Just over seven months after the Canadian Hockey League failed to accept its nomination to present its next Anniversary Cup tournament, Quebec City suffered another rejection Thursday, while Canadian Hockey League preferred the cities of Halifax and Moncton to present the 2023 World Junior Hockey Championship.
Quebec submitted its candidacy jointly with the city of Trois-Rivieres. The city of Ottawa was in addition to joint bids from Regina and Saskatoon as well as London and Kitchener in competition.
“Disappointed”
Martin Tremblay, chief operating officer of Quebec Sports and Leisure Group, declined to be interviewed on the matter, preferring to respond via a press release.
“We are obviously disappointed that our bid was not selected to host the 2023 World Junior Championships and we are very proud of the quality of our proposal. We thank the partners who have worked closely with us, namely the Government of Quebec, Quebec City, Trois-Rivieres City and Trois-Rivieres Lions Organization. We wish both cities the best of luck. selected, Halifax and Moncton, to hold the tournament.”
A meeting between Sports and Entertainment Group and Hockey Canada is scheduled for next week to find out what has turned the balance against them.
The news started spreading in the morning. Updated in the middle of a press meeting on the sidelines of an announcement in the Saint-Sauveur region, the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, also expressed his disappointment.
“For us, it’s a disappointment. I think with Trois-Rivieres, we got a great nomination [et] hockey fans [pour] A world championship that would have been really appreciated and popular and which would have had extraordinary benefits, both for the province of Quebec and more broadly. I was disappointed,” his reaction was warm.
Another rejection
This is the fourth time in 30 years that Quebecers have been told not to participate in the Junior World Championships, after 1995, 2006 and 2009.
In 2016, Quebec also considered the possibility of submitting its nomination for the 2019 event, but declined to do so because everything indicated that Hockey Canada wanted to present the championship in the West. In the end, Vancouver and Victoria were selected. At the time, Quebec Remparts president Jacques Tangway confirmed that Quebec was focused on trying to host the 2021 World Junior Championships.
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