Source: Toronto’s Air Canada Centre likely to host World Cup of Hockey in 2016
TORONTO – Toronto will likely be the site of the World Cup of Hockey when it returns in September 2016.
Talks are ongoing to finalize plans for the international tournament, but a source tells The Canadian Press that Air Canada Centre in Toronto is expected to be chosen as the host venue.
Speaking prior to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final in Los Angeles, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said he wasn’t ready to make an announcement about the World Cup but that the league was discussing it with the NHL Players’ Association.
The last World Cup was in 2004 split between seven sites throughout North America and Europe with Canada winning gold against Finland in the final held in Toronto.
Bettman says a World Cup wouldn’t necessarily replace the NHL’s future Olympic participation. He added that the league has not had any “substantive discussions” about going back to the Olympics in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The World Cup was originally considered a possibility for September 2015, but talks have gone on so long that 2016 is the new target.
Toronto will host the NBA all-star game in 2016 and reportedly will also be home to the 2017 Winter Classic.
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