Latvian fans apply for the hockey championship at the last moment, the number of fans

National hockey players and staff will leave the airport “Riga” around 9, and evening training is already planned for the team in Ostrava around six in the evening. There are more than 150 seats on the flight of the hockey players to the world championship, and only a third will be occupied by the representatives of the national team. Any remaining spots may be filled by fans.

Only at the venue of the championship will it become practically clear how many Latvian fans will have made their way to Ostrava and later, probably, will go to the playoffs in Prague.

In a conversation with an experienced fan, the travel coordinator of Latvijas Radio found out that fans who want to travel to the national team’s first two games on Saturday and Sunday against Poland and France are applying as early as Wednesday. The vast majority travel to these games, but will see how the team will do. There are also fans who bought tickets for the last game in the group against the USA national team on May 21, hoping that the Latvians would qualify for the quarterfinals, and then the fans would follow the team to Prague.

There was a big explosion of interest in going to the championship after Latvia’s impressive victory over Norway in the last test match.

After the successful conclusion of the test matches, many people who have not been interested in hockey at all want to go to the championship.

Ostrava is not a tourist town, and due to limited accommodation options, most Latvian fans plan to live close to the border in Poland and travel to games in private cars or by bus. Fans hope that there will be no increased control measures at the border.

The arena where the Latvian national team will play is relatively small, and many games in Ostrava could be watched outside the ice rink.

Those fans who will not go to the Czech Republic will certainly have the opportunity to follow the games on the big screens in various places in Latvia. In Riga, public viewing of the games will take place in Old Riga, on Dome Square.

The World Championship will start in the Czech Republic on May 10, and the Latvian national team will start the group tournament on May 11 in Ostrava with a match against Poland. In the continuation of the group stage, they will have to play against France (May 12), Kazakhstan (May 14), Germany (May 15), Sweden (May 18), Slovakia (May 19) and the USA national team (May 21). The four strongest teams in the group will advance to the quarterfinals.

The medal winners at the world championship will be announced at the finals in Prague on May 26.

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