2017-2018 World Juniors

[Majingir]

lol, funny seeing people hating on Canadas goal song and I'm probably one of the few watching this tourney who actually have heard how it would sound like if you had over 10,000 people chanting with it. Hopefully for the medal rounds more fans go along with it because it'd be nice having fans chanting along with a goal song. Though I wonder if the womens teams might adopt it for the Olympics.

Before medal round though, still alot to determine. A chance USA finishes 4th in Group A, and a possibility for a 3 way tie for 2nd in Group B(I'm not sure what a 3 way tiebreaker would look like)

[Majingir]

USA-Russia in quarter finals tomorrow!

[ImTellinTim]

I will be shocked if the US is able to beat Russia, Sweden, and Canada in short succession. That would be a hell of a way to earn a gold medal.

Canada got a break not having to face Finland - the only relatively tough team in their bracket. Czechs have been decent, but Canada should handle them. Finland was really unlucky in that game. Cakewalk to the final.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by ImTellinTim

I will be shocked if the US is able to beat Russia, Sweden, and Canada in short succession. That would be a hell of a way to earn a gold medal. Canada got a break not having to face Finland - the only relatively tough team in their bracket. Czechs have been decent, but Canada should handle them. Finland was really unlucky in that game. Cakewalk to the final.

That loss to Slovakia hurt USA so much. If they won that game even in OT, they'd have won the division and have clear path to finals.



A big story coming out of this tourney has been the beyond horrible attendance numbers for the entire tournament. Minus the outdoor game, every other game has had less than 10,000 fans. I can understand fans not caring one bit about a Slovakia-Denmark game, but even USA and Canada games are poorly attended.

Buffalo shouldn't get a tournament again after this. Most NHL cities probably shouldn't get one again either. You're expecting NHL crowds to fill NHL arenas to watch junior hockey? They should go back to cities which don't get hockey games bigger than the event they're hosting.

[ImTellinTim]

If it's going to be in the US again, they should always pick a college hockey heavy area near Canada. Something like Minneapolis/Duluth or Grand Forks again would be well attended. Detroit/Windsor in a joint US/Canada hosting could be good too.

[Majingir]

Sweden beats USA to advance to Gold Medal game.

[brandon27]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

That loss to Slovakia hurt USA so much. If they won that game even in OT, they'd have won the division and have clear path to finals. A big story coming out of this tourney has been the beyond horrible attendance numbers for the entire tournament. Minus the outdoor game, every other game has had less than 10,000 fans. I can understand fans not caring one bit about a Slovakia-Denmark game, but even USA and Canada games are poorly attended. Buffalo shouldn't get a tournament again after this. Most NHL cities probably shouldn't get one again either. You're expecting NHL crowds to fill NHL arenas to watch junior hockey? They should go back to cities which don't get hockey games bigger than the event they're hosting.

The biggest problem for the attendance numbers this year has been two fold really. One... the cost. It's insane. Apparently lower bowl tickets at the main arena were about $100 each, and you have to buy them in packages giving you every game at the arena, for like $2k a seat. The tournament saw a boost in popularity, they've tried to take advantage of it, and it's now failing. It's simply too expensive.

Second, it's a border town, so you'd think attendance would be good, but even for the US and Canada games, it's been lacking. Canada fans have been showing up, but not many. Why? The canadian dollar is lacking against the US right now. So the already expensive ticket prices, are now even more for Canadian fans; add 30 cents on every dollar. (at least I think that's the current exchange rate).

You can see tonight, the Gold medal game is a much fuller arena, but still not sold out by the looks of things. People will pay expensive prices, for a gold medal game, but all the tournament games? No way.

Take a look at the ticket prices for next year's tournament in Vancouver/Victoria (click on The Vancouver, or Victoria image to see the price/seating charts for each:
https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/tickets

In Vancouver, the big areana... the worst seats in the house are $650 per seat, plus tax, for 19 games. That's like the top 10 rows, at the ends of the rink in the upper bowl. The furthest from the action you could be. That's about $35 a seat, plus tax, and you have to buy all 19 games.

Want to sit in the lower bowl? Cheapest deal there is the ends of the rink for $1650 a seat, plus tax. That's $87 a seat, plus tax, for 19 games. Again, no option to only buy what you want. Can you put them on stubhub? Sure, but who's really going to pay for Denmark/Belarus? etc. etc. It's simply too expensive for junior hockey. Sure, TSN and the IIHF are hyping the tournament up like it's a yearly olympics type thing, but it's still junior hockey. They're kids. now, I do find it great, entertaining hockey, but the average hockey fan just isn't going to pay that much money to go to a game, unless it's a medal game.

I love the hockey at this tournament, watch it on TV every year. IT's too good to pass up, but it's not worth that kind of money to see live. Rene Fassel said it himself today on TSN... over saturation is the big problem with the attendance. combined with record cold, and record snows in Buffalo this year, but bottom line, is the cost. If they sold tickets for the individual quarter, semi, and medal games for those individual prices it might fly (although the bronze game featuring the USA today was pretty poorly attended), but to force fans to but all 19 games, or 14 at the smaller arena, it's just crazy.

All in all, don't blame Buffalo, blame the IIHF and anyone else associated with the tournament. They're victims of their own greed off the backs of kids making basically no money at all from this with their crazy ticket pricing and packages. And, yes, I get it. If they didn't package them together that way, they'd never sell the games between the lower tier teams in the tourney, but... there's got to be a better way of pricing this.

Oh, and Go Canada Go! Bring home that gold!

[Majingir]

Nice finals between Canada-Sweden.

For people thinking only Canadians really care about the tournament, look at the emotion of the Swedish players after the loss. Worst loss most of those players have ever had in their careers, might be worst they'll ever have.

Though their captain was so upset he threw his medal in the crowd(and the guy in the crowd gave it back to the on ice staff after fans chanted "throw it back" lol)