There is plenty of talk going around these days about the Mastercard Memorial Cup. Some good, some bad. There are people who are upset with the price of tickets. Some of which are in the range of $70-90 dollars for round robin games. Many seats are remaining empty for any games without the home team’s involvement and it is being suggested that corporations and greed are pushing the regular fans out of the arenas. Other people think the format is not good enough, especially when the host teams don’t even make it to their own league finals.
First, I would like to show some evidence of how fans might agree with this sentiment. Below you will find the results of the last six Memorial Cup host teams.
[table id=13 /]
As you can see none of the teams that hosted in the past six years were able to capture their league title. The last time this happened was in 2008 when the Kitchener Rangers defeated the Belleville Bulls to capture the OHL crown. Kitchener would then go on to lose in the Final of the Memorial Cup to the Spokane Chiefs.
The Memorial Cup is becoming more and more about the financial promises than it is about the actual true champion of the Canadian Hockey League. Being host means that you have got to raise ticket prices, as well as merchandise and concessions. This prices the core fans of the teams out of the tournament and creates large pockets of unsold tickets that gives a less than stellar look while the games are broadcast on national television. The host city then faces unfair criticism for all of the empty seats.
Hosting the Memorial Cup comes with a lot of responsibility for the CHL teams and some of this can be avoided by the following format change.
First of all, there should no longer be four teams at the tournament. Do away with having a traditional host team 
altogether. Yes, this can cause a little bit of a logistical issue when it comes to the tournament but there are ways to work around it. Teams could play an extra four series beyond the regular season and it is generally not an issue. The “hosting” will remain the same format in the sense of going from OHL—>QMJHL—>WHL, but the host would be the league champion that year.
But what about the schedule you might ask? That’s an easy one in my eyes. Let’s play a “home and home” between the three teams. This would give each team the chance to be the home team against the other two teams and would give each team four round-robin games. After the round-robin is set; you take the first place team and the second place team and you play a best of three series. This would guarantee that the host team would get eight games in their building and nine if the best of three goes the distance. This would really solidify the true Canadian Hockey League champion.
There are plenty of other questions that need answering and I have a few ideas about those as well. Instead of all the pomp and pageantry of the Memorial Cup at the event, spread it out over the year. Have a Junior Hockey Day in Canada. Have a WHL day in the West, OHL day in Ontario and QMJHL day in the East. Allow teams to bid on hosting those days and make a huge show of it. Have an All-Star day or full weekend in each league. There are tons of tournaments all year to promote and get excited about. Throw some of the sponsorship and volunteerism behind those games and days. Move the WHL draft around the country. Instead of Calgary each year, hold it in various cities. There are a lot of ways to recoup some of the perceived losses this idea could cause. This format would create a true champion of champions and focus on the hockey instead of just the glitz and glamour.
This will also put an end to teams “loading up” for the Memorial Cup. You won’t see them tank the next 3-5 seasons and miss the playoffs. This factor alone benefits all teams and their fans.
