Thread by @GMillerTSN

This decision by @IIHFHockey to cancel six January tournaments (four women’s U18 and two men’s U20) has caused some outrage, which is understandable. What follows is a detailed (and unfortunately long-winded) explanation of how things have unfolded and how tournaments are run.

https://twitter.com/iihfhockey/status/1474395225397215236

While @IIHFHockey provides logistic, organizing and staff support, the bulk of the costs of hosting and running an international tournament are borne by the host federation. This season, more than thirty tournaments are scheduled in various divisions for men and women.

In January of 2021, the four Women’s U18 tournaments were cancelled, but the top level men’s U18 was played in April (the lower division tournaments were cancelled). Why? @usahockey was the host federation for the MU18 and agreed to underwrite the cost of bubbling and testing.

This year’s WU18 tournaments were again scheduled for Sweden, Hungary, Austria and Turkey, while the MU20 tournaments were to be played in Serbia and Mexico. None of those federations could pay the additional costs, which run from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

In addition the @IIHFHockey Medical panel determined this week that with the new wave of the pandemic spreading as it is, having players and officials travel internationally wasn’t something that could be safely undertaken in January, given the fast spread of the latest variant.

So why are the #WorldJuniors going ahead? Most of the teams arrived in Alberta and went into quarantine in early December, and are still in lockdown while being tested daily. The deadline for entering the bubble was December 15 which was just as the new variant started spreading.

This year’s tournament is being run jointly by @HockeyCanada and the Edmonton Oilers, who are responsible for the costs of running the event, including the bubbling of the hotels, added security and testing the players daily for nearly a month.

So why doesn’t the @IIHFHockey pay for the tournaments? Simply put, it doesn’t have the money. The revenue generated by the two biggest tournaments, the Men’s Worlds and World Junior, cover the costs of supporting and staffing all the other tournaments.

That’s why the cost of hosting tournaments is paid by the national federations, and beyond @HockeyCanada and @usahockey, most of them don’t have the resources to take on the cost of hosting a “bubbled” international tournament. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a matter of economics.