched Jack Parker at BU since he was a player in the mid60's. If anybody thinks Jack Parker is some sort of dolt, you need to be shot at sunrise. Jack Parker is one of the brightest people the world hockey community has ever seen. his statement about the WJC was pretty simple, The Beanpot in Boston was, is and always will be more important in New England than any WJC.
Also what do you expect the coach of one of the participants of the Beanpot who coached exactly one US Jr. team to say?

This would be like Lucia saying the MSHL is bigger than the WJC. Well duh he is a native Minnesotan who would be talking about his beloved tourney. Geesh

 

[Snaibberi]

I would be interested WJC games but you cant really see them here in finland. In fact you really cant see any hockey from TV anymore. SM-league, WJC, NHL and national team games (WC excluded) are all in pay per view channels.

And if you ask me if things doesnt change Ice Hockey will not be the number one sport in finland in the future.

I dont like the idea that wjc games have become Junior Canada Cup. And money shouldnt be the issue here. Isnt creed and money the reason were in the middle of global depression here

Only way average hockey fan is going to see WJC games is to bring it here for once and a while...

 

[Paxton Fettel]

I agree with the WJC having become the Junior Canada Cup, being played on small rinks and in North America, but I like this tourney nonetheless. Accept it for what it is.

I won't complain until the day the Olympics and World Championship are played in Canada every time.

 

[HockeyAddict]

I would be interested WJC games but you cant really see them here in finland. In fact you really cant see any hockey from TV anymore. SM-league, WJC, NHL and national team games (WC excluded) are all in pay per view channels.

And if you ask me if things doesnt change Ice Hockey will not be the number one sport in finland in the future.

I dont like the idea that wjc games have become Junior Canada Cup. And money shouldnt be the issue here. Isnt creed and money the reason were in the middle of global depression here

Only way average hockey fan is going to see WJC games is to bring it here for once and a while...

I'm sorry to hear that you guys hardly get any hockey outside of PPV... NHL should try to get their games on as many times as they can and to the most people they can in Europe. On weekends, there are usually several afternoon games - those would fall in prime-time viewing for you guys. It would be a shame if the kids in Northern Europe lost interest in hockey... we would all be losers if this were the case.

 

[Ward Cornell]

I agree with the WJC having become the Junior Canada Cup, being played on small rinks and in North America, but I like this tourney nonetheless. Accept it for what it is.

I won't complain until the day the Olympics and World Championship are played in Canada every time.

To be honest, a lot of Canadians would almost prefer the WJHC to be held somewhere in Europe.
I know a few of us would love to take a few weeks vacation and take in the games and sites of
some really beautiful countries.
But like what has been said it takes money to hold these events and while Canada does make money from these events, any country holding the events and if not well attended they will lose money.
Any debts would come out of that country "hockey fund".
While it's true Canada has been getting there fair share of these events, it's does take another country to put in a good bid!

 

[cenas*]

The one caveat for Canada is that sometimes that is the only opportunity that u20 players get a chance to play in front of 20 000 fans and to play in the only country that considers hockey its number one sport.

Hockey is the #1 sport in Finland.

edit:

To make my reply more meaningful here is the situation for tv hockey in Finland. WHC games are shown on a government owned ad free channel every year. 2 games per day, so they show non-Finland games too. WJC are shown on a pay per view channel that shows **** like f1, rally when the tournament isn't on so its not a very good package and our national elite league is shown on a channel that only shows one game per every round and nothing else.

This won't be good for the popularity of hockey in the future.. different tournaments and leagues sprinkled on different pay packages.. damn.

 

[james bond]

Hockey is the #1 sport in Finland.

edit:

To make my reply more meaningful here is the situation for tv hockey in Finland. WHC games are shown on a government owned ad free channel every year. 2 games per day, so they show non-Finland games too. WJC are shown on a pay per view channel that shows **** like f1, rally when the tournament isn't on so its not a very good package and our national elite league is shown on a channel that only shows one game per every round and nothing else.

This won't be good for the popularity of hockey in the future.. different tournaments and leagues sprinkled on different pay packages.. damn.

Are you able to break down how much is spent on Soccer vs Hockey?

Would more people watch the national hockey team over Finland making an appearance at a World Cup of Soccer? I would question how a nation of 5 million people would be in the top 50 FIFA rankings with Soccer not being its number one sport. Other Finns I have talked to say Soccer and Alpine sports are number one. As for trashing F1, I would say you are in the minority.

