Cologne, January 25, 2017 – There are now only 100 days until the first face-off of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (5 - 21 May in Cologne and Paris). This also marks the beginning of the hot phase of preparations for the German-French organizing team. For the first time, an IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship was awarded in May 2013 by delegates from over 70 member countries at the congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation IIHF based on the joint application of two nations, namely Germany and France. At the time, Germany and France narrowly prevailed against another co-application from Denmark and Latvia with a convincing application presentation. The venues for the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship are Cologne with the "LANXESS arena" (18.500 seats) and Paris with the "Palais Omnisport Paris Bercy", which was completely modernized not least because of the IIHF World Championship and is now the "AccorHotels Arena" (14.500 seats). With around 900.000 seats for 64 games, both arenas offer the largest net spectator capacity in the history of IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. The organizers' stated goal is 600.000 spectators. The motto of the 2017 IIHF World Championship is "Together for 2017" (in France "Ensemble pour 2017"). The host cities of Cologne and Paris are connected by the Thalys high-speed train, which takes just 3 hours 14 minutes to complete the journey.
Franz Reindl, President of the German Ice Hockey Federation and the World Cup Organising Committee, sets out the plan for the remaining 100 days: "Now we need to put together the countless organisational puzzle pieces that we have been putting together and sorting in countless small and large steps since 2012 to form an overall picture by May 5th. We are right on schedule and are working excellently with the arenas, cities and regions in Cologne and Paris. With the IIHF and its marketing and media licensing partner Infront, one element has long since meshed with another. Fans, teams, officials, media and guests will find excellent conditions and warm German-French hospitality at our unique two-nation project."
In the course of the preparations, around 140 individual agreements relevant to the organization have now been concluded, from hosting and arena contracts to hotel bookings for around 13.000 overnight stays, marketing and sales cooperations, service provider orders and personnel contracts. To date, the German-French World Cup organizing committee has grown to over 50 people and works under the leadership of OK President Franz Reindl, OK Vice President Luc Tardif and the two general secretaries Eric Ropert and Henner Ziegfeld in all areas such as sports technology, hotel management and media organization , marketing and communication, administration, law, logistics, security, protocol, ceremonies and much more across countries. The regular exchange between Germany and France on the respective organizational status takes place via weekly OK meetings, which are usually held via video conference. There are also regular on-site visits or video conferences with the IIHF World Federation based in Switzerland and its partner Infront.
The World Cup organizers have achieved a special coup with the official World Cup mascots. The world-famous comic stars Asterix and Obelix will ensure fun and joy for young and old during the 64 World Cup games and will soon be promoting the tournament in person in the run-up to the 81st IIHF World Championship. No less spectacular, ice hockey is currently being played on the Eiffel Tower in Paris until February 19, 2017 as part of a huge World Cup promotion. Further big and small PR surprises will follow before the start of the World Cup.
They also have the World Cup atmosphere Fans World Cup Secretary General Henner Ziegfeld: “Our unmistakable barometer of the anticipation of the Fans is the enormous demand for tickets. We are currently selling day tickets and there is no other way to put it: the tickets are selling like hot cakes." Tickets for the opening match day on May 5th with Germany-USA and for May 8th with Germany-Russia are already sold out. For May 13th with Germany-Italy there are only around 1.000 tickets left in some categories and for May 6th with Germany-Sweden there are only around 2.400 tickets left. This means that demand is increasingly shifting to the German team's important group match days with games against Slovakia on May 10.5th, Denmark on May 12.5th and Latvia on May 16.5th. Here too, standing room tickets in category 5 are already sold out. There is still a selection in the other categories, but stocks are decreasing daily.
Tickets are available for the 64 games of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship:
– online at www.iihfworlds2017.com and www.facebook.com/iihfhockey
– By telephone on +49 (0)1806 2017 01 (0,20 €/call incl. VAT from landline networks, max. 0,60 €/call incl. VAT from mobile networks // Monday-Friday 10.00 a.m. – 19.00 p.m and Saturday from 12.00 p.m. to 19.00 p.m.)