TSN’s Gord Miller reports that the IIHF has chosen the host countries for the next 14 IIHF World Junior Championships on Tuesday. The 2019 tournament will be held in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. The events up to 2021 were previously awarded but reiterated.
World Junior news, the IIHF has reportedly picked these host countries for the next 14 WJCs:
2019 Canada
2020 Czech Rep
2021 Canada
2022 Sweden
2023 Russia
2024 Canada
2025 USA
2026 Canada
2027 Finland
2028 Czech Rep
2029 Canada
2030 USA
2031 Russia
2032 Canada— Gord Miller 🌻🇺🇦 (@GMillerTSN) February 13, 2018
Canada to Host Five World Junior Champions
Canada was the big winner in Tuesday’s announcement as the nation will host five of the next 14 tournaments. The country loves the event and was rewarded for its fandom by receiving the most tourneys. Canada will host the event in 2019, 2021, 2024, 2026, 2029 and 2032.
The United States, Russia and the Czech Republic will each get to host the World Junior Championships twice during the span of 2019 until 2032. America will host in 2025 and 2030 and Russia will house the event in 2023 and 2031. The Czech will have the hosting honors in 2020 and 2028.
In addition to Canada’s love for the event, disappointing attendance numbers in Buffalo are the likely culprit why the U.S. is only getting two tournaments. The United States will have plenty of time to put the event in a place that might draw more fans. TSN’s Gord Miller even suggested the 2025 event be hosted by Las Vegas.
Just One for Sweden and Finland
Scandinavian countries Sweden and Finland will only have the tournament once during the 14-year stretch. It’s hard to make all the countries happy but, one would think they’d get to host as much as the other top four countries. Both are very good hockey nations and have done a good job hosting tournaments in the past.
The IIHF’s main goal is to try to draw fans and raise money. Hosting the event in Canada clearly checks off both boxes, but it would be nice to see the event spread out to countries like Slovakia, Switzerland and other emerging hockey nations.
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