April will be an exciting month for international hockey fans in Brno, and on Monday, ticket sales were opened for a pair of tournaments that will take place at Kajot Arena.
The tournament will feature some of the top players eligible for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. The top European-based players born in 1994 or after should be available to play, while players in the Canadian Hockey League, North America's top tier of junior hockey, will only be available if their teams are out of playoff contention. Two of the most anticipated players will be Sweden's Filip Forsberg and USA's Jacob Trouba; the latter plays for the US National Development Team and not the CHL, so he will be available. The top '94-born Czech, Radek Faksa of the Kitchener Rangers, may or may not be there, but top domestic products Richard Nejezchleb, Martin Procházka, Ronald Knot, and goaltender Marek Langhamer should be.
"After last year's success and enthusiasm of all involved, we expect that this year there will be enormous interest in tickets. We would like to see again the stands full of fans cheering on the Czech national team, who will be defending last year's first-place finish," said Jana Obermajerová, chairman of BPA, which is the marketing partner for the Czech Ice Hockey Association. "Fans from Brno and the surrounding areas are cordially invited to these games. And because we appreciate their support, we decided, despite the increase in taxes and other costs, to keep ticket prices at the same level as last year."
| Highly-ranked Radek Faksa could possibly be at the U18 World Championships in Brno. Photo: OHL Images, ca.sports.yahoo.com. |
The first will be the IIHF U18 World Championships, which will be co-hosted by Brno and Znojmo from April 12 to 22. Brno will host Group A, featuring the host Czechs and Canada, Denmark, Finland and the USA. Znojmo will host Group B, which includes Germany, Latvia, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland. Brno will also host the medal round, while the relegation round will be in Znojmo.
The tournament will feature some of the top players eligible for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. The top European-based players born in 1994 or after should be available to play, while players in the Canadian Hockey League, North America's top tier of junior hockey, will only be available if their teams are out of playoff contention. Two of the most anticipated players will be Sweden's Filip Forsberg and USA's Jacob Trouba; the latter plays for the US National Development Team and not the CHL, so he will be available. The top '94-born Czech, Radek Faksa of the Kitchener Rangers, may or may not be there, but top domestic products Richard Nejezchleb, Martin Procházka, Ronald Knot, and goaltender Marek Langhamer should be.
With the more sought-after games being in Brno, tickets at Kajot Arena will naturally be more expensive than in Znojmo's Hostan Arena. During the group stage, day passes are available for CZK 150 seated or 100 standing. For the quarterfinals and semifinals, the price rises to 200 and 150, and for the final day of the tournament, which includes the bronze and gold-medal games, the prices are 250 seated and 150 standing. All day passes in Znojmo can be bought for CZK 100, seated or standing. For fans wishing to purchase tickets for the full tournament, the 17 games in Brno can be had for a total of CZK 1500, while all 14 games in Znojmo can be had for CZK 600.
To help people not familiar with the currency, CZK 100 equals approximately EUR 4 or USD/CAD 5.25. The tournament schedule, provided by the IIHF, can be seen here.
To help people not familiar with the currency, CZK 100 equals approximately EUR 4 or USD/CAD 5.25. The tournament schedule, provided by the IIHF, can be seen here.
Just four days after the U18 championship ends, the top European national men's teams will invade Kajot Arena for the KajotBet Hockey Games, which will be the final event of the 2012 Euro Hockey Tour and the last tune-up for Europe's top four teams prior to the IIHF World Championships, which will be co-hosted by Helsinki and Stockholm this year.
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| The Czechs hope to repeat last year's EHT victory in Brno. eht.cz |
On Thursday, April 26, the Czech Republic hosts Sweden. Tickets for the single game in Brno are CZK 390 seated and 250 standing. The other game of the day, between Finland and Russia, will be played in Russia. Then all four teams will be in Brno for Saturday and Sunday, with the arena hosting two games each day. For these days, the prices will be 590 and 390, and will be valid for both games per day.
Of the four legs of the Euro Hockey Tour, the last one is always the most interesting, as the club rosters include NHL players and closely resemble the way the team's will look at the upcoming Worlds. Last year, Jaromír Jágr played his first international hockey of the season in Brno and led the tournament in scoring, giving Czech hockey fans a brief peek of the show he was about to put on in Bratislava.
Tickets for both events are now available at ticketpro.cz. Pages for the U18 World Championships are available in English and Czech, while for the KajotBet Hockey Games, there is only a Czech page.
For those that cannot be in the Czech Republic's second city this April, Czech Hockey Report will be on location to provide coverage of both events in conjunction with official tournament outlets and Eurohockey.com.
Are Hrtl and Frk eligible? Is Slovakia relegated?
ReplyDeleteNo, Hertl and Frk are not eligible, as they are both late '93 births. They are later than the NHL Entry Draft cut-off, which is why they weren't draft-eligible last year, but the tournament is only open to those born in '94 or later. Yes, Slovakia finished last place at last year's tournament in Germany and was relegated to Division I, which they will actually host in Piešťany.
ReplyDelete