Which tournaments matter in which countries?
- Thread starter Canuckistani
- Start date
- Status
So the answer for that varies.For me as a Slovak, I watch every competition possible, of course the most relevant ones are Olympics and Canada Cup/World Cup, but I cant really say what is more important for me, during IIHF Championships my attention goes there, during Olympics(soon maybe World Cup)/World Juniors/U18 it goes there. Although it is hard to watch U18s, since there are not almost any live streams available.
Hammer Time
Registered User
- May 3, 2011
- 3,957
- 11
I get the feeling that in Canada, best on best trumps all e.g.
Olympics
World Cup
(large gap)
IIHF U-20
IIHF WC
(large gap)
IIHF U-18, Ivan Hlinka, Spengler Cup, etc.
Olympics
World Cup
(large gap)
IIHF U-20
IIHF WC
(large gap)
IIHF U-18, Ivan Hlinka, Spengler Cup, etc.
I would agree, but I would actually put another large gap between the U-20 and WC tournaments. People in Canada don't follow the WC nearly as much as the WC.
Noone cares when we lose the WC, but its a huge dissapointment losing in the WJ.
WCs are for the people who don't follow hockey on a regular basis. The Russian WC crowds for instance are just terribad, they barely know players on the team, often don't understand the basic concepts like offside and power play, have no idea at what point they're even supposed to cheer. IIHF World Championships, not even once.
Uh oh. So if you actually care about hockey and watch WC, it means that you dont follow hockey on a regular basis? Interesting.
I'd say few care about the World Cup in the US, even when they host games.
The 2004 one didn't even sell out Team USA games. And it was played in Minnesota, not Dallas or Phoenix.
I also seem to remember that the ratings buzz was negligible.
In 1996, I couldn't find any figures, but the viewership was said to be encouraging, although it was relative to the fact that the event was shown on FX, which had low distribution. However, even when the US-Canada matchup became known, Fox couldn't be convinced to move the final Game 3 to network TV as the organizers had hoped.
Last edited:
Actually the 2004 attendance was pretty good. Sellouts for Russia and the Finland SF (18,064), and 17,000+ for Slovakia and the Russia QF.
In 1996 both games in NYC sold out, as did the Canada game in Philly. Even the Canada-Sweden game in Philly drew well (17,000+) and game 1 of the final vs Canada was only 1,000 under a full-house.
But even so, the buzz didn't extend far beyond the arenas in either year.
Public interest in Finland:
Olympics
WHC
...
...
World Cup 2004
...
WJC
Determining the value is different thing. WHC gets a lot of public interest, but it doesn't mean much. If Finland gets eliminated in QF it's not a big deal. Tournaments come and go, and we don't need to prove anything by any tournament. If Finland wins, it's nice and many people celebrate. It's a bit same thing for Olympics. Losing is not a big deal because Finland is always an underdog and it's just one tournament. Winning Olympic gold wouldn't make much difference when compared to WHC. Most people still don't care if the best are playing or not. Hardcore fans appreciate olympic gold more, of course, but still it's one tournament and it wouldn't make Finland the best hockey country in the World.
Last World Cup was viewed as an exhibition tournament which got only little interest, and the value is low. WJC is just a junior tournament and it's given very little value outside hc fans, even though MTV is trying to hype and market it aggressively. Last WJC final was shown on public channel and it got high ratings because it was SWE-FIN in primetime.
Olympics
WHC
...
...
World Cup 2004
...
WJC
Determining the value is different thing. WHC gets a lot of public interest, but it doesn't mean much. If Finland gets eliminated in QF it's not a big deal. Tournaments come and go, and we don't need to prove anything by any tournament. If Finland wins, it's nice and many people celebrate. It's a bit same thing for Olympics. Losing is not a big deal because Finland is always an underdog and it's just one tournament. Winning Olympic gold wouldn't make much difference when compared to WHC. Most people still don't care if the best are playing or not. Hardcore fans appreciate olympic gold more, of course, but still it's one tournament and it wouldn't make Finland the best hockey country in the World.
Last World Cup was viewed as an exhibition tournament which got only little interest, and the value is low. WJC is just a junior tournament and it's given very little value outside hc fans, even though MTV is trying to hype and market it aggressively. Last WJC final was shown on public channel and it got high ratings because it was SWE-FIN in primetime.
Last edited:
Eye of Ra
Grandmaster General of the International boards
Lol at WHC meaning more for euros than World Cup and WJC, are you for real?
Have you seen the squads euro teams have been sending to the world cup/canada cup? its A-team from all countrys, best on best tournament.
In fact, here in Sweden, our own leagues and NHL is more important than WCH, WCH (and also Euro Hockey Tour) is viewed as an C-tournament.
Sweden has NEVER send their A-team to WCH.
Have you seen the squads euro teams have been sending to the world cup/canada cup? its A-team from all countrys, best on best tournament.
In fact, here in Sweden, our own leagues and NHL is more important than WCH, WCH (and also Euro Hockey Tour) is viewed as an C-tournament.
Sweden has NEVER send their A-team to WCH.
Well, I am tuned in 24/7. Nobody here is saying that IIHF WC is some extra relevant tournament, it is not best on best, we realize it, but for me it has its specific atmosphere and I like it.
Are you serious? WHC is not about A-teams and nobody thinks so. WHC doesn't need to mean much but still people are much more interested about it in Finland than WJC, which no general population talks about. Is it really so difficult to understand that tournaments don't need to mean too much, but still people may like to watch them?
