2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk

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2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk

Minsk, the capital of Belarus, will host the 2014 IIHF World Championship.

Belarus got 75 votes in the race for hosting the 2014 IIHF World Championship at the Annual Congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation in Bern and beat the other candidates - Hungary (24 votes), Latvia (3) and Ukraine (3).

Time frame for the 2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk

The 2014 World Ice Hockey Championship will be held on 9-25 May 2014.

2014 IIHF World Championship Venues

The two main venues for the 2014 World Ice Hockey Championship will be Minsk Arena(the 15,000-seater inaugurated on 30 January, 2009) and Chizhovka Arena (will be delivered by 2013, the seating capacity around 7,700).

IIHF officials and international ice hockey stars (video) have spoken very highly of Minsk Arena.

Accommodation for the participants and guests of the 2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk

About 30 Minsk hotels are ready to welcome over 5,000 guests. The best hotels in the Belarusian capital are Europe, Minsk, Crowne Plaza and Victoria. In 2013 another comfortable world-class complex, the five-starPresident Hotel, opened in the city center.

The one- to three-star hotels, such as Sputnik,Zvezda, Voyazh and others, have quite reasonable prices. Minsk is seeing a rapid development of the hostel network, too. The eleven existing hostels can accommodate about 450 people.

Currently about 40 projects in the Belarusian capital are being implemented by hotel operators from Belarus and abroad (Kempinski, Mаrriott, Hilton). A number of new and renovated hotels with various star ratings to accommodate 3,000 people will have opened by the spring of 2014. Guests of the 2014 IIHF World Championship will be able to choose from a total of 43 hotels and 12 halls of residence of which seven are part of the new complex Student Village.

Official participants of the world championship, teams, referees, IIHF officials and journalists, will be accommodated in the hotels Minsk, President Hotel, Europe,Crowne Plaza, Victoria-1, Victoria-2, Victoria-Olymp, Garni, Renaissance, Robinson Club, Narochanskaya, Svisloch and Belarus.

The fans will be able to stay in the city’s hotels, hostels, halls of residence and a Fan Village.

The official tour operator of the 2014 IIHF World Championship, the companyTsentrKurort, offers convenient packageswhich include match tickets, travel tickets for all types of transport in Minsk, sightseeing and other services.

• VIP package (tickets for the best seats, accommodation in elite hotels, VIP restaurants, individual transfer, souvenirs and other bonuses)
• Fans’ Package (match tickets, accommodation in hotels or the Fan Village, souvenirs and other bonuses)
• Family Package (a 50% discount for children, match tickets, accommodation in a hotel or the Fan Village, a mascot performance prior to the match, souvenirs and other bonuses)
• Group Tour (a 50% discount for children and students, an up to 25% discount for staff members, match tickets, accommodation in the Fan Village, souvenirs and other bonuses).

Transport infrastructure of the 2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk

An additional runway will be built at the Minsk National Airport. All major international motorways crossing Belarus will be made four-lane.

Four new traffic interchanges will be constructed to ease the traffic near the ice arenas, additional metro stations will be built, and the city commuter train service will be introduced.

Visa requirements during the 2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk

The Belarusian authorities have ruled to make the entry to Belarus during the 2014 IIHF World Championship (on 25 April – 31 May 2014) visa-free.

Security during the 2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk

The problem of terrorism in Belarus is nonexistent, and the crime rate is low.Belarusian people are tolerant and hospitable.

In addition, the Belarusian Interior Ministry has jointed efforts with the Emergencies Ministry, the Healthcare Ministry and the Ice Hockey Federation of Belarus and created a system of additional security measures for the IIHF World Championship.

Language issue during the 2014 IIHF World Championship

Not all Minskers speak foreign languages. The Education Ministry in cooperation with youth organizations will recruit volunteers with foreign language skills to help guests and participants of the 2014 World Ice Hockey Championship . The volunteers will be deployed in all public places of the city.

Tickets to 2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk

The 2014 IIHF World Championship (WC) ticket program was launched in September 2013.

The 2014 IIHF WC playing scheme will remain the same as for the 2012 and 2013 tournaments. This means that 16 teams participating in the preliminary round will be divided in two eight-team groups. After the first stage four best national teams from each group advance to the quarterfinal.

Tickets for the 2014 IIHF World Championship cost from €6 to €400 (final matches).

Tickets for the 2014 IIHF World Championship are available at the box offices of Belarus and online. The organizers of the championship have concluded an agreement with foreign partners to sell tickets in other countries.

2014 IIHF World Championship groups

	Group A (Chizhovka Arena)		Group B (Minsk Arena)
	Sweden		Finland
	Czech Republic		Russia
	Canada		USA
	Slovakia		Switzerland
	Norway		Germany
	Denmark		Latvia
	France		Belarus
	Italy		Kazakhstan

2014 IIHF World Championship mascot

The Belarusian Ice Hockey Federationannounced an open mascot design competition for the 2014 IIHF World Championship. As many as 40 design proposals were submitted. The image of thebison, one of Belarus’ symbols, was named the official mascot of the IIHF World Championship in Minsk. The mascot was created by artist and designer from Minsk Vitaly Ortyukh.

A nationwide contest for the best name and story/biography for the official mascot of the 2014 IIHF World Championship was announced in March 2013.

Following the competition, which had almost300 proposals filed, the mascot got the nameVolat (the heroic warrior – in Belarusian).

In the Eastern Slavic mythology a volat is a tall and very strong warrior. Legends have it that they lived on Belarusian lands and were buried in long burial mounds called volotovki. In Belarus there are villages which names and history are said to be directly related to volats.

Name the Mascot competition winners, Maria Matskevich and Leonid Kravchenko, came up with interesting "hockey" biographies for the main symbol of the 2014 IIHF World Championship.

The organizers stress that the name Volat sounds almost identical in different languages. It will be easy for hockey fans to pronounce and write it.

The Directorate for the 2014 IIHF World Championship has the exclusive right to use the mascot for advertising purposes.

The visual identity of the 2014 Minsk Ice Hockey World Championship represents agraphic concept titled as "Multifaceted Feast!" The slogan of the Minsk tournament is "Enjoy the Moment Together!"

2014 IIHF WC souvenirs

In early 2008 the Belarusian Ice Hockey Federation announced a competition to decide on the best Belarusian 2014 IIHF WC bid logo. The organizing committee received more than 200 works, designer Victoria Adamovich’s laconic logo winning the competition. The 2014 IIHF WC logo is recognizable and popular. The logo is used to make souvenirs and ads of the tournament. One can also see it on the public transport, bills and billboards.

As many as 500 days prior to the competition about 40 Belarusian enterprises began manufacturing souvenirs with the 2014 IIHF WC logo. Among the most popular ones are T-shirts, caps, scarves, towels, pucks, hockey sticks (including decorative made from cut glass), badges and magnets. These souvenirs are available in shops, passenger stations and the National Airport Minsk.

Three months prior to the tournament the souvenir manufacturing rights will belong to the International Ice Hockey Federation.