Jason La Rose
The 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship comes to a close Saturday at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, as does a journey that has lasted more than two years for the host organizing committee.
Fans watching on TSN see the action on the ice, but the action behind the scenes is a major part of welcoming the world to what has become one of the most-watched tournaments on the international hockey calendar.
“This isn’t about the last 11 days of hockey, or the last three weeks of having the teams in B.C. – this is about the last two years, and building an event Canadians could be proud of,” says Riley Wiwchar, tournament director. “There is so much that goes into hosting a World Juniors in Canada, and we are so excited by what we have accomplished in Vancouver, in Victoria and across British Columbia.”
So what exactly goes into – and comes out of – hosting the World Juniors? Let’s take a look at the numbers:
11: Communities that were involved in the Lordco Road to the World Juniors, making it a B.C.-wide event. Burnaby, Chilliwack, Kamloops, Kelowna, Langley, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Vancouver and Victoria all hosted training camps and pre-tournament games, while Comox and Vernon welcomed Switzerland and Russia, respectively, for their camps.
44: Hockey Canada and IIHF World Junior Championship partners who activated during the tournament, including Air Canada, B.C. Tree Fruits, Canadian Tire, Mr. Lube, Skip the Dishes and Sport Chek.
126: Staff necessary for TSN and RDS to broadcast every preliminary-round and playoff-round game in Vancouver and Victoria. This includes everyone from play-by-play man Gord Miller to production runners, camera operators, fibre-optic technicians and make-up artists.
164: Goals scored through the semifinals. The highest single-game total came in Canada’s 14-0 win over Denmark on Boxing Day, while the lowest was Switzerland’s 2-0 victory over Sweden in the quarter-finals.
229: Players who competed. Rosters included 32 players who were selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft (Canada – 10; United States – 6; Sweden – 5; Finland – 4; Russia – 4; Czech Republic – 3).
301: Accredited media representing all 10 competing nations. Not surprisingly, Canadian media comprise the largest delegation – 161 media from 51 different media outlets.
752: Volunteers in both cities (394 in Vancouver, 358 in Victoria). To recognize the efforts of volunteers, TELUS is donating $1 for every volunteer hour to the Hockey Canada Foundation, with the final total (50,000 hours, doubled by TELUS) to approach $100,000.
766: Days between Vancouver and Victoria being awarded the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship (Dec. 1, 2016) and the gold medal game between Finland and the United States (Jan. 5, 2019).
1,689: Minutes of hockey played through the end of the semifinals. Only three games have gone beyond 60 minutes – Czech Republic vs. Switzerland and Sweden vs. United States in the preliminary round, and Finland vs. Canada in the quarter-finals.
2,604: Accreditations issued in both cities, which includes all players, team staff, officials, volunteers, media, VIPs, Hockey Canada staff, IIHF staff and venue staff at Rogers Arena and the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
13,451: Beverages (beer, wine and cider) sold at The Cabin, which opened its doors on game days in Victoria and quickly became the go-to destination for fans for all their pre-game, in-game and post-game entertainment needs.
82,011: Followers of @HC_WJC on Twitter, 10,380 (12.7%) of whom were added in the four weeks from Dec. 7 to Jan. 4. The account had 8,811 mentions, and the 548 tweets sent during those 28 days earned 12.1 million impressions.
275,162: Attendance through the semifinals. That includes 202,232 in Vancouver (average of 12,640 per game) and 72,930 in Victoria (average of 6,078 per game).
1,049,094: Unique page views at HockeyCanada.ca on Dec. 26, the highest single-day total ever for the website. In all, there were 5,653,642 unique views between Dec. 26 and Jan. 4.
1,708,434: Dollar total for the 50/50 draws in all 28 games through the end of the semifinals, with half the proceeds ($854,217) shared by the Hockey Canada Foundation and Canucks for Kids Fund. The highlight was the New Year’s Eve game between Canada and Russia, with a WJC-record $608,320 pot.