Ice hockey | A sad sight at the World Youth Hockey Championships: A photo of the audience speaks harshly of the tournament

Ice hockey this year, the under-20 world championships will exceptionally be played in the summer. The races started on Tuesday and will end on August 21.

The reason for the change is the suspension of the games at the turn of last year. Because of the corona, the tournament was already packaged in the initial group stage at that time, and now they are trying to get the games through again.

The World Cup tournament will be played in Edmonton, Canada. The summer time is a challenge for the tournament organizers, because especially in North America, August is still far from the hockey season.

In Finland, the league teams’ training season has already started, but the NHL doesn’t start until October 7 with matches played in the Czech Republic. On the American continent, the puck falls on the ice on October 11.

Sight The first preliminary group games of the World Cup have been summery as expected. The audience hasn’t even found a name for the hall.

Editor of The Athletic sports website Scott Wheeler posted pictures on Twitter of the Edmonton Oilers’ home arena, Roger’s Place, which appears to be completely empty. The hall could hold 18,500 spectators.

The upper picture is from the opening match of the Games, Czech Republic–Slovakia. In the lower picture, the United States meets Germany, but even only about twenty American fans have bothered to attend.