It makes no sense to mix NHL or other leagues in this. International tournaments are completely separate thing from leagues. Only league ongoing during WHC is NHL, and only hc hockey fans care about it if there are no Finns playing.
Last edited:
In Western Canada:
Olympics (exceeding even NHL interest in coverage and general discussion)
WJC (Lots of talk and discussion about it during the month that it occurs, but it only rivals the NHL regular season)
WHC (It actually gets frequent radio coverage in the major Western Canadian cities I've lived in, and TSN does show its highlights on a daily basis)
The 2004 World Cup is never talked about in any media outlet or by any hockey fan as far as I know. It's just a foregone exhibition afterthought. At this point the current WHCs are a more important barometer.
I don't think it's delusional to say practically everyone here believes Canada has currently the world's strongest hockey team - 3 Golds in 4 Olympics more or less proves it doubtless no matter how many C-team tournaments Canada loses.
What can be said though is that people are aware that the WHCs are going on, and certainly a good amount of hockey fans in Canada do care about the results (me included). We just don't really draw conclusions on relative strength based on these results until the next big show and dance, whether it be a properly organized World Cup or the 2018 Olympics with NHL players.
Olympics (exceeding even NHL interest in coverage and general discussion)
WJC (Lots of talk and discussion about it during the month that it occurs, but it only rivals the NHL regular season)
WHC (It actually gets frequent radio coverage in the major Western Canadian cities I've lived in, and TSN does show its highlights on a daily basis)
The 2004 World Cup is never talked about in any media outlet or by any hockey fan as far as I know. It's just a foregone exhibition afterthought. At this point the current WHCs are a more important barometer.
I don't think it's delusional to say practically everyone here believes Canada has currently the world's strongest hockey team - 3 Golds in 4 Olympics more or less proves it doubtless no matter how many C-team tournaments Canada loses.
What can be said though is that people are aware that the WHCs are going on, and certainly a good amount of hockey fans in Canada do care about the results (me included). We just don't really draw conclusions on relative strength based on these results until the next big show and dance, whether it be a properly organized World Cup or the 2018 Olympics with NHL players.
Eye of Ra
Grandmaster General of the International boards
WHC rosters are far weaker than the World Cup, but European fans still tend to party in the streets after WHC wins in a way that they don't for the World Cup or WJC.
The more knowledgeable fans will recognize a B/C-level roster when they see it but clearly not all fans do.
Eye of Ra
Grandmaster General of the International boards
more party for a win in world cup for sure, its a best on best tournament.
about wjc:
Freudian
Clearly deranged
- Jul 3, 2003
- 50,348
- 17,700
It seems like some posters from Canada like to exaggerate how important the World Championships are to Europeans so they can feel even more awesome for not caring about it.
Fans in countries that has most of their best players not playing in it will obviously have a hard time getting all that excited about the tournament.
Fans in countries that has most of their best players not playing in it will obviously have a hard time getting all that excited about the tournament.
Sweden does seem to value the event more than the rest of Europe.
But from what I can tell it's a relatively recent development.
It's more a case of simply noticing that every WHC gold medal results in street parties and a parade through Stockholm, Helinski, Bratislava, Moscow or Prague.
Canadians thus reasonably conclude that the WHC means a lot more to Europeans than it does to us.
Eye of Ra
Grandmaster General of the International boards
it was like that in sweden back in the day. but since 2006 when svt started to show the games, everyone loves it. its great hockey.
I think this sums up quite well the difference between Canadians and many Europeans. We don't feel need to prove anything by tournament wins. They're just tournament wins, whether it is WHC or Olympics. Is it some insecurity thing why Canadians need to prove something? Does it happen because you know you have the best players so you have to prove that you're the biggest also on ice?
That's the difference. I believe Europeans know that winning sometournament doesn't make them better hockey country than Canada. We don't draw conclusions of which is the best hockey country. We don't need to. We can just enjoy of tournaments. What would it prove if Finland won Olympic gold? Basically nothing. Canadians would call it a fluke which can happen in a mini tournament.
IMO it's stupid to draw any conclusions based on ridiculously short tournament like Olympics. They prove just that winning team was best team in that tournament. No need to make other conclusions. And yes, Canada is the mightiest and I don't understand why does it need prove something in tournaments. Actually I feel a bit sad for Canadians, because you have basically always only something to lose - nothing less than gold can be positive result with Canada's depth. You're never underdogs who can be positively surprised to make it to semis, for example.
Last edited:
To a casual finnish person (people who watch ice hockey) it is like this:
1.) Olympics
2.) WHC
-
-
-
3.) Canada cup/World cup or whatever.
4.) Luga... Maybe.
No one cares about WJC or Stanley cup. My workplace has 55 employees and most of them watched olympics and talked about the games. And now most of them watch WHC. Socchi somewhat lessened the hype, but normally WHC is the most important sports event of the year.
To a average hockey fan (like my self) WJC means something, but not so much as WHC.
Olympic gold is bigger deal, than WHC gold, but winning WHC is still a major thing.
1.) Olympics
2.) WHC
-
-
-
3.) Canada cup/World cup or whatever.
4.) Luga... Maybe.
No one cares about WJC or Stanley cup. My workplace has 55 employees and most of them watched olympics and talked about the games. And now most of them watch WHC. Socchi somewhat lessened the hype, but normally WHC is the most important sports event of the year.
To a average hockey fan (like my self) WJC means something, but not so much as WHC.
Olympic gold is bigger deal, than WHC gold, but winning WHC is still a major thing.
- Status
