It's official - the 2019 U17 World Hockey Challenge has been awarded to both Swift Current and Medicine Hat, who put a joint bid together back in December 2017.

The event will run November 2-9 in both Swift Current's Innovation Credit Union iPlex, and Medicine Hat's Canalta Centre.

The announcement was made official Wednesday afternoon in Medicine Hat, and had been rumoured since late-October 2018.

"Definitely one of the worst-kept secrets, but something we're very proud to finally make official," said Swift Current Mayor, Denis Perrault. "Very thankful Hockey Canada has chosen the City of Swift, as well as the City of Medicine Hat to work to bring this huge event to our communities."  

"I think it'll be awesome, we're going to showcase the best 16-year-olds in not only the country, but the world, to our our residents," said City of Swift Current CAO, Tim Marcus, who also serves as Chair of the Swift Current host committee.

"All the top hockey players in the NHL, both today and in the past, have played in this tournament, so you're going to be able to see a lot of the future stars that are going to be playing in the professional leagues first-hand at the rink."

"Having the best-of-the-best from around the world calling Swift Current home for those days in November sure is going to be a lot of fun," Perrault noted with excitement.

The joint bid for the prestigious event certainly wasn't put together with a snap of the fingers.

"This has been a lot of work, actually more so for Medicine Hat - they started this process over three years ago," said Perrault. "They've been looking for a partner for the last couple. They found us about a year-and-a-half ago. Our city staff and the bid committee have been working hand-in-hand with the community of Medicine Hat."

"We put together the required documents about a year ago - I believe they were submitted around the end of January," added Marcus. "Since then, we went back-and-forth with meeting the requirements in both communities from Hockey Canada's standpoint, this would be the first time the tournament's been co-hosted in communities that are this far apart, so they took some extra time to go over it to make sure it could work."

In fact, in the 33-year history of the event, it's the first time host cities are in multiple prairie provinces - and now, is co-hosted between a pair of long-time WHL rival cities.

"For sure we've been rivals on the ice, it's not a secret, but we are definitely going to be partners off the ice," said Perrault. "This is something we're proud to be working in concert with the community of Medicine Hat. It's fitting and appropriate that we'll be able to bring this to both these communities."

It's not the first time Swift Current has played the role of host for the U17 World Hockey Challenge as, back in 1998, the world stage was on display in the southwest, with Team Canada West clinching a gold medal.

The buzz is already building around the event, with a 21-year gap between host bids feeling like an eternity.

"I think it means a lot to Swift Current," noted Marcus. "They get to see some first-class hockey events up close in person, rather than watching them on TV from afar. This is a tremendous opportunity that we're giving to everyone in the community."

It's also projected to be a prosperous event off the ice as well for the two cities, with a combined roughly-estimated economic impact of $6 million.

"Being a co-host, we should see an economic impact of pretty close to half of that in Swift Current," said Marcus. "I think it will give a much-needed boost to the community."

The U17 World Hockey Challenge is the latest big sporting event coming to Swift Current, following Hockey Day in Canada (February 6-9) and the Western Canada Summer Games (August 9-18).

"2019 is big for our city, we're bringing a lot of events home to Swift on a national and on an international stage," said Perrault. "It turns out our community wants these events, our community is definitely home to proud volunteers, and we'll definitely see that at all the events we'll be bringing."

Visit the following link to view a list of alumni from the U17 World Hockey Challenge, including an impressive 23 first-round selections from the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.