First it was John Slaney, and then it was John Carlson, and now Saskatchewan could be the home to another famous moment at the World Junior Hockey Championships.
Regina and Saskatoon City Councils have been approached about a bid for the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championships.
Tourism Regina’s Chelsea Galloway says hosting the World Juniors would provide significant boost to the local economy especially coming off the pandemic. She noted the economic spinoff for the province hosting the event could be $50 million.
Whichever bid is selected to host the World Junior Hockey Championships will have little time to prepare with the games beginning in December. Russia was removed by the IIHF as the host for the tournament due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Galloway believes the short turnaround will be an advantage for Saskatchewan. “We’ve been able to show our ability to come together as a province really quickly and there is something we do really well.” Galloway added, “the benefit of being a smaller province is that we do all know each other, we all worked together very well.”
Saskatoon hosted the World Juniors in 1991, with Saskatoon and Regina co-hosting the event in 2010. Galloway says the province’s history of hosting the event should help their cause. ” When we hosted back in 2010, still one of the most successful World Junior events that have taken place in Canada.” Galloway also pointed out hockey is a strong passion in Saskatchewan as a strong selling point.
The City of Regina will be holding a special City Council meeting Friday morning to discuss the matter at 8:30.
