The IIHF rescheduled a pair of tournaments. The Women’s Under-18 World Championships and the World Junior Hockey Championships will be played this summer.
Two IIHF Tournaments Rescheduled
News here from @IIHFHockey: World Juniors will be re-played from start to finish in “middle of August in Alberta.” Women’s U18 Worlds to be in June “in the north of the USA.” https://t.co/Ghw5ddGPRT
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) February 17, 2022
IIHF president Luc Tardif announced that the World Junior Hockey Championship and the Women’s Under-18 World Championships have been scheduled to play in the summer. Both tournaments were cancelled in December due to COVID-19 concerns.
The World Juniors will resume in the middle of August in Alberta, while the Women’s Tournament will resume in June in “The North Of The USA” according to Tardif.
The games that took place in December will not count towards the summer tournaments, and these will be complete re-starts. The IIHF has said that any player eligible for the tournament prior to cancellation will remain eligible.
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What This Means For Both Tournaments
Alberta recently lifted restrictions. It makes sense for the IIHF to put the new tournaments in these locations. Canada already had the rights to host the World Juniors. Canada recently lifted restrictions. That timing could not have been better for the IIHF. Canada’s strict COVID-19 restrictions have been a source of controversy for the sports industry.
As for the women’s tournament, hosting it in the northern U.S. is ideal. They have little to no covid restrictions, which allows for easy entry. Moving the women’s tournament up a few months is helpful. Each tournament will have time to gain traction before the next gets underway. Each city will have additional time to sell tickets and promote the events. Every tournament draws in a different amount of attention from the media, but these two are some of the largest. The World Juniors, however, are one of the largest international tournaments in North America.
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