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Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle
I think you are drastically over estimating the appeal and the history of the "World Cup of Hockey". It is not the historic event that carried the momentum you suggest it had. I think you are confusing what the event meant to you (I'm in the same boat), with it's mass appeal and built up brand. I do however agree with you, that these events require momentum and histroy to build up, and starting it again now would be starting from scratch, and potentially they could have build a much firmer brand with history had they kept it going by now.
The Canada cup only had any history and appeal in this country, and maybe the Soviet Union. The subsequent creation of the World Cup, which only had 2 events held 8 year appart did little to build any brand momentum anywhere for that tournament, and I'd argue only hard core hockey fans in Canada and some in the US even know that tournament existed. Point being, you are right, we are starting from a place of nothing, but it's not like that should be looked upon as an insermountable climb, and it's not like we were once at the top of the mountain with the World Cup and we threw it all away.
And the nice thing is, Canadians will always support events like this, which will give it a meaningful start, because we are starved for hockey, starved for international hockey and starved for best on best and and opportunity to tell people we are the best at this game. You asked if Canadian's would give up a Satruday night in September to watch a World Cup game? Not sure where you've been living the past few decades if you even question that.
If they start a new "World Cup of Hockey", it will be an instant success in Canada, which will have to be it's starting point, but that outcome alone will hardly be enough to justify the existance of this tournament for the NHL. It will be a battle to create relevance in the US and Europe, which is what they will care about, but that was the case with the old Canada and World Cups anyway, and it's not something they'd managed to achieve with those events when they gave up on them.
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I think before the players went to the Olympics, the Canada Cup was the top of the mountain. Wayne Gretzky only played for Canada in these tournaments (81-96), nowhere else. He's not going to play in the World Championships.
I will have to defer to the Europeans in this board, did you guys watch Canada Cups? Did you watch the 2004 World Cup? Or is it all Olympics now.
My main argument is that if the NHL just cared about business and money then they should have never gone to the Olympics and kept the World Cup brand, every 4 years in September forever. People can't crave for something they don't know about (NHLers in the Olympics). But once the NHL goes to the Olympics and disrupts the World Cup cycle, that is the new top of the mountain and they can't go back. Removing something and rebooting something else would be very difficult I think. I don't think the World Cup has any cache
You're saying that Canadians hardly knew the World Cup existed. We're not talking about the hardcore. The non-hardcore are going to get up at 5am this Sunday to watch, they're not going to give up a Saturday Night in September because they might not even know there is a tournament going on.