COPENHAGEN/RIGA – The ice hockey associations of Denmark and Latvia have announced that they will make a joint bid for the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.

The championship venues announced by the bidders are the capital cities of Copenhagen and Riga. The state of the art Copenhagen Arena, scheduled for completion in 2015, is planned to host the gold and bronze medal game and the semi-finals.

"We are committed to our goals of developing hockey worldwide and creating a truly global platform for our fans. With the continued dedication from our national partners, the City of Copenhagen, Wonderful Copenhagen and Sport Event Denmark, we are proud to present such a strong bid in cooperation with our experienced Latvian friends," said Danish Ice Hockey Association President and newly elected IIHF Council member, Henrik Bach Nielsen.

“We have been working very hard to develop hockey in Denmark in recent years. I believe that this bid to bring the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship to Denmark for the very first time shows our commitment and highlights our vision for the future of hockey.”

Latvian Ice Hockey Federation President, Kirovs Lipmans, was the head of the successful 2006 IIHF World Championship in Riga and looks forward to once again welcoming the hockey world to the capital city located on the Baltic Sea.

"What we did in 2006, we will do again in 2017, creating an unforgettable event for the global hockey fans in a passionate hockey nation," said Lipmans.

Germany and France had already announced before to join forces for the other bid for 2017. The Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in France is the secondary venue of the bid while the main venue, either Berlin or Cologne, is to be determined.

The final presentations and allocation of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship host country will be made in May 2013 at the 2013 IIHF Annual Congress in Stockholm, Sweden.

With files from the Danish Ice Hockey Association