Germany names bid venues
by Martin Merk|18 JAN 2023
German fans waving their flags and cheering on their team during the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
photo: Andre Ringuette / IIHF
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The German Ice Hockey Association (DEB) has submitted the documents for its 2027 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship bid.
 
In the national bidding process, four cities remain as applicants for the event. By the time of the 2023 IIHF Annual Congress, the German Ice Hockey Association will nominate the two applicant cities for its bid.
 
The four cities of Cologne, Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich are currently being evaluated according to different criteria including arena, infrastructure, economics and host city. These cities are located in the three largest states of Germany by population – North Rhine-Westphalia (approx. 17.5 million), Bavaria (12.5 million) and Baden-Wurttemberg (10.6 million).
 
“With the submission of the bid questionnaire we go another step into the direction of our big goal: hosting of the 2027 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Germany. We are extraordinarily happy to have existing, outstanding infrastructure with several modern arenas. The pre-selection of the venues has been made exclusively based on objective criteria. We are convinced to deliver the best-possible bid for Germany with the final selection of the two arenas. The awarding would be a great signal for our association and for the development of German ice hockey,” said DEB President Peter Merten.
 
Three of the four venues are existing venues that are currently used by their DEL teams; the Lanxess Arena in Cologne with a capacity for 18,230 in league games, the PSD Bank Dome in Dusseldorf with a capacity of 13,284 and the SAP Arena in Mannheim with a capacity for 13,200 fans. The 10,639-seat SAP Garden in Munich is currently under construction and expected to open in 2024 in the Olympic Park.
 
Germany has previously hosted the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in 1930 (Berlin), 1955 (Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Krefeld, Cologne), 1975 (Munich, Dusseldorf), 1983 (Munich, Dusseldorf, Dortmund), 1993 (Munich, Dortmund), 2001 (Hanover, Cologne, Nuremberg), 2010 (Cologne, Mannheim, Gelsenkirchen) and 2017 (Cologne, co-hosting with Paris).
 
“The next important step has been done. A big thank you from my side to all arenas and the World Championship project team. The last weeks and months have been very intense. Yet the race for the awarding is open. We will do our best because the World Championship would be a big chance for ice hockey and a milestone project for Germany,” said DEB General Secretary Claus Grobner.
 
Recently an IIHF delegation led by IIHF President Luc Tardif visited Germany to discuss the World Championship among other topics (see news).
 
Germany and Kazakhstan have entered the bid documents for the 2027 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Norway, which had originally announced its intention to run, recently withdrew its bid for 2027 but is considering applying for 2028.
 
Kazakhstan is bidding with the 11,400-seat Barys Arena in Astana and the 12,500-seat Almaty Arena in Almaty. The Barys Arena is home to KHL team, Barys Astana, and hosted the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A. At that event, the Kazakh team earned promotion to the top division and has stayed there ever since. The Almaty Arena was opened for the 2017 Winter Universiade and hosted the ice hockey tournaments of the multi-sport event.
 
Kazakhstan has never hosted a top-level IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship before. IIHF President Luc Tardif also visited Kazakhstan recently to discuss about the prospects of hosting a World Championship (see news).
 
The 2027 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will be awarded in May by the 2023 IIHF Annual Congress that will take place in Tampere, Finland during the last World Championship week.
 
The next editions of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship have been assigned to:
  • Tampere, Finland & Riga, Latvia, 12-28 May 2023
  • Prague & Ostrava, Czechia, 10-26 May 2024
  • Stockholm, Sweden & Herning, Denmark, 9-25 May 2025
  • Zurich & Fribourg, Switzerland, 15-31 May 2026