The Excitement of the Ice Hockey World Championship in Riga – Where to Find It?
In May, for a couple of weeks, the hearts of Latvia’s sports enthusiasts will be taken over by the annual hockey frenzy, when virtually everyone will show an active interest in the twists and turns of Latvian hockey. After all, it will be difficult to hide from it, but you also need to know how to find the best places to watch hockey—and in the vast city of Riga, that is sometimes not so easy.
The Latvian national hockey team will play at least seven group-stage matches at the World Championship in Slovakia. If the team achieves success and finishes ahead of Switzerland, Norway, Austria and Italy, it will have the opportunity to play in the quarter-finals as well and extend its hockey spring to eight matches. Perhaps even nine or ten, but for now there is probably no reason to dream that far.
Riga wants to call itself a hockey city, and hockey is truly popular there. A year ago in Denmark, the Latvian national team managed to reach the World Championship quarter-finals and put up a very fierce fight against the Swedish national team, which is once again one of the bookmakers’ favourites for the gold medals. Latvia, meanwhile, is given rather low odds by sports bookmakers of reaching the quarter-finals, but when has that ever stopped Latvian hockey fans? The team led by Bob Hartley will nevertheless receive strong support from spectators both in Slovakia and from afar throughout Latvia and Riga. This article presents several options for enjoying the hockey atmosphere in the company of others and surrounded by fellow fans in front of TV screens.
Paddy Whelan`s
The Irish pub in the very heart of Old Riga is a popular place
to watch live football broadcasts, but no one doubts that hockey will be the
priority on May evenings. Yes, hockey is not an Irish sport, but large screens
and good beer are certainly part of the hockey experience.
http://www.paddywhelans.com/lv/
The Three Men in a Boat
A venue in Riga’s quiet centre, on Avotu Street, where sport plays a very important role. A wide selection of food is available, as well as tables outside, which could be particularly important in the warm spring weather. “The Three Men in a Boat” presents itself as a place suited to different tastes, and the setbacks of the Latvian national hockey team (it will unfortunately not avoid them in at least a couple of matches) can be forgotten—or at least consigned to a more distant corner of one’s memory—thanks to the extensive selection of beer and whisky at The Three Men in a Boat.
https://www.facebook.com/trisvirilaiva/
Kiwi
Kiwi Bar describes itself as a meeting place for Riga residents and visitors to the city. In May, this venue will most likely turn into a meeting place for hockey fans and for those who will become hockey fans within the next half-hour. Kiwi Bar is run by a New Zealand representative, and that country is not traditionally regarded as one of the founding nations of hockey either, but several TV screens and a cosy atmosphere provide everything necessary.
Victory Pub Riga
Another place where sports fans tend to gather—people who
value both comfort and a rich range of offerings. “Victory Pub Riga” stands out
positively in this regard and has provided Latvian hockey fans with an
atmosphere for more than one spring in which to experience the national team’s
victories and defeats at the World Championship in a special setting, with the
Latvian team both living up to and exceeding the hockey predictions made about
it.
