Canada’s great pageant returns
Vancouver will soon have a chance to repeat its ’06 World Juniors glory
The 2006 World Juniors, which ended with an inspiring Team Canada win over Russia in the goldmedal game at Rogers Arena, is remembered for a variety of reasons.
There was the money haul which forever changed the model for the tournament. There was the logistical nightmare of holding round robin games in three different locales — Vancouver, Kamloops and Kelowna — which, not coincidentally, is the last time that happened. There was the performance of the Brent Sutter-coached team which was short on star-power but long on determination and thumped the Evgeni Malkin-led Russians 5-1 in the finale.
But it’s funny. When Ron Toigo, the Vancouver Giants’ owner and chair of the ’06 tournament, is asked about the event, he doesn’t hesitate to identify the moment he remembers most vividly.
“Fighting with the Russians in the bowels of Rogers Arena over a goal that was disallowed (in the second period of the gold-medal game),” he says. “The Russians accused TSN of holding back video which showed the puck was in. They were threatening all kinds of things. I missed the whole third period (of the gold-medal game) listening to the argument, but it was entertaining.”
Then again this tournament generally is.
Canada’s great holiday pageant returns to our province 13 years after the ’06 event reshaped the WJC and while the 2019 tournament will be even more lucrative than its predecessor, it probably won’t be as much fun for the organizers. Then, Toigo and a band of lieutenants, which included GM Stu Ballantyne, created a new world for the event, building a business plan on the fly which has served as the tournament’s template ever since.
Prior to Vancouver, the event was held only sporadically in Canada and in secondary markets. The 2019 tournament, however, will mark the seventh time its returned to the True North in 13 years and if you’re looking for an explanation, you don’t have to look any farther than the $5-plus-million cheque the Vancouver committee turned over to Hockey Canada in ’06.
“We turned it from a million-dollar event to a multi-million dollar event,” says Toigo.
“In ’06 we kind of invented this thing as we went along,” says Dale Saip, the Giants’ VP and a core member of both the ’06 and ’19 organizing committees. “But I think we built the model. I look at the stuff now and I go, yeah, I remember doing that.”
But if it was sometimes haphazard, it was also effective. In ’06, Vancouver leapfrogged Ottawa to win the host bid, largely because then premier Gordon Campbell showed up with Vancouver 2010 CEO John Furlong and offered a million-dollar grant for the tournament. As a result, the event touched virtually every corner of the province with pre-tournament games held in such exotic locales as Powell River, North Delta and Chilliwack before the tournament began on three fronts.
This year’s event will be considerably more streamlined with Group A — Canada, Russia, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic — playing out of The Rog and the USA, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia and Kazakhstan at SaveOn-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria.
Ticket sales in the provincial capital, moreover, have guaranteed the success of the ’19 tournament. Passed over in ’06, largely because of uncertainty over the completion of Save-on, the Victoria games were virtually sold out before the schedule was announced. The presence of Quinn Hughes, the Canucks’ prize prospect, and his brother Jack, the presumptive first-overall pick in this summer’s draft, on Team USA will only add to the atmosphere.
“I’m amazed by the sales but I’m more amazed by Victoria,” said Toigo.
“We haven’t really done any advertising and were almost sold out. We saved a lot of money on advertising.”
Not that the WJC needs a lot of help in that department Over the years, the combination of the holiday season, TSN’s breathless coverage and, oh yes, the opportunity to see the game’s next great stars has produced a heady concoction which the hockey world has devoured.
TSN has been the host broadcaster since ’91 but, in 2013, signed a 10-year extension with Hockey Canada. As part of that agreement, the sports cable channel broadcasts second-tier events, but the prize has always been the WJC.
“It cuts across all demographics,” Toigo said. “It doesn’t matter what your background is or your political stripe. It’s the only game you go to at Rogers Arena where everyone is pulling for the home team.”
That team will be put together at the Team Canada selection camp in Victoria from Dec. 11-14 and it offers the usual collection of name players, emerging stars and intriguing characters. Canucks draft pick Michael DiPietro is projected as the starting goalie. Another Canucks’ draft pick, Jett Woo, is a candidate for the blueline. There’s Giants defenceman Bowen Byram, a likely top-five pick in this summer’s draft, Alexis Lafreniere, the 17-year-old it forward from the Quebec League and a group of sturdy first-rounders including Cody Glass, Barrett Hayton and Noah Dobson.
There will be others you haven’t heard much about. But that’s about to change.
It’s the only game you go to at Rogers Arena where everyone is pulling for the home team.” RonToigo