Toronto World Hockey Summit In Skeptic Mood
August 24th, 2010
The World Hockey Summit has kicked off, but instead of being the venue for discussing the state of the game, skepticism is quite apparent as attendance to the event reflects low representation of participating countries.
Currently, hockey is being developed into an IIHF event and full representation of countries involved was expected yet only eight of these concerned countries were in attendance.
Another critical topic that will be discussed during the week-long meeting of the minds is about the growth of women's hockey. This too, would benefit from a much better attendance for proper representation.
This year's summit is well attended by hockey's biggest executives, coaches, general managers, players and the media with representatives from NHL, NLPA, IIHF, Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, the KHL and the CHL. It was quite hard to miss however, that College Hockey, Inc. and the NCAA were not represented to show their interest in the future of junior NHL players.
Lastly, with tickets priced quite high, attendance of hockey fans is greatly affected, beating the purpose of the summit of providing a positive public relations festival.