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Pittsburgh named finalist for 2018 WJC

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MrBojangles4

Registered User
Jan 4, 2015
19
0
Pittsburgh, along with St. Louis, Buffalo, Chicago, and Tampa have been named finalists to host the 2018 tournament. The finalists will be narrowed down in about 60 days.

At first, I think Pittsburgh has a good chance at being selected as the host. I can't see USA Hockey putting the tournament in a city so far south as St. Louis let alone Tampa yet. Buffalo hosted the last tournament. Chicago could be a great selection however.

The host also must have a second arena to play in, so for those of you who are familiar with Pittsburgh, which rink other than Consol should get the nod?

Link:
http://www.usahockey.com/news_article/show/538080?referrer_id=1093254
Click to read more...
 
Pittsburgh would be a good host for the event for sure but got to think a Chicago bid would be the favorites.
 
Robert Morris plays at the island sports complex about 15 minutes from consol. Only 1,200 seats though so I'm not sure they'd use that.

Wheeling Nailers are about 1-1.25 hours away, they have about 5,500 seats. So it'll most likely be there.
 
St. Louis has Scottrade (19,000) and The Family Arena in St. Charles (10,000). There is also a developer wanting to build a 6,000 seat arena with an outside design looking like the Old St. Louis Arena. However, that needs to pass a few hurdles yet.
 
Also, St. Louis hosted the Frozen Four in 2007 and at that time it was the 2nd most attended Frozen Four behind only St. Paul. That tournament currently ranks 4th behind St. Paul (2x) and Detroit.
 
Chicago just announced development of a new arena a few days ago. That said Pittsburgh and Chicago almost seem destined to be the finalists, no disrespect to Tampa or St.Louis
 
Nothing negative intended about any of the US cities mentioned but I hate the idea of big cities hosting these events. Even in Canada I would rather see it in Red Deer than in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver etc. Junior hockey lives and flourishes in the smaller towns andcities and support junior hockey day in and day out. It means so much more there than getting lost in a big metropolis.
 
I hope it's Pittsburgh because I live here, but I have to wonder how well-attended the lesser countries' games will be. But I guess that tends to be an issue every year.

At least Pittsburgh is close enough to Canada that plenty of Canadians will commute down. And USA games will be well attended just because. And there are several nearby rinks so you could host multiple games plus practices simultaneously (Island Sports Complex, CEC, UPMC66, etc.)
 
@usahockey - Buffalo, Pittsburgh, St.Louis named as three finalists to host 2018 IIHF World Juniors -

Host Finalists Announced For 2018 World Juniors - USAHockey.com - Tuesday, September 15

USA Hockey announced today it has narrowed the candidate cities vying to host the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship to Buffalo, New York - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and St. Louis, Missouri. Officials from USA Hockey will visit each of the three finalist cities over the next month and a final decision on the host for the event is expected by the end of the year. In late July, USA Hockey announced Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Tampa as five finalists to host the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship.

“We look forward to this next step in our selection process,” said Mike Bertsch, assistant executive director of marketing, communications and events for USA Hockey. “It was extremely difficult to get down to three. All five of the cities we were considering made a compelling case.”

The IIHF World Junior Championship is an annual event that features 10 nations and the future stars of the NHL. It is conducted in late December/early January each year and includes the best male players in the world under the age of 20. All total, 31 games are played in the championship over a two-and-a-half week stretch with worldwide television coverage, including the NHL Network in the United States.

The IIHF World Junior Championship has been officially staged by the IIHF since 1977. USA Hockey has served as the host federation for the event on five occasions, including 1982 (Minneapolis/St. Paul), 1989 (Anchorage, Alaska), 1996 (Boston, Massachusetts), 2005 (Grand Forks, North Dakota/Thief River Falls, Minnesota) and 2011 (Buffalo, New York). The 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship will be staged in Helsinki, Finland, while the 2017 event will take place in Toronto and Montreal. USA Hockey will host the 2016 IIHF U18 Men's World Championship April 14-April 24 in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

http://worldjuniors.usahockey.com/news_article/show/554053?referrer_id=701370
 
@BNHarrington - New at [BN] Hockey - Full post with lots more info as Buffalo is named one of three finalists for 2018 World Juniors -

