REGINA - Count those at Regina City Hall as among those looking forward to bidding for the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championship.
At Regina’s Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday, council voted unanimously in support of co-hosting with Saskatoon the 2025 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship with a total contribution of $400,000.
The next step now is for this recommendation to go to the full council meeting for approval April 26. The support is subject to conditions, one of which includes confirmation of funding by other organizations including the City of Saskatoon and Tourism Saskatchewan.
Saskatoon’s contribution would be $500,000 and Regina Hotel Association is putting in $100,000. The indication is the province will be asked to contribute as well.
Both Saskatoon and Regina are mounting a joint bid for the 2025 World Juniors just months after what was an unsuccessful bid to host the 2023 World Juniors after Russia was stripped of that event due to its invasion of Ukraine. The 2023 event ultimately was awarded to Halifax and Moncton.
At their meeting Wednesday, council members heard from REAL District CEO Tim Reid who spoke on behalf of the bid. He said the reason why Saskatchewan had lost the 2023 bid was because New Brunswick and Nova Scotia had put in a bid of $6 million. The Regina-Saskatoon bid had come in at $4.8 million. Reid indicated they will need to put in a $6 million bid just to have a chance this time.
As for the economic impact, Reid noted that from the 2023 World Juniors, New Brunswick realized a $50 million economic impact, and over 15,000 hotel rooms were provided between the cities of Halifax and Moncton.
The last time Saskatoon and Regina hosted the World Juniors was 2010, and Reid told council that event had seen an $86 million economic impact with 302,000 fans participating.
Reid made the point this was a great opportunity to promote the city and province, pointing in particular to New Brunswick’s extensive promotional efforts during the 2023 tournament.
“They recognized that 120 million were watching,” said Reid.
As for 2025, Reid explained what Regina’s role would be as co-host of the World Junior games if their bid wins out.
For the tournament the plan is for Saskatoon to host the A Pool games including the marquee matchups with Team Canada and the playoffs including the Gold Medal. Regina would host B pool games involving the other countries in the tournament.
The reason why Saskatoon would get the A pool and playoff games is due to seating capacity, indicated Reid. SaskTel Centre has a capacity of around 15,000 seats while Brandt Centre is around 6,000.
There will also be several exhibition games leading up to the tournament. Because Saskatoon would host A Pool games, Reid told Executive Committee that they were “fairly forceful” in pushing for most of the 10 pre-tournament games to be in Regina.
The plan is for the A pool teams including Team Canada to be among those involved in those Regina pre-tournament games.
“Yes, they’re probably not the premium games but it does mean our community, and frankly those who don’t want to travel to Saskatoon will have a chance to see the A pool teams in exhibition play,” said Reid.
The elephant in the room — whether Regina would be in a better position to make a bid or to host A pool games if a new arena with bigger seating was built - was raised by Councillor Bob Hawkins.
Reid acknowledged the “without question the reason we are getting the B pool is because we don’t have enough seats. Reality of it is both Regina and Saskatoon have aged buildings. This basically comes down to the number of seats and the number of ticket issues.”
In general councillors were enthusiastic about the idea of hosting World Juniors games. Councillor Lori Bresciani pointed to the recent “excitement around this whole city and at a national level” over Connor Bedard with the Regina Pats.
“I think this is, again, well worth it. I don’t think we’ll see this again for a long while but if this is an opportunity we can embrace that and hopefully we can receive the bid here,” Bresciani said.
The Executive Committee vote carried unanimously 9-0, which sends the recommendation on hosting the World Juniors to council for final approval on April 26.
In speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mayor Sandra Masters was optimistic about the prospects of a Saskatchewan bid.
“I think it’s really positive that Saskatchewan was listed as one of the locations of the three that Hockey Canada was targeting for the 2025 World Juniors. We’re feeling pretty good about that. I think that when we’re asked to bid, we always produce a competitive one. Ultimately it’s up to Hockey Canada, but in terms of what it would mean for the city, it’s been a long time since we hosted one. We think we’re due.”
As for the potential to host Pool B games, “we believe that, regardless of the pool we host during the tournament, it will be incredible international hockey, and we know we are a great host city with incredible volunteers. People always have a wonderful time when they come and attend events in our city.”
