WJC: Future World Jr Locations

[Doshell Propivo]

I doubt they wouldn’t use the X if Minnesota gets it but in keeping with the theme of this being a tournament for “junior” arenas I’d love to see them use Mariucci and Amsoil or something

They will use all of the above. Confirmed.

I'm from Minnesota and am rooting for Vegas.

Vegas has been out of the picture. It was between Seattle and Mpls/St. Paul.

 

[hockey20000]

should give switzerlan or slovakia a chance to host one atleast....

 

[swissdude]

should give switzerlan or slovakia a chance to host one atleast....

I'm not so sure about switzerland it's an extremely expensive country which leads to less spectators from the other european countries and junior hockey doesn't have a very high status in switzerland so you can't expect a lot of local spectators. although if you would hold it in arenas with about 6k spectators it could work

 

[Ciao]

I wonder if Thunder Bay could host. Big enough city I think but it’s kind of a bad location. As far as I know it’s a huge hockey town.
Surprised no OHL team.

Or bring it to Saskatchewan. Saskatoon or Regina would be great places to host. Wonder if they’ve ever hosted?

The travel in and out of Thinder Bay would be prohibitive for a junior hockey team.

Most of those players attend high school in one way or another. They usually travel by bus, which is too long to even the nearest destinations.

 

[Albatros]

It seems like the IIHF usually tries to find where they can milk the (Canadian) paying public the most. Vegas might be an option just to try to bank on having a lot of tourist infrastructure available including flights and accommodations in bundles.

The IIHF receives a fixed organizing fee, any milking is done by Hockey Canada and fills first and foremost their own pockets. Likewise USA Hockey is financially responsible for their own tournament.

 

[Barrie22]

I wonder if Thunder Bay could host. Big enough city I think but it’s kind of a bad location. As far as I know it’s a huge hockey town.
Surprised no OHL team.

Or bring it to Saskatchewan. Saskatoon or Regina would be great places to host. Wonder if they’ve ever hosted?

110k is not big enough for the world jrs. They only have 1 big arena and it only holds 4600 people. Every other arena at best holds 500 or less.

 

[czechcanadian]

110k is not big enough for the world jrs. They only have 1 big arena and it only holds 4600 people. Every other arena at best holds 500 or less.

I know it’s more of a wish for the people of Thunder Bay.

 

[Barrie22]

I know it’s more of a wish for the people of Thunder Bay.

We don't deserve it lol

 

[alko]

should give switzerlan or slovakia a chance to host one atleast....

There is a crucial point to consider: Would they still be in top tier to the year, they should organize this?

IIHF goes for countries, they are a sure bet. Its hart to give a championship to Slovakia, when nobody knows, if in year 202X will be Slovakia still in Top level.

 

[swissdude]

There is a crucial point to consider: Would they still be in top tier to the year, they should organize this?

IIHF goes for countries, they are a sure bet. Its hart to give a championship to Slovakia, when nobody knows, if in year 202X will be Slovakia still in Top level.

this applies to switzerland to a much greater extent and perhaps for the sake of the world we should do without, hockey wcs in switzerland are usually canceled due to a global pandemic lol

 

[Kamzik]

There is a crucial point to consider: Would they still be in top tier to the year, they should organize this?

IIHF goes for countries, they are a sure bet. Its hart to give a championship to Slovakia, when nobody knows, if in year 202X will be Slovakia still in Top level.

This is Slovakia's 29th straght World Juniors U20, they've never been relegated. I think your argument is nonsense.

 

[badfish]

I wonder if Thunder Bay could host. Big enough city I think but it’s kind of a bad location. As far as I know it’s a huge hockey town.
Surprised no OHL team.

Or bring it to Saskatchewan. Saskatoon or Regina would be great places to host. Wonder if they’ve ever hosted?

I hope once in my lifetime they have a Northern Ontario World Juniors. The Soo has a decently relatively new arena and Sudbury is looking to build a new one. Maybe bring North Bay and Thunder Bay along for the ride too.

 

[Barrie22]

I hope once in my lifetime they have a Northern Ontario World Juniors. The Soo has a decently relatively new arena and Sudbury is looking to build a new one. Maybe bring North Bay and Thunder Bay along for the ride too.

There is no big enough arena to hold the world jrs outside of the nhl cities. Thunder bay holds 4600, Sudbury holds 4300, Sault holds 4500. Thos tickets would need to be 3k per ticket, per game just to break even.

 

[Macman]

Never had any desire to go to Vegas but I would if they got the WJC for the chance to experience warm weather hockey.

 

[EK47]

Just host one in europe every three years. How is the interest for Junior hockey in Germany? Its a big market, reasonably priced close to Czechia, Slovakia and Switzerland and a very manageable trip for swedes and finns.

 

[CanadaIsIrrelevant]

Would like to see WJC in
Norway
Denmark
Switzerland
Slovakia
Czechia
Latvia

And also extend to 12 teams.

