Thousands of tickets are still available for the World Junior Hockey Championship and an Edmonton professor attributes this situation as much to the strange timing to present the tournament as to the scandal surrounding Hockey Canada and its handling of cases of sexual misconduct at the over the years.
Professor Dan Mason, who teaches in the faculty of kinesiology, sport and recreation at the University of Alberta, recalled that usually Canadian hockey fans are ready to buy ticket bundles that include games n not involving the Canadian team.
“For example, a game between Latvia and Slovakia will be sold out since to get tickets for Canada’s games, you have to buy a package that includes other games,” he said Friday.
“The fact that there are tickets left for Team Canada matches shows how much lower demand is than usual for this event. »
The tournament will get under way on Tuesday with the final set for August 20. All games will be played at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
The 2022 edition of the championship in Edmonton and Red Deer was canceled on December 29 after just four days, due to an increase in COVID-19 cases among players and managers.
The 10-team tournament will be presented despite the absence of Russia, banned by the International Ice Hockey Federation due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Around 1,500 tickets were still available for Tuesday’s first match between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. There were also approximately 1,300 tickets left for sale for Wednesday’s game between Canada and Latvia. Not all tickets for the final have yet been sold either.
Mason said it’s unusual for the tournament to come in the middle of summer. It is traditionally presented during the holiday season.
“Over the past 30 years, this event has become a tradition for fans during the holiday season,” he noted. I watch it with my family over Christmas break.
“This time, maybe people already had other plans, like going to the cabin, hiking in the mountains, summer plans. I don’t think they’re going to drop those plans to watch hockey. »
Many people may also be waiting for a former Supreme Court of Canada justice to begin his investigation into the operation of Hockey Canada, as several politicians have called for a change in the organization’s leadership.
The investigation was launched after Hockey Canada settled out of court an attempted lawsuit alleging a group of Junior Team Canada players sexually assaulted a woman after a gala in 2018.
“There may be people who are hesitant to go to games because of that,” Mason noted.
The president and CEO of Explore Edmonton, responsible for tourism promotion in Alberta’s capital, said in an email that her organization had paused its promotion of the event in response to the allegations.
“As the host city of the event, we continue to speak with Hockey Canada about their plans to make the necessary changes,” said Traci Bednard.
Mason added that inflation and declining disposable income may be other factors working against the tournament.
“Canada may need to focus more on the player development aspect of the tournament than on the monetary side of a tournament being staged in the summer,” he concluded.