 

[v-man]

I would question how a nation of 5 million people would be in the top 50 FIFA rankings with Soccer not being its number one sport.

Why? what does popularity have to do with a team's quality? Latvia, a country with less than half of Finland's population is also in the top 50 in FIFA rankings, but soccer is far behind hockey and basketball in terms of popularity and funding.

 

[boozeash]

A preliminary game between Latvia and Denmark held in Canada would sell twice as many tickets then the gold medal game held in Europe. That's if the host country was in the gold medal game. I paid nearly twice the regular ticket prize for a nose bleed seat at the Scotia Bank place to witness the GMG. The demand was so high.

 

[Snaibberi]

Would more people watch the national hockey team over Finland making an appearance at a World Cup of Soccer? I would question how a nation of 5 million people would be in the top 50 FIFA rankings with Soccer not being its number one sport. Other Finns I have talked to say Soccer and Alpine sports are number one. As for trashing F1, I would say you are in the minority.

It goes something like this:

1. Ice Hockey
2. Winter sports (cross country skiing etc)
3. Formula 1 (maybe not anymore since theres no finnish drivers?)
4. Football (not american eggball)
5. Track & Field
6. Ralley

Football is not that popular. Only biggest cities and only a minority there are watching it (even in Helsinki only ~5000 people go to see match on a stadium that can take ~15000 people. And Helsinki and its teams have over 1 million people market area). I like football and go to games, but its not even near hockey when talking about popularity. Hockey is a sport that everyone talks about, even people who dont like other sports.

Off course these days hockey is chewing its own leg off when no one sees it anymore

 

[finchster]

This thread should be over.

All the nations involved agreed to keep the tournament in Canada because all participating nations get a cut of the gate. Being in Canada is helping other nations get extra money for their programs. It must have been one of the best year’s money wise for hockey in Kazakhstan getting a cut of the WJC in Canada.

 

[Aptur]

I love it that the tournament is in Canada. It's amazing that so many canadians show up for hockey games not including their own county.

Nobody would watch a game between Latvia versus Germany in my own country Sweden. Just take the U21 football(soccer) tournament that Sweden hosted earlier this year.

There was loads of hype about the tournament and Sweden played infront of sold-out stadiums in every game. While Sweden played those matches, teams like Serbia and Belarus played infront of almost empty stadiums.

So, keep the WJCs in Canada, even though it means that the crowd will most likely be cheering for the team that Sweden is playing against.

 

[noobman]

The truth is that Canadian hockey fans are more passionate about the World Junior tournament than fans from any other nations. A hockey fan in the states that follows the tournament is the exception, not the rule. I'm not sure how popular it is in Europe, but I imagine that it's nowhere near as popular as the Olympics or the World Cup of Hockey. I'd say that Canadian fan support for the Juniors is on the same level as those major tournaments.

More Canadian fans in proximity = greater revenues. Only the truly hardcore will fly out to Sweden or so for the tournament.

 

[Pepper]

A preliminary game between Latvia and Denmark held in Canada would sell twice as many tickets then the gold medal game held in Europe. That's if the host country was in the gold medal game. I paid nearly twice the regular ticket prize for a nose bleed seat at the Scotia Bank place to witness the GMG. The demand was so high.

Not entirely true. In 1998, Finland-Russia WJC game was sold-out and played in front of just under 14000 people in Helsinki.

 

[GopherState]

I'm a native bostonian who has watched Jack Parker at BU since he was a player in the mid60's. If anybody thinks Jack Parker is some sort of dolt, you need to be shot at sunrise. Jack Parker is one of the brightest people the world hockey community has ever seen. his statement about the WJC was pretty simple, The Beanpot in Boston was, is and always will be more important in New England than any WJC.
Also what do you expect the coach of one of the participants of the Beanpot who coached exactly one US Jr. team to say?

This would be like Lucia saying the MSHL is bigger than the WJC. Well duh he is a native Minnesotan who would be talking about his beloved tourney. Geesh

Thanks for repeating what I just wrote.

 

[YogiCanucks]

Sing it with me:

Make money, money, make money, money, money

The tournament makes a lot, like an ungodly amount of money when it's hosted in Canada and the Northern United States. Because that's true, the IIHF doesn't have a whole lot of incentive to give the Europeans the tournament. Now, with that having been said, Europe almost always gets the World Championships in spring and the World U-18 Championships. So the table does balance out a little bit.

