The World Junior Hockey Championship does create a lot of buzz in the global ice hockey market because it is a showcase of the young talent that is on offer and will soon be making its way to the top Ice Hockey Leagues in the world.
The 2018 World Junior Hockey Championships has had a number of exciting matches but stadium attendance has been poor throughout the tournament.
However that hasn’t dampened the spirits of the organizers who have heaped a lot of praise on how the players have performed and the quality of matches on offer.
The organizers have confirmed that over 200,000 tickets have been sold at the World Hockey Championships and with the final yet to take place, this number could go up.
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Ticket sales are an interesting dilemma as the quarter final between USA and Russia earlier this week saw just 6,242 fans in attendance. However, the outdoor game that took place between rivals USA and Canada saw as many as 44,592 fans in attendance and played a huge role in pumping ticket sales up to 200,000. Since ticket sales have crossed the two hundred thousand mark, the 2018 World Junior Championships will rank amongst the top 10 junior championships held in terms of fan attendance.
In a statement, Pat Kelleher, the executive director of USA Hockey said
You know, we always want to put more fans in the seats. I don't think that's anything we would ever debate or question, but we've had great hockey here. I think that's the big thing. The people who have been in the building have seen the best players in the world, players that will be in the NHL next year. So I think for us, we're very excited about the quality of play
The World Junior Championships have also benefited from the coverage provided by the NHL network as well as social media. Ticket sales for the final would have probably been a lot higher had Team USA secured a final berth. However Team USA who were the favourites went down to Team Sweden 4-2 on Thursday and were eliminated.
Tournament organizers have said there were a number of factors that contributed to the poor ticket sales including cold weather. However at the end of the day, they are happy with what has taken place at the 2018 World Junior Championship as the players have put on a good show and the matches were entertaining for those who were in attendance.
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