BLOG: Sad and quiet story in Stockholm

08 May 2012 | David Schlegel

Eurohockey.com's David Schlegel is disappointed in the promotion of the World Championship in Sweden.

The Ericsson Globe is my favorite arena.

Here, I fell in love with my wife five years ago.

The atmosphere at Sweden-Finland games at the Swedish (LG, Oddset) Hockey Games is the best atmosphere you can repeatedly see at the international level in Europe. In spite of the fact I am from the Czech Republic, where we have newer and bigger 02 Arena in Prague, the Ericsson Globe is for me by far the most beautiful arena in Europe.

This is my tenth World Senior championship, my first in Sweden. I was looking forward to coming to Sweden and seeing the best World Championship ever. I have watched the Swedish Elitserien on TV for many years and I admire the professional and entertaining way that the Swedes prepare the coverage. Everybody around was talking about beating the attendance record. I was expecting the best World Championship ever.

That has not happened. Four days are behind us and I have never experienced such a cold and sad championship. When I came on the first day to watch an opening game between Germany and Italy, about one thousand fans were present. The atmosphere was very quiet, we could hear the German coach giving instructions to his players.

Well, it is Germany against Italy, I said to myself. However, the next game, which was Czech Republic-Denmark, gave us the same picture. Again, one thousand fans at the game. Then the Swedish Ice Hockey Association dramatically lowered the ticket prices, but the attendance is still far below the standard.

The Czechs score against Denmark before a sea of empty seats.
Photo Roman Kucera

The prices were astronomical, but the overall prices are high here. Sweden has one of the best living standards in the world, which brings this with it, but the main problem is not the prices, it is the promotion. I went to the Stockholm city centre and there are no signs that there is an IIHF World Championship in ice hockey being played in the city right now. The first notice about the tournament is at the Subway "Globen". The weak promotion can be compared only to World Championship in Bern and Zürich in 2009. However, the fan village in Switzerland was excellent. Here? There is none. There are few stands and a small street for the fans, but there is almost nobody there. It is very sad to say, but this city does not seem to be interested in the ice hockey championship.

It also completely lacks the enthusiasm which I felt in Prague 2004, Riga 2006 or in Quebec 2008. It is not mandatory to organize the championship. I heard that in Helsinki it is a different issue: there is good promotion in the city centre, a nice fan tent and better attendance. However, before the Kazakhstan-Belarus game, the time clock on the overhead centre-ice scoreboard failed to work, so a hand stopwatch had to be used. Like was the case decades ago.

Next year, Stockholm will have a chance to learn from this year's mistake, but the concept of the World championship in two countries does not seem to work so far.