By Greg Sakaki
An Ottawa dream team is quietly confident about its chances of hosting the 2003 International Ice Hockey Federation world junior hockey championship.
Ottawa 67’s owner Jeff Hunt has aligned himself with the Ottawa and District Hockey Association and the Corel Centre, and the group expects to present a sound bid to the selection committee by the end of November.
Ottawa is one of eight Canadian cities currently in the running to host the world juniors. The other bids will come from Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Mississauga, Hamilton/Kitchener, London and Halifax.
Since the last three Canadian host cities have been Winnipeg, Red Deer, Alta., and Saskatoon, Hunt says it’s time the event was held in Eastern Canada. He says Ottawa’s bid will be buoyed by the involvement of the 67’s and the Senators.
“I think with those organizations’ track records, it’s going to give our bid a lot of credibility. With all due respect to the other bids, I really think we should be considered a front-runner.”
ODHA president Ken Corbett says the interest in the 67’s and the Hull Olympiques will help the city’s bid.
“Fans here like junior hockey,” says Corbett. “Ottawa’s a very good hockey town and they support junior hockey extremely well around here.”
Junior hockey in the area will surely benefit if Ottawa is selected. The Canadian Hockey Association receives 50 per cent of the profits and the Canadian Hockey League gets 35 per cent. The remaining 15 per cent goes to the branch host, which in Ottawa’s case would be the ODHA. The 1999 tournament earned the Winnipeg group $340,000 and economic benefits to the city and the province of Manitoba were estimated to be over $11 million.
“It’s somewhat incumbent upon us to bring an event like this to Ottawa,” says Hunt. “It’s great exposure for junior hockey. We hope it will mean a lot of goodwill for the 67’s and for the Senators.”
Hunt says he hopes to have games in three or four different venues in the region, with the Corel Centre and the Civic Centre being the two primary arenas.
Corbett believes multiple venues is a good idea and points out Winnipeg’s success in playing several less-attractive round robins in Brandon, all of which sold out.
“If you had two games on a Tuesday, rather than playing one game at three o’clock at the Civic Centre, you’d be better off playing at seven o’clock at night in Cornwall,” says Corbett.
Arena facilities are just one of many factors that will be addressed in Ottawa’s application, which is due Dec. 1.
Each bidding group must detail a comprehensive business plan, looking at everything from hotel accommodations to medical facilities.
Hunt and Corbett say they’re confident they’ll be on the short list. When that happens, they say they’ll prepare to make a presentation before a selection committee comprised of CHA and CHL officials. The host city will be announced Dec. 31.
The championships will involve 10 national teams of players under 20.
In a perfect world, the Ottawa group envisions Canada in the gold medal game, but they feel they can still draw fans to a Slovakia-Kazakhstan final.
“I guess that’s going to be the tough part,” says Corbett. “Obviously we think we can do that or we wouldn’t gamble that we could.”
The games begin on Dec. 26, 2002