The hockey World Cup finally starts again on Friday.
But then SVT Sport chooses to do the unexpected.
– There are several reasons why we choose to do this, SVT program director Max Bursell explains to SportExpress.
Finally, it’s time for the hockey World Cup again and Tre Kronor has received much-needed reinforcements from the NHL. On Friday, Sweden plays its first match against Germany and the entire championship will be broadcast on SVT.
SVT’s actions
There will be a new national team captain Sam Hallams first ever championship game. But now the unexpected announcement comes from SVT Sport just the day before the world championship starts.
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Instead of being present at the hockey World Cup, which is played in Finnish Tampere and Latvian Riga, SVT chooses to stay at home. The entire studio for the hockey World Cup will be on Swedish soil in the TV house at Gärdet in Stockholm.
– We are betting on home ground instead. We have built a large studio here which will house a lot of different sports. It’s going in that direction, says the presenter Dusan Umicevic to SportExpressen.
– Now that you ask, it would have been more fun to be there, and have a studio there.
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Stay home
The SVT profile continues to talk about the advantages of having a television studio in place during a championship.
– You get quite a lot for free when you’re there, like the atmosphere. Finland is a country where hockey means everything. We must not forget that the country is both reigning world champion and Olympic champion. Having said that, I am convinced that it will be good this way too. There are many wise minds who worked on this. For example, we will have several teams of reporters in the two cities, says Umicevic in the interview.
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SVT Sports program manager Max Bursell gives his view on the whole thing and explains why the TV channel chose to stay at home during the hockey World Cup.
– There are several reasons why we choose to do this. For one thing, I think we can make a more modern, stylish and advanced production in our new sports studio. The premiere of that studio was linked to the Biathlon World Cup. It is there that we now make all our sports productions, he says to the evening newspaper.
– Just like everyone else, we also try to review our travel; how much should we fly, how much should we send people around the world. So it is both for sustainability and financial reasons.
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