REGINA - The City of Regina is now officially on board with a joint bid with Saskatoon for the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championships.
Council voted unanimously in favor of the bid at their Wednesday meeting. The one change made was to change the reference in the resolution from “Experience Regina” to “Tourism Regina,” reflecting the recent name change back to the original branding.
Regina has committed to support the bid in the amount of $400,000 from their annual convention and trade show budget.
Last week, the City of Saskatoon also voted in favor of supporting the bid to the tune of $500,000.
If the bid is successful, Saskatoon would host tournament games with Team Canada, Pool A and the playoffs/medal rounds, while Regina would host Pool B and the bulk of the pretournament games including ones with Team Canada.
The final decision from council follows extensive discussions at Executive Committee two weeks earlier, where council members had also voted in favor of the bid.
In speaking to reporters following Wednesday’s meeting, Councillor Jason Mancinelli, who chaired the meeting while Mayor Sandra Masters appeared virtually, was optimistic this bid will be successful after losing out on the 2023 bid to Halifax and Moncton.
“I’d like to think when you fail at something there’s always a couple of lessons you can learn from and pick up on, and I think with this submission between Regina and Saskatoon that that’s exactly what’s happened.”
He expects a major boost in terms of economic impact to the city and province, with estimates of upwards of $50 million. “When you really stop to think of all the people coming through, meals eaten, time spent, attractions we have, shopping, it’s kind of hard not to think that many people through would spend that kind of money.”
