The Olympic effect?

The Cesspit

Revealing more than it says since 1995

The Olympic effect?

28th-Feb-2010 11:23 pm

It's said that England has a boost in the economic fortunes when they do well in the World Cup. Canada just won the ice hockey Gold medal in the olympics, which is pretty much the equivalent in terms of highest national game played. Victoria went crazy, with more horns, cowbells and flag waving than you can shake a (hockey) stick at. Downtown Victoria was mobbed, and the main streets covered in merry fans waving, shouting and trying to avoid getting run over by the traffic that was just as merry and flag waving.

I wonder if they'll be the sort of national up swell that England has when it goes deep into the World Cup. Or at least the bars will be happy in their takings.

I did see the game on TV, but I only have public access TV here, and watched the commentary in Cree Indian... as I knew half the players, this was good enough. Was a very good game, with all the expected story lines coming through, with the wonder-kid Sidney Crosby winning the game in overtime with an excellent goal that he not only scored, but did all the hard work in creating. Prior to that, the US team had equalized with just 30 seconds left, to send the game into sudden death.

Tags:canada, sport

thecesspit

Comments

(Deleted comment)

2nd-Mar-2010 06:26 pm (UTC)

thecesspit

Hate every minute of it :)

2nd-Mar-2010 09:09 am (UTC)

undyingking

England has a boost in the economic fortunes when they do well in the World Cup

I'm not sure the sample size for that claim is really big enough to make it statistically significant!

BTW, is there no regular international ice hockey competition other than in the Olympics? And if not, why not?

2nd-Mar-2010 06:20 pm (UTC)

thecesspit

Well, this is true enough, but I have heard all sorts of 'how good the world works when England play in Euros/World Cup'.

There is a few other international hockey tournaments :

The World Juniors is the the big one held every year, for the u20's. Junior Hockey is pretty big news in Canada, as a proving ground for future NHL stars (and drop outs).

There is the International Ice Hockey World Championship held every year, but it's normally held during the Stanley Cup playoffs, so the big hockey nations are normally fielding weaker teams (though Russia and Canada constantly medal ). Kinda like if the World Cup was held evey year during the last 2 weeks of the season when all the big clubs are fighting for the championship.

I did note when checking the names on wikipedia, that Great Britian did win the tournament in 1936. Currently the British Ice Hockey team plays in Division I, which is the division below the big boys.

IIHF hockey rules are slightly different from NHL rules (much more severe penalties for fighting, for one, and the rink is wider in Europe).

I think there would be scope for a 4 yearly World Championship held outside playoff time (or as a 2 week break in middle of season). Part of the problem is that the hockey play offs go on FOREVER. Like 2 months.

3rd-Mar-2010 08:59 am (UTC)

undyingking

Mm, in football this tendency to creep extra games into the gap between the end of the league and the start of World Cup / Euros has to be resisted I think. It's bad enough already with the FA Cup and European finals, plus the lower division promotion playoffs (whch don't affect the England team, but do other countries' players). The recent suggestion to add a playoff for the 4th Champions League place is typically greedy. But I guess any such games are by their nature bound to be well-attended and lucrative.

(Deleted comment)

15th-Mar-2010 10:18 pm (UTC)

thecesspit

Ah, that's the way you want to take it.

Well done!

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