World Cup: Toronto was a disappointing host

[Sorey*]

Several games were not sold out, even the finals. Give the next tournament to Calgary or something.

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[Confucius]

Several games were not sold out, even the finals. Give the next tournament to Calgary or something.

my understanding is the league wants the next World Cup awarded through a bidding process, much like the Olympics. Bid away Calgary, Mocow, Helsinki, Stockholm...

 

[Pyromaniac]

You aren't going to sell out all the games regardless of location especially if you have afternoon games on weekdays.

 

[BruinLVGA]

my understanding is the league wants the next World Cup awarded through a bidding process, much like the Olympics. Bid away Calgary, Mocow, Helsinki, Stockholm...

LOL... Now they even want to auction this thing? They found a way to cheapen the image of this tournament even more...

PS: it's not Toronto's fault that this tournament had much, much lower ratings than expected. It's the fault of the tournament itself, especially with the gimmick teams & the tournament competing with the Olympics. Folks let know the NHL very clearly what they think of this by not really caring about it.

 

[bobholly39]

So I live in Montreal. The night of the final game, I was at a sports bar. I thought it'd be cool to see the game on the big screen. They had like 20+ tvs, typical sports bar with lots of displays.

Game started at 8pm local time.

At 815 - half the tvs were showing the habs vs ottawa pre-season game, some were showing the NFL on Thursday night game, and a cpl of tvs were showing something else (golf maybe?). No world cup. I had to ask the bartender to put the world cup on, like 3x, before they finally changed the channel 15 minutes later to the World Cup.


The restaurant was PACKED too. I guess no one else cared enough to ask. And that's in Montreal, maybe the biggest hockey city in the world, with both Canada and Carey Price in the final.

So....yeah. in terms of overall interest I was surprised by how subdued it was. I personally was very much into it, but the hype and interest locally was almost non-existent. So I don't think it's just about Toronto being a weak host, i think overall the interest level just didn't seem to be there.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

So I live in Montreal. The night of the final game, I was at a sports bar. I thought it'd be cool to see the game on the big screen. They had like 20+ tvs, typical sports bar with lots of displays.

Game started at 8pm local time.

At 815 - half the tvs were showing the habs vs ottawa pre-season game, some were showing the NFL on Thursday night game, and a cpl of tvs were showing something else (golf maybe?). No world cup. I had to ask the bartender to put the world cup on, like 3x, before they finally changed the channel 15 minutes later to the World Cup.


The restaurant was PACKED too. I guess no one else cared enough to ask. And that's in Montreal, maybe the biggest hockey city in the world, with both Canada and Carey Price in the final.

So....yeah. in terms of overall interest I was surprised by how subdued it was. I personally was very much into it, but the hype and interest locally was almost non-existent. So I don't think it's just about Toronto being a weak host, i think overall the interest level just didn't seem to be there.

Montreal is not a hockey town. It is a Habs town.

 

[gwh]

my understanding is the league wants the next World Cup awarded through a bidding process, much like the Olympics. Bid away Calgary, Mocow, Helsinki, Stockholm...

Best joke today. Canada cup can't even sell in Toronto.

 

[jj cale]

LOL... Now they even want to auction this thing? They found a way to cheapen the image of this tournament even more...

PS: it's not Toronto's fault that this tournament had much, much lower ratings than expected. It's the fault of the tournament itself, especially with the gimmick teams & the tournament competing with the Olympics. Folks let know the NHL very clearly what they think of this by not really caring about it.

What do you call the olympics if not auctioned out?

They have a bidding process on who gets the games,as does the WHC.

Are they cheapening their events even more?

Can you be any more biased against something?

 

[Rob]

Montreal is not a hockey town. It is a Habs town.

Yep. That was definitely proven during the last WJC.

 

[tarheelhockey]

If it doesn't sell in Toronto, probably the biggest hockey city in the world, with Canada as the overwhelming favorite and running undefeated through the competition with Sidney Crosby on full display -- then why the heck would it sell better anywhere else?

If the World Cup is going to be a serious best-on-best international competition, then people will show up for it. But when it's clearly a ploy for Olympic leverage, and de-legitimized with gimmicks, people will recognize it for the sideshow that it is. That's why not only the ticket sales but also the TV ratings were terrible, despite having the ESPN machine behind it.