How Do You Measure The Importance Of A Tournament?

Many tournaments are popular because they have been around for many years. Everyone in Canada born in the last fifty years or so has grown up with the Stanley Cup playoffs, and have generally understood its importance in the Canadian sporting landscape. It is, after all, the official playoff of the best professional league to play our most popular game, and therefore, it is regarded with the appropriate attention.

All other professional sports share this distinction, of course. When the post-season rolls around for a major league such as the NFL, NBA, or MLB, the tournament that follows is watched with interest by those who follow the sport, and sometimes even those that don't.

But what about the other tournaments? The ones that, on the surface, seem to be nothing more than an exhibition bundled in television wrapping with a HD bow on top?

The World Baseball Classic failed in the U.S. and Canada, probably because the teams weren't very good, but more likely because we are hesitant to change our traditions. Baseball is not important in February or March, unless you are a diehard fan who pays close attention to training camps. And even then, a tournament where the casual fan only knows 5-10% of the players involved brings little viewership. In other countries around the world that participated in the WBC, it was met with interest because their teams could prove to the world that the game of baseball went beyond Major League Baseball. But in the end, it was a failure. The same could be said for the World Cup of Hockey, with similar reasons.

This all has a point. Tomorrow, the World Junior Hockey Championships begin in Sweden, with the odd future NHL player teamed up with young kids who will likely never reach this level of competition again. But why is it so important?

It seems to me that TSN, the Canadian broadcaster for the WJHC, pushes the interest of the tournament onto the public. The tournament, only 30 years old, does not hold the interest of a country the way TSN would have us believe. The only reason, for example, that the World Hockey Championship is not regarded in the same way is that it occurs against the NHL playoffs. I guarantee you, if the situation were reversed, and the WHC was scheduled for the dreary post-Christmas season, it would be celebrated in the same fashion, and the Junior tournament, if held in late April, would be largely ignored.

It's all about timing, and it's all about marketing. Showing players that "could be" future superstars is an excellent angle, and TSN is wise for playing to it. Those of us who watched past tournaments relished in seeing players like Sidney Crosby and Eric Lindros before their NHL stardom. But a tournament, outside of a post-season for a pro league, is only as important as the marketing behind it. Maybe TSN should pick up the World Baseball Classic.