WC: 2023 IIHF championships Finland and Latvia Divisions announced

Is it the first time all European fans will be hoping their team plays in a specific group? Previously, Germany co-hosted with France, Sweden with Finland, and Latvia was supposed to co-host with Belarus. All countries with simillar prices.
Riga and Tampere appear to have signifficant gap in prices. Finns themselves would probably like their team to play in Riga :D
Finn fans would prefer that the games are played in Latvia but not because of ticket prices. Cheap beer is the dealbreaker.
 
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Latvia is less likely to make it to medal games, thats why Finland got them.
Also capacity.

"For the hosting of the WM, the capacity of the main arena must be 10,000 seats at absolute minimum with one secondary arena with a capacity of 6,000 seats at minimum. However, a minimum capacity of 12,000 and 8,000 seats respectively is recommendet to compensate for seats taken by additional installations (e.g. camera platforms, product placement) and free ticket allocations to"

http://wiki.iihf.com/2015tlbx/9. Event Regulations & Guidelines/2015 IIHF Bid Regulations.pdf
 
Also capacity.

"For the hosting of the WM, the capacity of the main arena must be 10,000 seats at absolute minimum with one secondary arena with a capacity of 6,000 seats at minimum. However, a minimum capacity of 12,000 and 8,000 seats respectively is recommendet to compensate for seats taken by additional installations (e.g. camera platforms, product placement) and free ticket allocations to"

http://wiki.iihf.com/2015tlbx/9. Event Regulations & Guidelines/2015 IIHF Bid Regulations.pdf
Arena Riga has 10 500 seats, so thats not a problem. Latvia hosted 2006 WHC solely. So the reason is indeed the unlikelyhood of making it far in to the playoffs.
 
As a Latvian, that would be very cool to see. It was quite painful after 15 years to finally await WC 2021 returning to Riga, yet have no chance of getting to see the games live. Moreover, there was no upside of organising the event, just costs. I feel that we deserve this.

Latvian live ice hockey fans are some of the best in the world, if not the best. At least that's how it was some years ago, so yeah it's deserved for the live audience.

I know it might be boring to have the tournament in the same country in back to back years but I don't mind. Finland could use the tourism. Also, it would be cool to share the tournament with Latvia. They did a fine job last year and didn't get to have audience. Next year they would get tourists and it would be nice to have the finals in Latvia.

Canada gets triple back to back U20 tournaments and stuff so it's completely fine that Finland gets to host it twice in a row. These are some of the hockey meccas now anyways.
 
Looking at the list of hosts, it looks like Canada doesn't even apply to ever host this tournament lol. Just 2008 Halifax-Québec City and that was it.

Well you Canadians get more than enough of U20 hosting. I think that IIHF treat WHC & U20 about the same when handing out hosting priviledges. What I mean by that is that they sort of put all the hosting rights of WHC & U20 in the same bag and then split them evenly but remembering what the host country wants to host. In Canada's case it's only U20 and same for USA.

Of course for WHC the main focus has always been Europe, because I believe that's the main area that the main sponsors of WHC (Skoda etc) are mostly interested of.
 
FIN and CAN won't be in the same group (yearly finalists obv will be not be in the same group 2023 as well) - so I think canadian fans can now already be sure that their round robin games will be in Riga. You'll get that cheaper vacation ;)

By this rate CAN & FIN will never be in the same group. They're in every single final now.
 
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By this rate CAN & FIN will never be in the same group. They're in every single final now.
Yeah, but it is what it is. These 2 dominate international championships, world ranking and deserve to be seeded #1 / #2

If it goes on for another 5-6 years, the IIHF probably has to change the conception.
 
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Well you Canadians get more than enough of U20 hosting. I think that IIHF treat WHC & U20 about the same when handing out hosting priviledges. What I mean by that is that they sort of put all the hosting rights of WHC & U20 in the same bag and then split them evenly but remembering what the host country wants to host. In Canada's case it's only U20 and same for USA.

Of course for WHC the main focus has always been Europe, because I believe that's the main area that the main sponsors of WHC (Skoda etc) are mostly interested of.
I believe Canada has a contract where its said that they host a WJC tournament every two years. Its just a massive tournament for Canadians and the interest is highest there so they can host.

They are just now getting extra tournaments on top of that as well.
 
