Poor attendance

[OilerPensfan97]

How about every country take their turn hosting.......why us all of a sudden?

Alternating between Canada and a different country is fine, but different places within Canada should get it. Toronto and Montreal should never have been allowed to host two straight times.

 

[jeangauthier]

Alternating between Canada and a different country is fine, but different places within Canada should get it. Toronto and Montreal should never have been allowed to host two straight times.

I agree...........but why should Canada host every other year........why not NYC OR Moscow or any other European city........if this tournament needs saving then let everyone contribute..........just not Canada.........

 

[drew5580]

how much are the tickets? i got mine for Buffalo next year and just want to compare prices

 

[habsrule4eva3089]

Hopefully Montreal never gets anything, it's really a boring city for Hockey.

Montreal is the last place on the list of places I recommend to watch International Hockey.

Hoping for small towns to get it once more.

 

[JayKing]

You can talk about about the cost of the tickets and all that but honestly nobody in the city seems to care about the tournament. I wouldn't it was going on in Montreal if I wasn't a junior hocket nut. This tournament belongs to smaller cities/towns. It isn't meant for us.

 

[Rob]

You can talk about about the cost of the tickets and all that but honestly nobody in the city seems to care about the tournament. I wouldn't it was going on in Montreal if I wasn't a junior hocket nut. This tournament belongs to smaller cities/towns. It isn't meant for us.

Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg and even Toronto can support this tournament. It is just Montreal isn't a big hockey town. They're a Habs town.

 

[habsrule4eva3089]

You can talk about about the cost of the tickets and all that but honestly nobody in the city seems to care about the tournament. I wouldn't it was going on in Montreal if I wasn't a junior hocket nut. This tournament belongs to smaller cities/towns. It isn't meant for us.

Meant for ''us''.

Yes, by us meaning Montrealer's who aren't fans of the game of Hockey, who actually LOVE, are PASSIONATE about the game like what loving a game is suppose to be.

Just supporting a cash cow business that continues to dupe them. That's what most Montrealer's are.

Being fooled into believing Hockey is only one thing.

It's like a child who lives in a bubble then goes outside and realizes, life has so much beauty that he didn't know about.

That's what Montrealer's are when it comes to Hockey.

I wouldn't even place this city in the list of top 10 places in the World to watch Hockey, the bell centre is one of the worst experiences imaginable. That scoreboard, you just wish to turn off it's power, that's how annoying it is.

 

[PG Canuck]

It's not even full for a Canada game now...

 

[PG Canuck]

You can talk about about the cost of the tickets and all that but honestly nobody in the city seems to care about the tournament. I wouldn't it was going on in Montreal if I wasn't a junior hocket nut. This tournament belongs to smaller cities/towns. It isn't meant for us.

Vancouver, Ottawa etc all seem to support it just fine, and they aren't small cities/towns - it's just a Montreal thing.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

I was gonna go to a game or two until I saw the ridiculous pricing. I live 10 minutes from the ACC so it's not tough for me to go or anything but $50+ to watch Latvia vs Canada? in decent but not great seats in a non-medal game?

 

[reffree]

1st: I couldn't beleive it when HC gave this to Montreal. We were really waiting for this in Quebec city, the Remparts have always had some of the best attendance in the CHL. Montreal is half the population in the province and they're barely able to have 1 team in the Qmjhl. Every team of junior hockey in Montreal die, Montreal just don't care about junior hockey, they never have and they never will, and of the story. HC knew that but just beleive their event was bigger than the reality of junior hockey in Montreal.

2nd: LOL at the price. The price are 4-5 time higher than they were in the good days of Halifax, Ottawa, Winipeg, etc. This event is about young kids watching holiday game, at todays ticket price how many parents can bring their kids to one game, neverless five or six ... With their greed HC killed the spirit of the event imho.