Need to get more teams in top division.
Otherwise how are weaker nations ever going to learn to be better if they never face the better teams?

 

[Sanderson]

Just host one in europe every three years. How is the interest for Junior hockey in Germany? Its a big market, reasonably priced close to Czechia, Slovakia and Switzerland and a very manageable trip for swedes and finns.

Basically non-existant.

To most of Europe, juniors are just lesser variants of the men's tournament, and that applies to all sports. The real World Championships are already more of a side story when you look at sports as a whole, and are mostly interesting for hardcore hockey fans, unless you get the odd cindarella-run by Germany. The fanbase is large enough to host that tournament, but the World Juniors would be hard-pressed to find any sort of attendance.

Germany held the main under-18 tournament in 2022. It managed an average attendance of slightly above 1200 per game (granted, that's not really worse than the other U18 tournaments, but still). Group B didn't see a single game above 1000. And while the arenas were pretty small, they weren't so small that they were full either (around 4500 and 3100 capacity). Landshut saw 12 games, Kaufbeuren 8, only three games in Landshut and one game in Kaufbeuren made it above 50% capacity. You probably could expect a bit more for the U20s, but even filling those arenas would probably be tough even for the most interesting games.

If you are a constant contender for the title, e.g. like Sweden, you can see larger interest, but beyond that you can't expect much.

 

[Speyer]

Interest for Junior Hockey is practically non existant in Switzerland as well. While I think the home games would have really good attendance, I don't see many domestic fans attending any of the other games, even if its US vs. Canada for example. There is also the Spengler Cup competing for attendance as well. And that tournament is much bigger in Switzerland than the WJC, as dumb as it sounds. So I don't think Switzerland will be an option as host anytime soon.

 

[Nineteen67]

Ottawa has the largest WJC attendance for a single host city, they’ll do fine again.

Because it’s not an NHL city…….

 

[Nineteen67]

a couple great options for Minnesotans. Either stay home and watch it or go to Vegas for a few days after Xmas and play golf and watch best hockey tournament on the planet

I get your point, but every time I’ve been to Vegas in Dec/Jan the high is in the 50’s low 60’s….not great for golf.

 

[MuckOG]

Minnesota seems like a logical spot to host. Xcel Energy Center and Mariucci Arena are within a few miles of eack other. Plenty of hotels and bars in the area, Mall of America, too. International airport meaning quick and easy flights from anywhere in Canada. Lots of NCAA and Junior hockey played in the region. Also have a large number of Minnesotans with Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish heritage. Games will be well-attended

 

[Kuracmugger]

Interest for Junior Hockey is practically non existant in Switzerland as well. While I think the home games would have really good attendance, I don't see many domestic fans attending any of the other games, even if its US vs. Canada for example. There is also the Spengler Cup competing for attendance as well. And that tournament is much bigger in Switzerland than the WJC, as dumb as it sounds. So I don't think Switzerland will be an option as host anytime soon.

The Spengler cup is probably the biggest reason it wouldn‘t work because all „hockey tourists“ that could eventually go to the games but most likely won‘t because it‘s u20 and they don‘t think that this is relevant are all watching the spengler cup. I don‘t want to know the average attendance of the u18‘s last year but it would probably attract a pretty good amount of people if it was held in december in switzerland if it wasn‘t for the spengler cup.

 

[Canada4Gold]

I wonder if Thunder Bay could host. Big enough city I think but it’s kind of a bad location. As far as I know it’s a huge hockey town.
Surprised no OHL team.

Or bring it to Saskatchewan. Saskatoon or Regina would be great places to host. Wonder if they’ve ever hosted?

What about Duluth / Superior? Just a couple hours from Twin Cities and Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay/Duluth cross border tournament? Becoming more common with big sporting events having multiple countries host with the World Championships last year doing it. Canada plays in Thunder Bay. USA in Duluth. Then 1 of them does the SF/Finals. They're allowed to swap 1 pair of countries to make it work. No Canada/USA NYE game would be sad but that's been missed for a while by pure luck.

 

[MNRube]

Thunder Bay/Duluth cross border tournament? Becoming more common with big sporting events having multiple countries host with the World Championships last year doing it. Canada plays in Thunder Bay. USA in Duluth. Then 1 of them does the SF/Finals. They're allowed to swap 1 pair of countries to make it work. No Canada/USA NYE game would be sad but that's been missed for a while by pure luck.

Would be epic. The north shore is criminally underrated as a tourist destination and both Northern MN and Southern Ontario are historical hockey hotbeds.

If we can’t get the WJC there let’s do an outdoor game on the border. Wild vs Jets on a frozen Lake of the Woods

 

[baronsforever]

We don't deserve it lol

You are getting our MNR hockey tournament this spring. Low spectator expectation but your bars will be full.