Organizers admit World Junior ticket sales failed to meet expectations Citing oversaturation in the region, poor travel conditions and a sagging Canadian dollar, tournament organizers admitted Thursday ticket sales failed to meet expectations at the 2018 World Junior Championship.

Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Citing oversaturation in the region, poor travel conditions and a sagging Canadian dollar, tournament organizers admitted Thursday ticket sales failed to meet expectations at the 2018 World Junior Championship.

Among those played on North American soil, this year’s tournament is projected to have the lowest total attendance since 2005 in Grand Forks, N.D., which is around when the event began to explode in popularity.

Empty blue seats have pockmarked the Sabres’ downtown KeyBank Center for even marquee matchups, sapping a traditionally frenzied atmosphere.

“You get experience only when you make mistakes,” IIHF president Rene Fasel said. “This is one more [experience].”

Reporters peppered organizers with so many questions about attendance that Fasel put his hands up to signal a “timeout” during the press conference.

“It is the right question and the right answer,” Fasel said.

One of the biggest factors, organizers agreed, may be that this marks the third time in four years that the tournament will be hosted in the Southern Ontario/Western New York region, with Toronto also hosting games in 2015 and 2017.

Buffalo also hosted the tournament in 2011. Total attendance that year was 329,687 – but it was also the first time the tournament had been held in the region in a while.

“We tried, but it shows us in the future to be more careful [spacing tournaments out],” Fasel said. “Here you have such a big country in the United States and Canada. [2019 host] Vancouver already has over 50 per cent of the tickets sold. Going back now to the west, the interest of the people is there.”

Entering Thursday night’s semi-final action, total attendance was 167,784, with four of the biggest-drawing games still to be played. Organizers are projecting just over 200,000 total tickets sold, which would make it the 10th-highest attended all-time.

But that number is partially propped up by a record 44,592 fans who took in the first-ever World Juniors game played outdoor at the Bills’ New Era Field.

Without that outdoor inflation, the tournament has averaged just 4,738 fans over 26 indoor games. Even if you were to call the U.S. versus Canada preliminary game a sellout – which no indoor game has done so far – the per-game average still climbs to just 5,268 fans.

“Having 200,000 spectators for a tournament like this, it is still rather a success,” Fasel said.

Another reason for poor attendance may have been the approach to sell tickets in packages – which requires fans to buy every game, including matchups between non-hockey superpowers – rather than a dynamic per-game pricing.

“When we had this event back in 2011, we had packages sold. We realized that ticket sales weren’t as robust,” Sabres vice-president Mike Gilbert said. “Our pricing was significantly lower than last year … There are some things you learn about the event after the fact.”

Buffalo was chosen by USA Hockey and the IIHF to host the 2018 tournament over 15 other U.S. markets, including many other NHL cities. Gilbert said Sabres owner Terry Pegula relayed that, in his eyes, ticket sales “aren’t what we judge a tournament’s success on.” Unfortunately, the poor atmosphere what many will remember about this year’s tournament.

Vancouver and Victoria will play hosts next year with the tournament returning to British Columbia for the first time since 2006. It will then move to the Czech Republic in 2020 before coming back to Canada in 2021 at a site still to be announced.

The 2018 tournament’s lack of success even has the IIHF re-thinking whether the World Juniors is best suited in a venue smaller than NHL-sized arenas.

“Junior hockey proved you can go in big cities and have a really good crowd,” IIHF council member Luc Tardif said. “I think the experience we have now between back-to-back Montreal and Toronto tells us we have to think differently about the city who hosts those World Junior.”

WORLD JUNIORS ATTENDANCE HISTORY

1. Alberta (2012) - 455,342

2. Ottawa (2009) - 453,282

3. Toronto / Montreal (2015) - 366,370

4. Buffalo (2011) - 329,687

5. British Columbia (2006) - 325,128

6. Saskatoon (2010) - 301,944

7. Montreal / Toronto (2017) - 257,882

8. Halifax (2003) - 242,173

9. Helsinki (2016) - 215,226

10. Buffalo (2018) - 200,000*

11. Grand Forks 2005 - 193,256

* Projection. Actual attendance with four games to play: 167,784

Contact Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @frank_seravalli