Regina, Saskatoon councils to consider joint bid to host 2023 world juniors

City councils in Regina and Saskatoon will hold special meetings at 8:30 a.m. CST Friday to consider a proposal  to host the 2023 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships.

The cities are being asked to contribute up to $350,000 each to support the bid.

Tourism Saskatoon and Tourism Regina are collaborating with SaskTel Centre, The Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) Centre, Saskatoon Destination Marketing Hotels and the Regina Hotel Association for the submission to host the event.

Russia lost its hosting rights due to its invasion of Ukraine.

The funding from Regina would come from the Events, Conventions and Tradeshows (ECT) attraction budget and a withdrawal from the ECT Reserve as needed.

They say hosting it could mean a $50 million jolt to the province's economy.

Teams would begin arriving for the championship around the middle of December this year with the gold medal game being played in early January.

The Group A pool of teams, including Team Canada, would play their round robin games in Saskatoon.

That city would also host the medal rounds of the championship game.

Regina would host the pre-tournament Team Canada games and the Group B pool of teams during the round robin portion of the tournament.

That is the same format when the two cities last co-hosted the world junior's in 2010.

For that event the Government of Saskatchewan contributed $3 million, the City of Saskatoon $500,000  and the City of Regina $250,000

The submission to Regina city council says the tournament could have a $50-million economic impact for the province, including tickets to games, hotel stays with an anticipated 20,000 out-of-town visitors.

The deadline to submit their bids to Hockey Canada is April 4.

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