Buffalo Named One Of Three Finalists For 2018 World Junior Championships - Mike Harrington - BuffaloNews.com - Tuesday, September 15

Buffalo took a huge step to becoming a repeat host of the IIHF World Junior Championships today, with USA Hockey announcing the city is joining Pittsburgh and St. Louis as the finalists to stage the 2018 event. USA Hockey officials are slated to visit each of the finalist cities over the next month and a decision on the host is expected by the end of the year. Today's announcement eliminated Chicago and Tampa for consideration, and those two cities were actually considered by several observers to be Buffalo's chief competition to land the tournament.

Buffalo last hosted the event in 2011, with red-clad fans of Team Canada coming to town to fill First Niagara Center - as well as area bars and restaurants - to the tune of an estimated $5 million economic impact. Some games in that tournament were played in Dwyer Arena at Niagara University. Since then, of course, downtown Buffalo has boomed. Secondary games in 2018 would be played at HarborCenter and several new hotels and restaurants have cropped up near the arena, as has the CanalSide entertainment district.

Pittsburgh boasts the Penguins' downtown arena, Consol Energy Center, and just opened the UMPC Lemieux Sports Complex last month to house the Penguins' training facilities. It has two rinks that seat about 1,500 combined. (HarborCenter's main rink can squeeze 2,000 fans in). The Pittsburgh complex is located in the suburbs several miles from downtown. It's likely that would be the alternate rink for Pittsburgh bid, although there has been some rumors about going as far away as Erie, PA. The committee for the St. Louis bid includes former Blues legend Brett Hull who, of course, has a bit of a history in beating Buffalo. It will house the tournament at Scottrade Center downtown and the Family Arena, a 9,600-seat facility in St. Charles, MO, about 25 miles away.

http://sabres.buffalonews.com/2015/...inalists-for-2018-world-junior-championships/
 
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Island Sports Center is about 10 minutes from downtown and seats 1,200.

Wheeling has a 5,600 seat arena but it's about an hour from Pittsburgh.
 
I think it would be nice to bring it to what many consider a non traditional market, like St. Louis. Grow the game outside of normal hockey hotbeds.

I think St. Louis really get's overlooked, yet they are one of the top tv markets, for all hockey events, year in, year out.

And they have the facilities to accommodate too.
 
Overkamp said:
I think it would be nice to bring it to what many consider a non traditional market, like St. Louis. Grow the game outside of normal hockey hotbeds.

I think St. Louis really get's overlooked, yet they are one of the top tv markets, for all hockey events, year in, year out.

And they have the facilities to accommodate too.
Click to expand...

NOOOO!

Too far from me. :-)
 
Human Bean said:
Actually they did, Robert Morris University is in Pittsburgh and has an NCAA D1 team.
Click to expand...

And Buffalo has two (Canisius, Niagara University). I imagine the poster meant a more "name" university but I don't see the relevance in the first place.
 
I don't understand why NYC doesn't put in for this tournament. 5 NHL arenas in the area. Games could be spread out to not interfere with the Rangers, Isles, Devils schedule.
 
patnyrnyg said:
I don't understand why NYC doesn't put in for this tournament. 5 NHL arenas in the area. Games could be spread out to not interfere with the Rangers, Isles, Devils schedule.
Click to expand...

Logistics are too much. They probably could but it is better to have this other areas where youth hockey is more prevalent and/or to grow the game more.
 
Shrimper said:
Logistics are too much. They probably could but it is better to have this other areas where youth hockey is more prevalent and/or to grow the game more.
Click to expand...

NYC area youth hockey is a huge market to tap. 20-25m ppl in the NY metro area and not a whole lot of NHL players from the area. messier also involved with the kingsbridge armory hockey center which will prob be in a building stage by the time the 2018 world juniors comes around.
 
Shrimper said:
Logistics are too much. They probably could but it is better to have this other areas where youth hockey is more prevalent and/or to grow the game more.
Click to expand...

While youth hockey is not big within the city itself, in the suburbs (LI, North/Central Jersey, Southern NY, Connecticut), it is pretty big.
 
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