Even those who received the roughest receptions in the Victoria portion of the 2019 IIHF world junior hockey championship — the U.S. team and Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps — deemed the event a rousing success.
The players enjoyed playing to nearly full houses at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, even those on the U.S. team, which was probably the least supported by the local crowds. That was perhaps a natural reaction. It’s just not in the Canadian sporting DNA to chant “USA, USA, USA.” One Victoria fan wore a U.S. jersey with the name bar “Anti Trump” on the back. Island fans, however, were more than willing to chant the country names of underdogs such as Kazakhstan, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
“We may have not have had as much fan support as Kazakhstan but we thought it went extremely well,” said U.S. head coach Mike Hastings, whose team advanced from Victoria to a semifinal date today with Russia.
“Victoria took care of us very well, from the hotel, to the arena, to the community. I would love to return one day.”
The American players concurred.
“Victoria has been great for us,” said Jack Hughes, the projected No. 1 pick for the 2019 NHL draft.
“We were treated really well.”
His brother, 2018 Vancouver Canucks first-round draft pick Quinn Hughes, agreed: “Victoria was a good team experience for us; and for me definitely. Playing with my brother here made it cool, too.”
Cascading boos from the stands greeted Helps when she presented the player of the game awards Monday. But politicians are used to that and Helps couldn’t help but be caught up in the vibe of another world-level sporting event held in the city.
“It was amazing walking down to the arena and feeling the buzz on the street in front of the arena and being a part of the crowd,” said Helps, who helped bring the event to the capital.
Hockey officialdom was also pleased.
“Hockey Canada is thrilled with the response and support from the City of Victoria. The people have really embraced the world juniors here,” said Tom Renney, CEO of Hockey Canada, in a statement.
Keith Wells, executive director of the Greater Victoria Sport Tourism Commission, said the regional economic impact was in the range of $10 million.
“That is the conservative estimate,” he added.
“It could be up to $17 million in direct and indirect economic impact. We had 14 sellouts, full restaurants, and hotels telling us they had their best-ever December and early January. We’ll see what the Hockey Canada impact study shows when it comes out. We will leverage this. It helps us moving forward and showing that Victoria can do well hosting international sporting events.”
That doesn’t account for the intangible impact, Wells said: “Emotionally, for sport tourism, it was a knockout . . . absolutely a hit. Swedish television showed beautiful shots of Victoria. Then there was the Kazakhstan underdog storyline and Swiss upset of the Swedes. These are indelible hockey memories.”
The GSL Group, which operates the Memorial Centre, said 90,000 fans attended 14 games over 17 days with 2,500 minutes of hockey viewed, 40,000 hot dogs, 70,000 beers and 500,000 ounces of popcorn consumed, with more than 30,000 hours of work created for staff.
“The world juniors was another successful event for our venue and for the people of Victoria,” said GSL Sports and Entertainment president Dave Dakers.
“It will now become a part of an impressive list of world class events we have hosted at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre,” Dakers added, citing the 2005 and 2013 Ford men’s world curling championships, 2006 Skate Canada International and 2011 Canadian figure skating championships, 2009 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Canada-U.S. women’s hockey in 2009 and Subway Super Series WHL-Russia games in 2009 and 2012.
There were some complaints, however, including the lack of printed roster lineup sheets for the fans and parking issues.
