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Saginaw 'honoured' to host Memorial Cup in 2024

For the first time in 26 years, national junior championship tournament will be hosted south of the border as event heads to Michigan
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Saginaw Spirit forward Matyas Sapovaliv was a second-round pick of the Vegas Golden Knights in 2022.

For the first time in 26 years, the Memorial Cup will be hosted south of the border — next year the championship of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) will be held in Saginaw, Mich.

American cities have hosted the Memorial Cup on four separate occasions in the event’s 104-year history. However, never before has an American city that hosts an Ontario Hockey League (OHL) team hosted the tournament.

A press conference this afternoon was held at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw and was streamed live on CHL TV.

“We are thrilled to bring the Memorial Cup to the state of Michigan for the first time in the event’s history,” said CHL president Dan MacKenzie in a news release. “The Spirit and City of Saginaw submitted a remarkable bid and we have no doubt that they will do an outstanding job of hosting our CHL championship next year.”

Having arrived in Saginaw in 2002, the Spirit would be set to participate in their first-ever Memorial Cup next season.

“On behalf of Dick Garber and the Saginaw Spirit franchise, we are grateful to the Memorial Cup Selection Committee. It is an honour for the community of Saginaw and the 400,000 people that call the Great Lakes Bay Region home to be the host of the 2024 Memorial Cup,” added Craig Goslin, president and managing partner of the Saginaw Spirit.

The Memorial Cup was first awarded in 1919, in remembrance of Canadian soldiers who fought, died or were injured in the First World War. The cup was rededicated to the memory of all fallen Canadian military personnel in 2010.

Next year, in Saginaw, the Memorial Cup will be awarded for the 104th time in its history. The Spirit will be one of four teams to participate in the 2024 Memorial Cup, which will be presented by carmaker Kia, alongside the playoff champion from each of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), and Western Hockey League (WHL).

All games from the 2024 Memorial Cup will be nationally televised in Canada by TSN and RDS, as well as on NHL Network in the United States.

The 2023 Memorial Cup takes place in less than two months, from May 25-June 4 in Kamloops, B.C. Viewers can watch all the action from this year’s CHL championship on NHL Network in the United States, along with TSN and RDS in Canada.


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