USA Hockey will announce its selection to host the 2018 world junior championships on Friday and it’s apparent they haven’t chosen St. Louis.
The group announced on Thursday morning that it would make an unspecified “major announcement” on Friday – at Ralph Wilson Stadium in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park. USA Hockey had already indicated that a decision on the site for the juniors would be announced this week.
Buffalo was considered the strongest candidate among the three finalists, over St. Louis and Pittsburgh, in large part because of its proximity to Canada, where the event is extremely popular. While USA Hockey officials were impresseed on their visit to St. Louis by the proposed facilities, Scottrade Center and the Family Arena in St. Charles, the sure-fire ability to sell tickets in Buffalo, which already hosted the 2011 event, was apparently too much to turn down. Also, according to reports, Buffalo is prepared to put on an outdoor game, most likely between the United States and Canada, at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills, though that can’t be set in stone until the groups are set for the tournament. The fact that the announcement on Friday is at Ralph Wilson Stadium, rather than First Niagara Center, home of the Sabres, would tend to support those reports.
St. Louis Blues CEO Chris Zimmerman issued a statement about the decision:
”On behalf of the St. Louis Blues and in conjunction with the St. Louis Sports Commission, I would like to personally thank everyone involved in our bid to host the 2018 World Junior Championships in St. Louis. Although we have fallen short in our goal to bring this world class event to the Heartland of Hockey, we have succeeded in creating a lasting and profoundly positive impression with USA Hockey that will reap rewards in the future.
“We are immensely proud of the teamwork, talent and passion that was displayed in this effort by the staff of the St. Louis Blues, the staff of the St. Louis Sports Commission, our local hospitality and corporate partners as well as our civic leaders and friends.”
The tournament is held in Canada in odd-numbered years and then rotates between Europe and the United States in even-numbered years. So the next time St. Louis could try to host the event would be 2022.
If USA Hockey had chosen St. Louis, it would have been the farthest south the event had been held. Previous tournaments in the United States, in addition to Buffalo, had been in North Dakota, Boston, Alaska and Minneapolis.
