Co-hosting Bids For Ice Hockey 2017 World Championships

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has announced it has received co-hosting bids from Germany-France and Denmark-Latvia for its 81st World Championship in 2017.

The IIHF opened up to a co-hosting strategy for the first time last year with Finland and Sweden staging the 2012 World Championship. The success of this event has led the IIHF to consider more co-hosting bids, with the winner of the race for the 2017 Championships set to be announced during the 2013 IIHF Congress in Stockholm.

Germany and France’s bid envisions Cologne as the primary venue, with the secondary venue located at the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy Arena in the French capital. Germany staged the 2010 Championship alone, when more than 77,000 fans watched the opening match in Gelsenkirchen at 1.Bundesliga football club Schalke 04’s Veltins Arena. France last staged the event in 1968 when that year’s Winter Olympics was classed as the World Championship for ice hockey.

“From our side, hosting the World Championship is a part of the development strategy for France,” said French Ice Hockey Federation general secretary Eric Ropert, according to IIHF.com. “We thought that we wouldn’t be able to do it alone, after all the last time we hosted the World Championship was in 1951. We have an excellent working relationship with Germany, and we can benefit from the experience that they had hosting the World Championship in 2010.”

For Denmark, the proposed main host for the Championship, the 2017 Worlds would be the single biggest sporting event that the country has ever hosted. The site for the games in Denmark will be the Copenhagen Arena, an under-development multi-use indoor arena in the capital city. Latvia, which hosted the 2006 Worlds, would stage matches at Arena Riga.

“Taking into account the successful organisation of the IIHF World Championship 2006 in Latvia I believe that it was a great experience for all participating nations, as well as all parties involved, such as organisers, teams, staff and guests,” said Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis. “With the experience the Latvian Hockey Federation gained during this event, we will be honoured to host the Championship in 2017 once again.”

Source: sportbusiness.com