In a news release issued Monday afternoon, the Moncton Wildcats announced that they will not be submitting a bid to host the Canadian Hockey League's championship tournament.
Here's the release:
While our organization was deeply committed to bidding on the 2025 Memorial Cup, we have made the decision to forego submitting a bid at this time. Realizing that a major junior hockey team in the province of Quebec has not hosted this national championship in the past 10 years, the chance of winning the competitive bid is very unlikely.We recognize that the Canadian Hockey League wants to ensure various member provinces get to host the Memorial Cup, but we know that our organization, community, and province would have submitted an outstanding bid and organized an exceptional event.We are disappointed we won’t have the chance to bring the 2025 championship to our fans and community.Without a reasonable chance of being selected, the Moncton Wildcats cannot commit the time, effort, and resources required to prepare this extensive bid.
The Wildcats have been strongly hinting that they would bid on the tournament for a couple years. They'll be hosting the CHL/NHL Top Prospect Game in January and the QMJHL Entry Draft in June — events that were seen as "test runs" before hosting the Memorial Cup in 2025.
No Quebec city has hosted the event since 2015 in Quebec City with Halifax hosting in 2019 and Saint John in 2022. It's certainly noteworthy that the Wildcats said "without a reasonable chance of being selected" in their statement.
The Wildcats last hosted the event in 2006 at the old Moncton Coliseum.
The Rimouski Oceanic, who last hosted in 2009, and the Shawinigan Cataractes, who last hosted in 2012, have expressed interest in submitting bids to host in 2025. A winner is expected to be announced before the end of 2023.
Unless Moncton can quickly turn around a rebuild, the city likely won't be bidding on the tournament until 2031.
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