The WJC in the Boston area was at several venues, including those
mentioned, plus Matthews Arena (where Northeastern U plays their home
games;  listed capacity 6000.)  The arena looked empty.  At Matthews
I'd be surprised if there were 1000 there for any of the games except
Canada/Finland.

Part of the problem of lack of interest in the junior game is structure
of amateur hockey.  In Canada, and every other country that I can think
of, organized juniors are the top level of amateur hockey.

The top level of amateur hockey in the US has two components: college
hockey and juniors.  Of these, only the college teams have a natural
constituency that consists of students, alumni, and others who for
whatever reason ("state pride" etc.) support that college team.  The
juniors  play high caliber hockey, but they really have no constituency
at least nothing resembling the community constituency that a junior
team in Canada might have. In Canada, the community CARES (please
correct me if I'm wrong) about the local junior team.  In
Massachusetts, the juniors scores aren't  even reported in the
newspapers.

What benefits "hockey" generally may benefit junior hockey and college
hockey unequally, and in fact may hurt one or the other.  To some
extent the fact that college hockey was in place is one of the reasons
that it took a long time for junior hockey to get much of a foothold in
the US.  And  to some extent the growth of junior hockey (in
Massachusetts at least) has come at the extent of school hockey at the
high school and prep level.  It's not out of the question to think that
someday, the growth of junior hockey may come at the expense of college
hockey.

Clay


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