2019 world junior event shifts into high gear
A little more than a year from now, the top junior hockey players in the country will converge at Victoria’s Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre as the provincial capital will be home base for Team Canada’s pre-tournament training camp ahead of the 2019 World Junior Hockey Championship hosted by Vancouver and Victoria.
Former University of Victoria hockey player Tom Renney returned to his old stomping ground Thursday as CEO of Hockey Canada to make several announcements regarding the 2019 world juniors. The former Vancouver Canucks, New York Rangers and Edmonton Oilers head coach was in town to announce the beginning of public ticket sales for the event, which begins on Boxing Day, 2018, at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria and Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
Ticket sales start at 10 a.m. today at HockeyCanada.ca/Tickets and at the Memorial Centre box office.
The capital will host 14 games. They include 10 games in the pool that does not include Canada, and two quarter-finals. Canada will also play two pre-tournament games at the Memorial Centre.
Victoria being chosen as the training camp venue for the host Canadian team is a big deal, say organizers, with national sports media attention to be focused on the Island in the lead-up, pre-tournament phase because of that.
“We can tie into so many other things with add-on events [on the Island] because of the pre-tournament Canadian team camp being held in Victoria,” said Hockey B.C. CEO Barry Petrachenko of Victoria, co-chair of the 2019 world juniors, with Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo. “That’s big for Victoria.” Not even in the other main hockey playing nations is the annual world junior tournament taken with the same degree of passion and seriousness as it is in Canada. Whenever Canada hosts, a bang-up job of presentation is expected, and so the organizing committees in both Victoria and Vancouver are carrying a load of expectations on their shoulders.
“This is no small feat. The IIHF [International Ice Hockey Federation] understands no one does it better than Canada,” said Renney.
“We want to maintain the standard of what the world junior championship represents, off the ice, as well.”
Toronto and Montreal hosted the 2017 world juniors, however, amid concerns about poor attendance in Montreal. Much of that was attributed to the high ticket prices being charged in the two big markets.
“We overshot the runway in terms of ticket pricing,” said Renney.
The prices have been reduced for Victoria and Vancouver next year, added Renney, and more into the “junior hockey price range.”
Victoria organizers said the average ticket price will be $28.
According to Hockey Canada, regional economic impact studies of the 2015 world junior championship, also held in Toronto and Montreal, estimated the financial spin-off for the host communities was in excess of $80 million.
Meanwhile, the 2018 world junior tournament is being hosted by Buffalo, New York, and begins on Boxing Day.