Hockey Canada trying to ‘salvage’ World Juniors amid scandal, low ticket sales

Amid low tickets gross sales, a flight of sponsors and a nationwide scandal of sexual assault allegations, Hockey Canada seems to be making an attempt to “salvage” its World Juniors championship, says one skilled.

The event acquired underway on Tuesday in Edmonton, Alta., with hundreds of tickets nonetheless obtainable. It was postponed  late final 12 months on account of the Omicron variant surge.

Within the months since, the nationwide group has develop into embroiled in condemnation and controversy over its dealing with of the allegations. Because of this, regional tourism physique Discover Edmonton, instructed World Information, it paused promotion of the event in July.

“Because the host metropolis for the upcoming event, we proceed to have discussions with Hockey Canada officers about their plans to handle the necessity for change,” stated Traci Bednard, CEO of Discover Edmonton.

For sports activities tradition skilled Dan Mason, that’s not an enormous shock.

“Hockey Canada is hurting as a result of they’re missing sponsorship and the standard promotion that they get. I don’t assume it’s essentially one thing that they might actually wish to be doing anyway, given the circumstances that they’re in,” stated Mason, a professor of sport administration on the College of Alberta.

“I feel they’re simply making an attempt to salvage this chance to have some participant growth.”

The World Juniors is the worldwide championship for gamers aged 20 or youthful competing for spots on groups run by the nationwide hockey league.

It’s run by the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which confirmed final week it’s now among the many rising variety of official our bodies investigating Hockey Canada over its dealing with of sexual assault allegations. The Zurich, Switzerland-based world governing physique for ice hockey stated it needs extra data amid a continued storm of criticism and condemnation, which has rocked Hockey Canada to its core.

“These are deeply troubling incidents that the IIHF takes extraordinarily severely,” the group instructed World Information on Aug. 1.

TSN first reported in Might that Hockey Canada had settled a lawsuit through which a younger girl, “E.M.”, alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight hockey gamers together with members of the 2018 Canadian World Juniors workforce following a gala organized by the group.

Within the months since, Hockey Canada has been engulfed in scrutiny together with: three parliamentary committee conferences specializing in the matter, a funding freeze ordered by the federal sports activities minister, a monetary audit, a renewed prison investigation by police in London, Ont., and an NHL probe.

The group has misplaced a number of main sponsors for the World Juniors event together with Tim Hortons, Telus, Canadian Tire and Scotiabank, and confronted a revolt from provincial hockey organizations vowing to withhold funding. The chair of the board of administrators is gone — although the president Scott Smith stays. Former Supreme Courtroom justice Thomas Cromwell is main a governance evaluation due in November.

Whether or not Smith will stay within the function after that evaluation stays unsure.

In the meantime, Canadian dad and mom are livid, notably over the revelations of a slush fund used to pay out sexual assault claimants utilizing registration charges paid by dad and mom for his or her kids to play what Stompin’ Tom Connors as soon as known as “the great ol’ hockey recreation.”

Mason stated he expects the influence of the revelations will play out in youth enrolment numbers.

On the identical time, some locals who deliberate to attend the World Juniors stated they belief that the issues within the group are being taken care of and don’t wish to penalize the gamers.

Randy Thompson spoke to World Information exterior the Rogers Centre in Edmonton. He stated he plans to catch a couple of video games, and after years of COVID-19 disruption watching the World Juniors seems like a return to a “good custom.”

“I feel it’s on all of our minds and we hope that there’s a constructive decision to that,” he stated of the allegations and the outcry going through Hockey Canada.

“However hockey nonetheless is what it’s and we shouldn’t let that have an effect on us too an excessive amount of. I feel we have to keep true to our hockey tradition or hockey custom, and I do know that the proper folks will handle issues.”

The Canadian workforce is about to face off in opposition to Latvia on Wednesday of their first recreation of the event.

Crew Canada’s head coach André Tourigny stated leaders have been emphasizing to gamers that they’re underneath the highlight, however saved his remarks to the media transient in regards to the outcry going through Hockey Canada.

“We’ve addressed that. We acknowledge that there’s steps to be taken,” stated Tourigny earlier this week. “We did a sexual violence factor, we did a code of conduct factor.”

Brenda Andress, who was commissioner of the Canadian Girls’s Hockey League for 12 years, instructed World Information she nonetheless sees a “code of silence” in Canadian sports activities on the subject of intercourse abuse and sexual allegations.

She stated in an interview final week that many nonetheless have hassle wrapping their heads across the extent of the issue.

“Being within the sports activities world so long as I’ve been, there’s a code of silence. There’s a tradition that we’ve created, and I feel most of us can’t deal with the reality that’s on the market — that’s actually happening in our sports activities world,” Andress stated.

“It’s time that we check out it in rather a lot deeper avenue than we’re presently doing.”

— With recordsdata from World Edmonton’s Morgan Black.