Brockville, eastern Ontario cities to host teams ahead of World Junior Hockey Championship

The Brockville Memorial Civic Centre, where a 2025 World Junior exhibition game will be held. October 15, 2024. (Jack Richardson/CTV News Ottawa).

A Canadian holiday tradition is coming to Brockville, Ont. 

This winter, the World Junior Hockey Championship will take place in Ottawa. Ten teams, including Team Canada, will start competing on Dec. 26, but they’ll hold practices and exhibition games in the weeks leading up to the tournament to select their final rosters. 

Earlier this year, Hockey Canada started accepting applications from municipalities within a two-hour drive of the nation’s capital to host a team for its training camp.

On Wednesday, the organization announced that Brockville had one of the successful bids and will host Team Switzerland.

"Tremendous excitement in the community, we just can't wait," Brockville Mayor Matt Wren told CTV News.

The team will practice at the Brockville Memorial Civic Centre, and on December 20 the venue will have an exhibition game featuring Switzerland and Czechia.

The bid cost the city $25,000 to cover food and hotel rooms for Team Switzerland, but Brockville city council unanimously approved it.

“We think it's a tremendous investment,” Wren explained. “Having a team based here will go a long way to getting people to come to Brockville and enjoy the hockey, but also enjoy our community while they're here.”

The city has recently invested more in the tourism sector, and views the unique opportunity to host a team as a great way to supplement the industry during what is usually a slow time of year.

“They're all going to be staying in our hotels, checking out our restaurants, visiting our historic downtown,” said Lyndsay Bigley, the marketing officer with Brockville Tourism.

“It's so exciting that we're welcoming these international visitors and really showing off what Brockville is all about.”

Back when Ottawa hosted the WJC in 2009, Brockville was a host community for Team Latvia. Wren says that experience made signing up again a no-brainer.

“This place was absolutely packed for the exhibition game here,” he said. “You couldn't move in the building. It's such tremendous hockey. This is a hockey community through and through. It has been for decades.”

The Memorial Centre can hold just under 2,000 people. Ticket prices are still being decided, but Hockey Canada will receive 70 per cent of the revenue and the rest will go to the city.

The economic impact of the World Junior Hockey Championship for small communities was on full display two years ago.

Halifax and Moncton co-hosted the 2023 tournament. Moncton had team Canada for just two exhibition games at their Avenir Centre, but the New Brunswick government estimated that the province generated $20 million of economic activity over the course of the entire tournament due to visiting teams and their fans.

Eastern Ontario host cities for the World Junior Hockey Championship

• Arnprior: Latvia
• Belleville: Czechia and Sweden
• Brockville: Switzerland
• Carleton Place: Kazakhstan
• Cornwall: Finland and Slovakia
• Kingston: United States
• Ottawa: Canada and Germany

Exhibition games for the World Junior Hockey Championship

Dec. 19

• Switzerland vs. Canada – TD Place in Ottawa
• Kazakhstan vs. Germany – Nick Smith Centre in Arnprior

Dec. 20

• Latvia vs. Czechia – Memorial Civic Centre in Brockville
• Finland vs. Slovakia – Cornwall Civic Complex

Dec. 21

• Slovakia vs. United States – Slush Puppie Place in Kingston
• Sweden vs. Canada – TD Place
• Kazakhstan at Hawkesbury Sportsplex in Hawkesbury

Dec. 22

• Germany vs. Sweden at CAA Arena in Belleville
• United States vs. Finland – Cornwall Civic Complex
• Switzerland vs. Latvia at Nick Smith Centre
• Czechia vs. Canada at Canadian Tire Centre