There have been many rumours in recent months that the NHL is interested in resurrecting the World Cup of Hockey. The event is seen as an alternative to sending players to the Olympics – a best-on-best world tournament which doesn’t interfere with the NHL season. Now, it would appear that said rumours are very close to becoming reality. It’s been reported that the NHL and NHLPA have almost reached an agreement to stage the World Cup in September of 2016, in Toronto.
In the previous two World Cups – 1996 and 2004 – games have been split between multiple cities across North America and Europe. Both tournaments held their finals in North America; notably, Toronto hosted the 2004 final between Canada and Finland. However, it appears that the NHL is leaning towards having the tournament in just one city. There are reports that, in future, cities will be required to bid for the event, similarly to the IIHF World Championship. There have been suggestions that this would generate more revenue for the NHL, in addition to the money saved by only having one host city.
It’s unclear what the format of the tournament will be. The past tournaments have included only eight teams, however, due to the emergence of smaller hockey nations – such as Latvia and Switzerland – the organizers may be interested in expanding the World Cup to incorporate more teams. The World Cup will also, presumably, be once again played under NHL rules. If players from European leagues participate, we’ll likely see a reverse-Olympics effect, where they’ll have to adjust to the smaller ice surface.
Since the event will be held in Toronto – presumably the Air Canada Centre – fans can probably expect wallet-murdering ticket prices, if the prices for the 2015 World Juniors are any prediction.
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