Off the World Junior waiting list

The city of North Bay has asked Hockey Canada to take it off the World Junior Pre-Competition Camp waiting list and return the cities $30,000.00 cheque.

On Friday, City Councillor Mike Anthony, who was the named the World Junior Pre-Competition Camp Co-Chair along with Hockeyville committee organizer Debbie Marson, informed Hockey Canada that his committee would not have enough time to coordinate sponsorship and ticket sales as a way to recoup the $30,000.00 price tag as a World Junior Camp host.

In February, Hockey Canada informed the North Bay committee that they were not selected as one of the nine locations to host a World Junior Pre-Competition Camp in the city next December. However, Hockey Canada created a waiting list in case one of the nine chosen communities could not meet the camp requirements.

Anthony says Hockey Canada was supposed to solidify that in late March or early April.

“They just dragged their feet too long,” Anthony said about the process.

The city put in the submission back in the fall and Anthony was very confident North Bay would be selected as a host site since only 12 submissions were made to Hockey Canada.

At the time, North Bay seemed like an obvious choice after the city was successfully named Hockeyville in 2007 and proved it could be more than capable in hosting a world class hockey event when the Atlanta Thrashers and New York Islanders played the Hockeyville pre-season game here on September 17th.

The week-long camp would have seen an international team come to North Bay for a week long training camp and at least one exhibition game.

Ottawa is hosting the 2009 World Junior Tournament and Team Canada will hold its camp nearby in Petawawa