Is it the first time all European fans will be hoping their team plays in a specific group? Previously, Germany co-hosted with France, Sweden with Finland, and Latvia was supposed to co-host with Belarus. All countries with simillar prices.
Riga and Tampere appear to have signifficant gap in prices. Finns themselves would probably like their team to play in Riga :D
I hate the Paris games--how pissed off am I? I was pissed when the french got promoted due to Russia and Belarus got tossed--that is how pissed I am at how bad the game were handled in Paris. Paris did nothing to promote the games and to make the games special--it was a pure money grab

I want riga only because I have been to both places and I had more fun in Latvia
 
I believe Canada has a contract where its said that they host a WJC tournament every two years. Its just a massive tournament for Canadians and the interest is highest there so they can host.

They are just now getting extra tournaments on top of that as well.

It's quite massive tournament for Finland too, but let Canada host some extra U20 tournaments because usually Canada is a good host (exlucding the previous tournament) and they don't take any of those WHC tournaments that are more important for Europeans & Finns.
 
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The tournament has little by little slipped later and later. When Finland won in 1995 the final was on May 7th. These days on that date the tournament hasn't even started.
 
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It's quite massive tournament for Finland too, but let Canada host some extra U20 tournaments because usually Canada is a good host (exlucding the previous tournament) and they don't take any of those WHC tournaments that are more important for Europeans & Finns.
I think the interest in the U20 championship is the greatest in Canada. so they deservingly host them a lot. No European country would generate such an interest in the game played by kids. Apperantely Canadians just love to watch the recently drafted future stars? And then they mostly dont care about the adult championship, in which their team consists of guys who did not make the NHL playoffs.
The availability of arenas may also be a factor why Canada and USA dont host the WHC. It needs to be dicided a few years in advance, so you never know whether the city will be hosting an NHL playoff game at this point.
 
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I think the interest in the U20 championship is the greatest in Canada. so they deservingly host them a lot. No European country would generate such an interest in the game played by kids. Apperantely Canadians just love to watch the recently drafted future stars? And then they mostly dont care about the adult championship, in which their team consists of guys who did not make the NHL playoffs.
The availability of arenas may also be a factor why Canada and USA dont host the WHC. It needs to be dicided a few years in advance, so you never know whether the city will be hosting an NHL playoff game at this point.
The 2016 tournament in Finland was great.. but in Canada even if Canada isn't playing the interest is quite high, thats also why they can host snd thats the difference between Finland. I don't think no one would watch kids play if Finland doesn't do well.
 
[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]Group A (Tampere)
  • 23px-Flag_of_Finland.svg.png
    Finland (1)
  • 23px-Flag_of_Sweden.svg.png
    Sweden (4)
  • 23px-Flag_of_the_Czech_Republic.svg.png
    Czechia (5)
  • 23px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png
    Germany (8)
  • 20px-Flag_of_Denmark.svg.png
    Denmark (9)
  • 23px-Flag_of_France.svg.png
    France (12)
  • 23px-Flag_of_Austria.svg.png
    Austria (13)
  • 23px-Flag_of_Hungary.svg.png
    Hungary (19)
[/TD]

[TD]Group B (Riga)
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


There is already speculation that they may swap either Canada and US for Sweden. ---This happens sometimes because of serveral reasons--why reason is because Swedes travel in large groups to these games.

In group A--teams that usually have a large fan following are; Finland, Sweden, Czechia, Germany and Hungary(yes--Hungarians usually come out en masse for the games_)US does not have as many as Canada--lots of us go every year and that is why I would not be shocked to see Sweden/US swapped
 
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Yeah, but it is what it is. These 2 dominate international championships, world ranking and deserve to be seeded #1 / #2

If it goes on for another 5-6 years, the IIHF probably has to change the conception.
If Switzerland had won QF, Finland and Canada would have met in SF.
 
There is already speculation that they may swap either Canada and US for Sweden. ---This happens sometimes because of serveral reasons--why reason is because Swedes travel in large groups to these games.
Latvia might want to hold on to Canada - we have a thousand Canadian military personnel stationed here. Other than that, yeah, seems that Tampere group has all the nations with the better fan following.
 
Latvia might want to hold on to Canada - we have a thousand Canadian military personnel stationed here. Other than that, yeah, seems that Tampere group has all the nations with the better fan following.
US is my guess as well--but it may not be decided for a few weeks--I am told by some of my latvian buddies that 3 fan zones in the works--they just got to work on some legistics
 
Would like to see them try to grow interest. Host it in the UK, Italy or Germany for a change
 
Would like to see them try to grow interest. Host it in the UK, Italy or Germany for a change
reportedly, here in the UK at least, if Team GB had stayed up they would have qualified to host next year but by getting relegated they lost that option. a few tweeter and fan feeds had Nottingham and Sheifield being host cities--pure speculation

and I believe co hosted with Paris and did a bang up job
 

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