First of all it's 'Eh Oh, Money Go!'. Get it right RangerRedChumpster.

agree with the rest of your post

This is actually a 'European' scheduled tourny (it's in Switzlerland right now)

 

[YogiCanucks]

and I don't like Damian Cox(uker)

 

[EbencoyE]

Why are we trying to keep fans of the tournament away? That makes no sense. I agree that it should be hosted in Europe more but completely disagree with the notion that it is a bad thing that Canadians are willing to drive for hours in order to cheer for our country. It is not our fault that Switzerland decided they no longer wanted to host the tournament either.

Nobody is trying to drive fans away. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite. Canada hosts so many tournaments because the IIHF makes the most money in Canada.

An international championship should not be hosted in the same country 6 out of every 8 years. That's ridiculous. Yeah, it's where the fans are. But you have to draw a line somewhere so the tournament doesn't lose all credibility just because the IIHF wants to maximize profits. When it comes to international hockey, fairness should come before money.

Imagine if the Senior WC was held in Russia 6 out of every 8 years. Does that sound like it should be considered a truly international championship? Not really, sounds like a Russian exhibition tournament that nobody else cares about. But as we can tell, if Russians were the only ones willing to pay to watch, that is exactly how it would be. The IIHF are the ones who look bad because of this greedy money-grabbing.

 

[Hipfan]

Nobody is trying to drive fans away. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite. Canada hosts so many tournaments because the IIHF makes the most money in Canada.

An international championship should not be hosted in the same country 6 out of every 8 years. That's ridiculous. Yeah, it's where the fans are. But you have to draw a line somewhere so the tournament doesn't lose all credibility just because the IIHF wants to maximize profits. When it comes to international hockey, fairness should come before money.

Imagine if the Senior WC was held in Russia 6 out of every 8 years. Does that sound like it should be considered a truly international championship? Not really, sounds like a Russian exhibition tournament that nobody else cares about. But as we can tell, if Russians were the only ones willing to pay to watch, that is exactly how it would be. The IIHF are the ones who look bad because of this greedy money-grabbing.

The 2010 WJC was originally awarded to Switzerland - they took it upon themselves to withdraw. Can you blame Canadian cities for jumping in and supporting this tournament when other nations flat out let it fail?

(BTW...did someone on this board call this game "ice" hockey???! Good lord, if anyone else thinks there's anything else than the game that's played outdoors at the rink on days like today, they're just not hockey fans! It's hockey, and hockey is life! )

 

[Schooner Guy]

How about playing it in the US somewhere that is not within 10 miles of the Canadian border?

Because without Canadian fans, the WJC in the US is an attendance failure.

 

[Hipfan]

Because without Canadian fans, the WJC in the US is an attendance failure.

True, look at the big hockey states in the US: Washington, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine...it's no coincidence that hockey is played and loved in the north where there's snow and ice and fails in locations like Phoenix.

 

[GopherState]

The 2010 WJC was originally awarded to Switzerland - they took it upon themselves to withdraw. Can you blame Canadian cities for jumping in and supporting this tournament when other nations flat out let it fail?

(BTW...did someone on this board call this game "ice" hockey???! Good lord, if anyone else thinks there's anything else than the game that's played outdoors at the rink on days like today, they're just not hockey fans! It's hockey, and hockey is life! )

Broomball, bandy, boot hockey.

Because without Canadian fans, the WJC in the US is an attendance failure.

Precisely. Well that and the only city that applied for the 2011 WJHC last year that is not close to the Canadian border was the Twin Cities; it's hard to put the tournament somewhere where no one applies.

 

[Hipfan]

Broomball, bandy, boot hockey.

Ah, if it's not on skates, it's just not hockey. There's nothing better than the sound of blades ripping up fresh ice. A player in boots is just someone who can't play because he left his skates at home.

Precisely. Well that and the only city that applied for the 2011 WJHC last year that is not close to the Canadian border was the Twin Cities; it's hard to put the tournament somewhere where no one applies.

Minneapolis and St Paul are pretty damn close to Canada - I've played in tourneys in the Twin Cities, used to see lots of North Star games back then, and think the fans and players in that area are pretty good! Where I grew up in Canada, the Twin Cities were 6 hours away which was a LOT closer than going to either Winnipeg or any other city in Ontario!

 

[TRASHCAT]

Definitely looks like WJC is heading for joke status.