My thoughts on the Toronto side (as someone who lives a 30 second walk from the ACC)
- In 2015, all the scalpers bought into the tournament as a potential success. Obviously it backfired horribly - but the upside was that there was an absolute flood of super cheap tickets. So even games like Denmark/Switzerland had 12-14K in the arena, and the vibe was OK. This time, no one bought tickets. Someone handed me USA/Latvia tickets when I was buying groceries across the street, and I paid $6 CAD for lower bowls to both Russia/Latvia and US/Slovakia. Its an absolute ghost town in there. Maybe 7K for each game. Made a trek down last night just to see the market for Canada/Latvia and there were people dumping $20 tickets outside before puckdrop. Its pretty dire. I think the 2015 tournament made a crapload of money because scalpers bought out most inventory and then just got killed trying to sell it (similar to why the World Cup was a financial success for the NHL). But I wouldn't be surprised if this tournament ends up doing poorly compared to budget.
- I absolutely think the WJHC is dealing with 'irrelevant event' syndrome here. People will still pay for the top level stuff. Canada/US tomorrow? Not an issue at all - tickets are minimum $250 on the secondary market. But who exactly did Hockey Canada think would pay $84 (lowest face value) to see Canada beat the living crap out of Latvia? At least for the World Cup you were seeing Crosby/Toews/Price etc. There isn't even a marquee Canadian player this time around to get truly excited about.
- Also the format of this tournament is abhorrent. I said at the start of the tournament that the most important game of the group would be the Latvia/Slovakia game that takes place tonight, and I 100% stand by it. There is minimal incentive to win the group (hell, based on the fact its 3-1 Denmark now its probably far better to come in 2nd), and its basically 'win a game in regulation and advance' which is brutal in a five game round robin. There's no incentive to even care about the tournament until the knockout stage if you're a casual Canadian fan unless you want to buy into the ridiculous TSN hype train of 'lets show how hockey is CANADA'S GAME (cringe) when we beat some country that has eight ice pads in their country'.
- In 2015, all the scalpers bought into the tournament as a potential success. Obviously it backfired horribly - but the upside was that there was an absolute flood of super cheap tickets. So even games like Denmark/Switzerland had 12-14K in the arena, and the vibe was OK. This time, no one bought tickets. Someone handed me USA/Latvia tickets when I was buying groceries across the street, and I paid $6 CAD for lower bowls to both Russia/Latvia and US/Slovakia. Its an absolute ghost town in there. Maybe 7K for each game. Made a trek down last night just to see the market for Canada/Latvia and there were people dumping $20 tickets outside before puckdrop. Its pretty dire. I think the 2015 tournament made a crapload of money because scalpers bought out most inventory and then just got killed trying to sell it (similar to why the World Cup was a financial success for the NHL). But I wouldn't be surprised if this tournament ends up doing poorly compared to budget.
- I absolutely think the WJHC is dealing with 'irrelevant event' syndrome here. People will still pay for the top level stuff. Canada/US tomorrow? Not an issue at all - tickets are minimum $250 on the secondary market. But who exactly did Hockey Canada think would pay $84 (lowest face value) to see Canada beat the living crap out of Latvia? At least for the World Cup you were seeing Crosby/Toews/Price etc. There isn't even a marquee Canadian player this time around to get truly excited about.
- Also the format of this tournament is abhorrent. I said at the start of the tournament that the most important game of the group would be the Latvia/Slovakia game that takes place tonight, and I 100% stand by it. There is minimal incentive to win the group (hell, based on the fact its 3-1 Denmark now its probably far better to come in 2nd), and its basically 'win a game in regulation and advance' which is brutal in a five game round robin. There's no incentive to even care about the tournament until the knockout stage if you're a casual Canadian fan unless you want to buy into the ridiculous TSN hype train of 'lets show how hockey is CANADA'S GAME (cringe) when we beat some country that has eight ice pads in their country'.
I have thought about it a couple of times as why it hasn't happened yet. Definitely. What about Boston (known for Boston College too)? 