 

[JC Numminen]

I really feel like Winnipeg/Brandon would be good for them to do. Winnipeg for Canada's pool, I'm sure it would always be packed for Canada, and still get good attendance for other teams, especially other top teams. Put the other pool in Brandon, 5500 seats, I'm sure it would be full all week.

I mean, it's a step back from now venue wise, but I believe if MTSC and Westman Place (Brandon) was full all week, it wouldn't really do much worse than Toronto/Montreal II is doing.

 

[Quiksilver*]

how much are the tickets? i got mine for Buffalo next year and just want to compare prices

If I remember correctly, I think I paid about $2800 for a pair of tickets in 2015 (Toronto).

This was the upper bowl, 7 rows from the top. 19 games total.

I imagine prices for this year are slightly higher.

 

[Rob]

It will be interesting to see how much Hockey Canada charges for tickets when the tournament is in Vancouver 2 years from now.

 

[Larry44]

I agree...........but why should Canada host every other year........why not NYC OR Moscow or any other European city........if this tournament needs saving then let everyone contribute..........just not Canada.........

The IIHF needs to generate income from these tourneys both from gates and TV. They can make a lot more from TSN if the games are in NA Eastern or Central time than anywhere else. The crowds are also bigger in Canada.

I loved going to all the games when it was in Hamilton. I'd like to see Hamilton, St. Catharines (new rink) and Kitchener or London host. You'd get sellouts for most big games and big crowds at others.

 

[drew5580]

If I remember correctly, I think I paid about $2800 for a pair of tickets in 2015 (Toronto).

This was the upper bowl, 7 rows from the top. 19 games total.

I imagine prices for this year are slightly higher.

mine were $1275 (US) per seat and that includes the outdoor game. best seats in the house. Cant remember what i paid last time it was in Buffalo.

 

[Jussi]

The IIHF needs to generate income from these tourneys both from gates and TV. They can make a lot more from TSN if the games are in NA Eastern or Central time than anywhere else. The crowds are also bigger in Canada.

I loved going to all the games when it was in Hamilton. I'd like to see Hamilton, St. Catharines (new rink) and Kitchener or London host. You'd get sellouts for most big games and big crowds at others.

They also can't force anyone to host. The national federations need to apply to host a tournament.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

1st: I couldn't beleive it when HC gave this to Montreal. We were really waiting for this in Quebec city, the Remparts have always had some of the best attendance in the CHL. Montreal is half the population in the province and they're barely able to have 1 team in the Qmjhl. Every team of junior hockey in Montreal die, Montreal just don't care about junior hockey, they never have and they never will, and of the story. HC knew that but just beleive their event was bigger than the reality of junior hockey in Montreal.

2nd: LOL at the price. The price are 4-5 time higher than they were in the good days of Halifax, Ottawa, Winipeg, etc. This event is about young kids watching holiday game, at todays ticket price how many parents can bring their kids to one game, neverless five or six ... With their greed HC killed the spirit of the event imho.

As you pointed out, let's not pretend that this isn't about business. That's all it is. That's all they care about. Montreal and Toronto are terrible towns for amateur sporting events drawing in crowds. There's the Leafs,Marlies and Raptors right now and a million other things to do in this city. Paying $150 a ticket to watch USA vs Canada with a bunch of teenagers playing won't make many people's lists of ways to spend money in Toronto. You could go to a Jays playoff game for less, I would know.

 

[xxxx]

I was probably expecting a bit better numbers, true.

But I want to remind people that last year's tournament in Finland will very likely end up with having lower attendace-per game-average in group stage, if we comapared the groups without Finland/Canada respectively (and obviously even much lower average in other stages of the tournament) yet it was "very well" attended tournament, they said, and it was true, I'm pretty sure it was one of if not the best attended world junior tournament helded in Europe in many years. But since similar numbers are in Canada, I'm gonna hear that the tournament is badly attended? I know we are all expecting more here, but it wouldn't hurt to put things into perspective. What is below-average attendance in Canada, is above-average in Europe.

