If all goes according to plan, the City of Hamilton will host the 2031/2032 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Hockey Championships.
At last week’s General Issues Committee, city staff presented a plan to Council that would see the City of Hamilton host the 10-day hockey tournament, which takes place annually over the Christmas holidays.
The committee voted unanimously to have staff bid for the city to host the tournament.
Although the decision still has to be ratified this week at City Council, the unanimous vote signals that the plan will likely pass there as well.
The event requires a two-host city model, so the city’s application would require support from a partner municipality.
Staff were directed to seek financial contributions from the Hamilton Tourism Development Corporation, senior levels of government, a partner municipality and other third-party sources to support the plan to host.
The Hamilton Tourism Development Corporation is a non-profit corporation run by the City of Hamilton that receives funding from the Municipal Accommodation Tax (MAT), which is utilized to support tourism-related initiatives.
The Municipal Accommodation Tax is a mandatory four per cent fee charged on overnight stays of 29 consecutive days or less across hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, and short-term rentals such as AirBnbs within the city.
Staff say that if the funding is not able to be secured from the above sources then a bid submission “would not proceed,” since they want to ensure that hosting would have no financial impact on the municipal property tax levy.
Based on discussions with Hockey Canada, staff say that hosting the tournament would require approximately $6 million in funding.
The 2025 tournament in Ottawa received $4 million in support from the Province of Ontario and $2 million from municipal and private sector sources.
The hockey tournament is one of the world’s premier sporting events and features the ten highest-ranked under-20 national teams.
Staff say that the event has the potential to attract hundreds of thousands of spectators, generate “significant” economic benefits, and international exposure.
Previous tournaments hosted in Canada have resulted in economic impacts approaching $80 million.
The report from staff also asked Council for permission to host a major national sport tourism industry convention.
Details for that plan were only available to councillors since the successful bid for the convention has not yet been publicly announced.
Staff say that hosting a sport tourism convention “provides opportunities to showcase Hamilton to event rights holders and strengthen the city’s ability to attract future events.”
The city has already hosted several major national and international events in recent years, including the 2026 JUNO Awards, the 2021 and 2023 Grey Cup and Grey Cup Festival, the 2024 RBC Canadian Open, the 2022 NHL Heritage Classic, and a Canadian World Cup Qualification match in January 2022.
The World Junior Hockey Championships were last hosted by Hamilton in 1986, with Copps Coliseum as the main venue.
The City of Hamilton also submitted a joint bid with Kitchener to host the tournament in 2003, but lost out to Halifax.
At the committee, City of Hamilton staff also explained that they are “continually” evaluating opportunities to attract major events and industry gatherings “as part of ongoing efforts to grow Hamilton’s visitor economy and leverage recent investments in TD Coliseum, Hamilton Convention Centre and other tourism infrastructure.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
