Day one saw three games played to start the preliminary rounds:
Czechia vs SlovakiaLatvia vs FinlandUSA vs Germany
As the World Juniors are one of the most popular tournaments when it's held in late December and early January every year, it's clear that hosting it in the summer is not a great idea (we're aware it's a makeup tournament).
@puckreportNHL on Instagram shared the tournament attendance numbers from all three games, and they're pretty embarrassing.
Whether it's from the fact that it's August and fans don't care about hockey right now, a lack of advertisement for the tournament, prices or because of the recent Hockey Canada scandals, it's just not a good look for the IIHF.