Destinations Chosen

Whenever U SPORTS opts to announce championship locations for men's and women's hockey - or any sport for that matter - there are schools who are obviously excited at the prospect of hosting the country's best university athletes for a week. Having been to championships in London, Charlottetown, and Saskatoon, the efforts made by the schools to ensure that each event runs smoothly is impressive as all eight teams are treated like they play for those host schools. U SPORTS was at it again today as they announced future host schools, and I'm guessing these newly-named hosts will put on one heckuva championship event at their locations in their respective years!

As we know, the University of Waterloo will host the 2025 National Women's Hockey Championship while the University of Ottawa will host the U Cup National Men's Hockey Championship. Ontario gets both championships, and they should own the 2026 championships if the two-year conference patterns were to hold true, but the 2026 U Cup Men's Hockey Championship has already been awarded to the Saint Mary's Huskies in the AUS with the tournament being played in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The women's tournament has yet to have a host, so we'll see where they may land in two seasons.

Today, however, U SPORTS continued with business as they announced the 2027 and 2028 hosts of the respective tournaments, and it seems that the rest of country will have to like east coast foods and weather as the UNB Reds will host the 2027 National Women's Hockey Championship, and will follow that effort up with the 2028 U Cup Men's National Championship one year later! Fredericton, New Brunswick gets back-to-back tournaments, and they deserve thhose honours after the successes seen by both their men's and women's hockey programs over the last number of years.

Also included in the announcement today was the 2028 National Women's Hockey Championship location as the St. Francis Xavier X-Women will host the 2028 tournament, but host the event in Halifax as opposed to their home site of Antigonish. Some people raised eyebrows over StFX hosting in Halifax, but it makes sense when one considers that it's a major destination for teams flying in and it has a larger rink than Antigonish. Moreover, Antigonish is 2.5 hours away from Halifax, so that would require a lot of buses traveling to and hotel rooms in Antigonish for teams, staff, and fans, so the decision to play the tournament in Halifax makes sense to me.

No 2027 host was named for the U Cup Men's National Championship yet, so there's still some business to compete for the men's side of the coin, but having the women's tournaments land in the AUS at Fredericton and Halifax are good choices. Both cities have shown they can handle major tournaments when it comes to volunteers and support, and I suspect the tournaments will do well in both communities.

Just to recap the news:

• 2025 National Women's Hockey Championship - Waterloo, ON.
• 2025 U Cup Men's Hockey Championship - Ottawa, ON.
• 2026 Women's Hockey Championship - TBD.
• 2026 U Cup Men's Hockey Championship - Halifax, NS.
• 2027 Women's Hockey Championship - Fredericton, NB.
• 2027 U Cup Men's Hockey Championship - TBD.
• 2028 Women's Hockey Championship - Halifax, NS.
• 2028 U Cup Men's Hockey Championship - Fredericton, NB.

As we stand just over a week away from U SPORTS hockey getting underway for the 2024-25 season, teams that are recruiting and building towards the future now know where they may be playing if they can rise above other teams in their conferences. There are still two sites to be determined, but it would seem that the western Canadian cities will need boarding passes to head east for the next few years where they'll land in cities who are fiercely passionate about university hockey!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!