 

[Burke the Legend]

Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg and even Toronto can support this tournament. It is just Montreal isn't a big hockey town. They're a Habs town.

Believe whatever you want to suit your silly agenda but I play lots of hockey along with watching and have never heard this tournament mentioned once in the dressing room all year so even real hockey people in Montreal not just Habs fans don't give a rats ass about some overpriced tourney for teenagers. Some of you have drunk too much TSN kool-aid about how this is the greatest tourney of the year.

 

[habsrule4eva3089]

Believe whatever you want to suit your silly agenda but I play lots of hockey along with watching and have never heard this tournament mentioned once in the dressing room all year so even real hockey people in Montreal not just Habs fans don't give a rats ass about some overpriced tourney for teenagers. Some of you have drunk too much TSN kool-aid about how this is the greatest tourney of the year.

You must play in some unknown arena's if this isn't talked about. Especially considering last time it was here, most of those players are now the top players in the World.

I'm sure the topic of conversation ranged about an over priced Hockey team based in this city which continues to dupe people into believing that it's some sort of religious symbol.

Montreal is not a Hockey city, doesn't take much to see it.

 

[xxxx]

Alternating between Canada and a different country is fine, but different places within Canada should get it. Toronto and Montreal should never have been allowed to host two straight times.

This is nothing new with the IIHF. They gave the senior tournament to Helsinki and Stockholm (Finland, Sweden) for two tournaments in a row - 2012 and 2013 world champuionships - with the same circumstances surrounding the tournament like Toronto and Montreal in 2015 and 2017. In this case (world juniors in Canada) I think it's not a bad move. Even if the average attendance of this tournament was relatively bad for our standards, it is still a big success. Look at the attendance numbers when the tournament is in Russia, Sweden, or anywhere else. Those nations host the tournament like once in 15 years and even that is not enough to bring enough people. Canada is hosting the tournament repeatedly, and with a success.

 

[ottawarenegader613]

Vancouver, Ottawa etc all seem to support it just fine, and they aren't small cities/towns - it's just a Montreal thing.

The reason why the WJHC have been successful in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Ottawa, and Halifax is because those cities have junior hockey teams that the fans show their support for night in, night out, in addition to the players doing a lot of community work by attending various event and places such as schools, shopping malls, etc. Having that success for junior hockey in those cities should be the backbone when it comes to support for the WJHC. I bet those junior teams work with Hockey Canada to determine the marketing strategy and ticket pricing that would attract the target audience like families, and visitors from other countries. If the WJHC were to be held in places where the junior hockey teams are present like Quebec City, Hamilton/St.Catherines, or London/Windsor, I bet they would draw huge crowds, especially for the non-Canada games.

The Hockey Canada organizers from Toronto and Montreal should at least research the junior hockey leagues, and see how they structured the ticket pricing instead of relying on the Habs and Leafs to determine the pricing, which is why the tickets for the World Junior games are outrageous at NHL levels like if the junior aged players are millionaires or Hockey Canada is more interested in making easy money by going to those major urban centres like Toronto and Montreal, despite both cities having limited success when it comes to junior hockey.

 

[Bob Cole]

1. The majority of Montrealers aren't exposed to the TSN hype machine every year. This is a phony tournament created by tsn executives.
2. Prices are embarrassing
3. Montreal is an habs/NHL city...not a hockey city.
4. Construction/traffic to access downtown

 

[Hackett]

Hopefully Montreal never gets anything, it's really a boring city for Hockey.

Montreal is the last place on the list of places I recommend to watch International Hockey.

Hoping for small towns to get it once more.

I'm not so sure about that. They were the main host for the 1996 World Cup, and I thought it was rocking. I think they shell out for the pros but not as much for the the juniors.

It sounds like they are charging NHL prices to fill out a venue that is probably the largest in world junior hockey history. It must be a real cavernous place to have only 5,000 people in a 21,000+ venue. Just that thought alone would defer me from buying tickets.