World Juniors' Attendance

[Chainshot]

Where were the American fans this afternoon for the game between their National Team and Sweden ?

The arena was filled with red jerseys with maple leafs on.

The ambiance was dreadful.

Kudos to the young American players who won the bronze despite the lack of support.

I for one was at work, having taken all of last week off to go to a bundle of games -- 7 as a matter of fact. For $140 a seat, it's priced outside of my budget for today's medal games.

 

[Rob]

Due to the financial success of this tournament I'm willing to bet that other NHL cities (closer to the Canadian border) will be putting in a bid to host next time around for the US.

 

[Kiefer]

I don't know if I'm dafted or naive, but there is a big interest in hockey in Europe as I see it. Problem is that we don't have the big arenas. But do not doubt it, it's a lot of interest over here.

 

[Kimota]

Canadians are the only ones interested in this tournament because hockey is the only thing they're better at doing than anybody else. I guess that's a pride thing. I don't know if there's a relation to this but I don't think it's as popular in Quebec.

 

[Rob]

I don't know if there's a relation to this but I don't think it's as popular in Quebec.

Negative.

 

[Kiefer]

Canadians are the only ones interested in this tournament ...

To be honest, comments like this pisses me off. It's not true.

 

[Petey21]

It's kind of weird though cause the world championships are so big in europe yet the world juniors aren't. You'd think they'd both have some popularity.

You would think so, but for some reason junior hockey doesn't seem to attract the masses in Europe, at least not here in Sweden. Take the Swedish junior leagues for example, pretty fun hockey to watch plus FREE ADMISSION and yet you see about 100-150 people in the stands. That is nothing bud sad! Now compare that to the CHL with thousands of people, and I doubt they have free admission to those games...

 

[belgarath]

You would think so, but for some reason junior hockey doesn't seem to attract the masses in Europe, at least not here in Sweden. Take the Swedish junior leagues for example, pretty fun hockey to watch plus FREE ADMISSION and yet you see about 100-150 people in the stands. That is nothing bud sad! Now compare that to the CHL with thousands of people, and I doubt they have free admission to those games...

Junior sports in general is not followed in europe, football is like religion in countries like Italy and England but the junior leagues even in these countries have zero interest. Hockey is just the same.

I think the level of competition is so much worse and there is no real tradition.

As a swede I like to watch WJC but I am more interested in individual players than swedish success, sure its fun if they win but not a big deal if they loose, not like a WC for instance.

To sum it up, I don't see WJC as a legitimate international tournament to count with the others but more to let the kids get some experience.

 

[zman]

Well, i hope everyone had a good time in Buffalo despite the loss by Canada.

One thing for sure, this tourney in Buffalo will never be forgotten by Canada or Russia. It was not a typical humdrum ending. Next year the revenge factor will be high and Canada will really have something to fight for on home soil...not just defend another Championship.

 

[MayDay]

Apparently a lot of the Canadian invasion behaved quite badly and put off a lot of people.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/columns/donn-esmonde/article307005.ece

I am not sure if it was the insufferable sense of hockey superiority, or the pre-and post-game beers, but this tournament brought out the inner lout in a lot of Canadians. Arrogant, loud, drunk, obnoxious — if I didn’t know better, I would have thought that they were, well, Americans.

From the guy arrested for punching an American fan at the USA-Canada game, to the sea of red that adopted any team that the USA played, to the drunken red-clad louts at the New Year’s Eve ball drop (staggering, middle-aged, red-clad lady I saw clutching a half-empty bottle of vodka, this means you), to the legions of lousy tippers at bars and restaurants — a lot of Canadians wore out their welcome long before Russia shattered their gold medal dreams. Believe me, there were not a lot of Buffalonians crying over that outcome.

I talked to workers at a downtown bar/restaurant that will remain nameless, to protect the place’s cross-border business. By tournament’s end, they had disdain for all things emblazoned with a Maple Leaf. The main complaint, and this is not new, is a lot of Canadian hockey fans are awful tippers.

“They would have a few beers and leave like a quarter or 50 cents,†said one bartender, who for job security reasons asked that his name not be used. “Servers said they were getting two-dollar tips on a$25 check.â