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Championship is ready
Championship is ready
68% of tickets sold
Tomas Kral, President of the Czech Ice Hockey Association, stated: “All our attention for the past two years has been focused on these two upcoming weeks which are almost here. The goal was to prepare the championship in such a way that it will be pleasing to both local and international fans.
“I would like to thank everyone who has helped us with the preparations – special thanks to both hosting cities Prague and Ostrava as well as the Moravia-Silesia Region. Without their support the whole layout would not be possible,” he continued.
In pursuance of the 79th IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, O2 Arena in Prague and CEZ Arena in Ostrava will welcome 16 of the best national ice hockey teams in the world. The event will take place from 1st to 17th of May. The organizers are anticipating that during these 17 days more 600,000 visitors will come see the championship. As of today, 68 percent of all available tickets have been sold, which makes 495,470 overall.
Games involving the Czech national team have attracted the most interest from ticket buyers, with all of the team's games in the preliminary round selling out within five hours of going on sale.
“As expected, Slovakia and reigning champion Russia both playing in Ostrava, have also brought great interest from the fans. However, Canada and Sweden also caught the fans' eyes and brought attention to them,” said CIHA General Secretary Martin Urban.
Tickets are still available for purchase at the box offices of both arenas, via the internet (www.sazkaticket.cz) or at Sazka terminals. The Czech Ice Hockey Association along with the organizers of the championship offered 35,000 tickets for free to elementary schools in Prague, the Central Bohemian Region and Ostrava as a part of the “Championship tickets for schools” project.
Continue readingAt this moment, organizers are taking over both arenas. “After such a long time we are finally reaching the finish line. We now have 10 days to dress up the arenas for the championship. The preparations will take place in the arenas where it is necessary to prepare all the essentials for the teams, fans, media, and VIP guests as well as in the surroundings of both the arenas where official fan zones will be built,” announced Marketa Sterbova, General Secretary of the World Championship Organizing Committee.
“Two years ago the number of organizers for this event was three when my closest co-workers and I started setting up for the championship. The number of organizers has grown to 170 workers for both arenas, all working in different departments. This is direct evidence of how extensive of an event we are preparing,” Sterbova added.
Both the venues are ready – new boards have been installed at O2 Arena in Prague and modifications have been made to the VIP section as well as to the teams facilities.
“All locker rooms have been painted, the teams will have a small 'village' available to use as facilities for all their partners supplying sports equipment. We are also perfecting the last details of the in-house production in the arena,” stated Petr Briza, President of the Organizing Committee in Prague.
A new centre-hung video scoreboard will be installed at CEZ Arena and new luxury boxes have been built in the stands. The facilities of the arena offer maximum comfort to all the players.
“The main rink as well as the practice rink are both located on the same premises, which is a great advance for the players. We have a special 'gift' for the fans, which is a 100m2-wide screen located in the fan zone,” said Ales Pavlik, President of the Organizing Committee in Ostrava.
There is also great interest in the championship from the media – more than 1000 members from 23 countries (which includes 352 print journalists and 130 photographers) have been accredited. Four large television studios will be built in both arenas with extensive operations being undertaken both from Prague and Ostrava by 10 television companies.
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