The world hockey championship begins in the Czech Republic. Will there be a new attendance record?

Due to disqualification, the aggressor countries Russia and Belarus, which have been at war in Ukraine for more than two years, cannot participate in the world championship.

It has already been announced that recently Hungarian and Slovenian hockey players won the right to play in the elite division of the world championship next year.

The Czech cities of Prague and Ostrava also hosted the World Championship in 2015, reaching a new attendance record. This year, the organizers plan to surpass themselves by reaching a new record.

In 2015, more than 740 thousand spectators (741,690) attended the 64 matches of the tournament. On average, more than 11,500 hockey fans (11,589) gathered in the arena.

The Prague arena can accommodate 17.5 thousand spectators, while the Ostrava arena has a capacity of 8.8 thousand.

Last year, the world championship was held in Riga (Latvia) and Tampere (Finland). Compared to the Czech record in 2015, attendance was almost twice as low.

Last year, Canadian ice hockey players won the world championship, beating the German national team in the final, while Latvia beat the USA in extra time in the bronze medal match.

Video: Bright moments of the Latvian hockey team in last year’s tournament

The information collected by the “Eliteprospects” portal shows that the most experienced team in this tournament will be the Swiss team, whose hockey players have played 720 games in the world championships. The average age of the Swiss is also the second highest (29.88 years, Poland is the oldest with 30.8 years).

The Latvian national team went to the tournament with several debutants, but the rest of the players in the team have played a total of 654 games in the world championships, which is the third largest indicator. Behind the leader Switzerland, the second place is occupied by the French national team, whose hockey players have 683 game experience.

With approximately equal chances of winning the gold medal, bookmakers consider the hockey players of Sweden, Canada and the USA to be the favorites of the tournament. This year, the teams of these countries are mostly composed of National Hockey League (NHL) players, and several of them are bright stars.