Hundreds, not thousands, showed up for first World Juniors games in Edmonton

Aug 10 2022, 7:34 pm

The World Junior Hockey Championship is missing fans, and sponsors.

Edmonton is a city filled with rabid hockey fans, and the World Juniors is ordinarily a big deal in Canada.

But not this year. Not in August, anyway.

And not with multiple alleged sexual assault scandals overshadowing the tournament.

Attendance will be an issue at this tournament, that much is clear after Day 1.

Some of that is to be expected with a rescheduled summer tournament. But I’m not sure anyone was expecting numbers this low.

The Rogers Place attendance figures are in from the first day of the tournament, and they’re not pretty.

The first three games combined for just 1,635 fans.

The first game of the day between Czechia and Slovakia saw just 430 fans show up to the 18,500-seat arena. Just 376 fans were at the Latvia-Finland game, and only 829 were there for USA-Germany.

These are announced attendance figures, which typically count the number of tickets distributed rather than a physical count of who showed up. So the numbers could be even lower than what were officially posted.

Attendance will improve for Canada’s games, but likely not by much.

Thousands of tickets remain for all of Team Canada’s games in the round robin, including their opening game against Latvia tonight. There are still plenty of tickets remaining for the gold medal game, too.

Just one sponsor remains

Another odd sight?

The rink boards at this tournament are looking rather bare, with just one sponsor remaining visible.

When this tournament was held in December, companies like Nike, Scotiabank, Chevrolet, Telus, Gatorade, and Tim Hortons had their logos displayed for all to see.

Those companies are now out of sight, after many of them suspended their partnerships with Hockey Canada following the alleged sexual assault scandal.

tissot world juniors

TSN

Swiss watch manufacturer Tissot is the lone company remaining. Other graphics visible on the television broadcast include an ad for the IIHF app, as well as 2022 tournament logos.

Rob WilliamsRob Williams

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