‘The best event city in the country’
Attendance woes don’t faze Toigo as he plans for Vancouver in 2019
Ron Toigo insists that alarm bells aren’t going off for him over the empty seats at the current world junior hockey championship.
Toigo, the Vancouver Giants owner who is one of the lead organizers for the 2019 under-20 tournament at Rogers Arena and Victoria’s SaveOn-Foods Memorial Centre, ties the lacklustre crowds in Montreal and Toronto heading into Wednesday action to the fact that tournament was held in the same two cities just two years ago, and says “that probably won’t be done ever again.”
Vancouver last hosted the world juniors in 2006, when it shared the tournament with Kamloops and Kelowna. Hockey Canada announced on Dec. 1 that Vancouver and Victoria would be holding the 2019 championships.
“I’m sure they’re disappointed there,” Toigo said of the current two host cities. “Toronto has so many things going on. You think of everything they’ve had there over the last couple of years. And I think they got broadsided by the outdoor game (NHL Centennial Classic at BMO Field). The Maple Leafs and the NHL didn’t do them any favours.
“As for Montreal, it really is a Canadiens town.
“One thing about Vancouver is that we are the best event city in the country. We’ve shown it over and over again. Look at every Grey Cup we’ve had here. Look at the Olympics. Look at the Rugby Sevens. This will be successful.”
The 2006 worlds, which featured a Canadian team led by coach Brent Sutter and goalie Justin Pogge winning the gold medal, drew 325,138 fans for its 31-game slate, or 10,488 per game.
That set an event attendance mark that was subsequently broken in Ottawa in 2009 (453,282, for an average of 14,622) and in Edmonton/Calgary in 2012 (455,342, for an average of 14,688).
Canada’s quarter-final win this week over the Czech Republic only drew 10,215, or less than half of the capacity at the 21,273-seat Bell Centre in Montreal. Through 26 games in the tournament, attendance was listed at 204,311, or 7,858 per game.
There have been complaints about ticket prices. Tickets for Canada’s games in Toronto ranged between $84 and $229.
Toigo wouldn’t comment on the pricing for this year’s tournament, saying that he wasn’t sure all of the various ticket packages. He also wouldn’t give out details yet on the 2019 prices, but maintained, “I think our prices will be market driven and we’ll have tickets available for everybody.”
“We’ll have a range that works,” he said.
He did say that the 2019 organizers have compared their prices to those of the Rugby Sevens. Two-day tickets for the March 11-12 event can be had for $99 plus fees, according their website.