Thursday, 1 December 2005

2006 World Inline Hockey Championships Detroit, Michigan, USA Bulletin #1 - 2nd November 2005

Dear Inline Hockey Colleagues:
 
All teams that participated in the 2005 World Inline Hockey Championships in Paris, France realized as they were returning to their homes that CIRILH had not at the time realized a venue for the 2006 World Championships. This unfortunate circumstance occurred when the designated federation withdrew their proposal to host the championships.
 
I am happy to report that this problem has been resolved by a firm commitment from Keith Noll of the United States Roller Sports Federation to host the 2006 FIRS World Inline Hockey Championships. In addition to his duties with the USARS Inline Hockey Committee, Mr. Noll is also the Director of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Inline Hockey program. To accommodate the World Championships, Noll withdrew AAU inline hockey from the multi-sport National Junior Olympics of the AAU, scheduled for Virginia Beach, because this location would not be appropriate for international team travel when joined by an unexpected FIRS world championship.
 
Using the large number of teams associated with the AAU National Junior Olympic Inline Hockey and the USARS National Championships, Keith Noll was able to secure a state-of-the-art four rink facility five miles distant from Detroit Metropolitan Airport. This is an international airport with some direct flights to Europe and Asia. The name of the facility, located in a Western suburb of Detroit is:

During the period of the World Championships, two of the four rinks within the Arena will be used exclusively by CIRILH teams. The smaller rinks will be used by the AAU for part of the Junior Olympics which will flow into all four rinks once the FIRS teams have departed.
 
The purpose of this email is to allow all national federations to know the location and dates of the World Championships in 2006. Keith Noll is negotiating some attractive room rates in various classes of hotels, which will include ground transportation. We should have these available for far less than the equivalent rates in Europe and will be priced per room rather than per person, since it is not common for USA hotels to furnish breakfast, although it seems more are doing so every year. If you would prefer fixed-price meal services rather than restaurant service, please contact me and I will endeavor to locate a source for this.
 
You will note that the world championships for 2006 have been reduced from 11 days to 8 days for the men and 7 days for the women. This new schedule eliminates 2 days from the Round Robin pool play and only schedules 1 day of practice before the Championships. A modified version of the program sent out to the national federations a few months ago (which separates in pool play the top finishing teams from the year before) will be used on a trial basis this year in an effort to save teams both time and money when attending the inline hockey world championships. Continuation of the concept for shortened pool play will be decided after this year by those attending teams in Detroit.
 
The THORS Pro Series Event will take place in Detroit just prior to the World Championships and will finish on July 15, 2006. This past year the THORS competition gave away over $50,000 in cash prizes to the elite men’s divisions and plans to increase this amount for 2006. Teams that are interested in participating may contact THORS, which will be a principal sponsor of our 2006 World Championships in Detroit, by contacting Tony Abbate via his web site: www.torhs.com or via email torhstony@bellsouth.net

The AAU Junior Olympic events will again this year be open to youth teams from around the world and will include the FIRS Junior World Cup as it did last year. Teams with interest should contact Keith Noll directly at: www.wiaauhoops.com or via email at www.aauhockey.org
 
There will be more details available shortly on hotels, food service and other events teams may wish to add to their trip. The main purpose of this letter is to assure everyone that the World Championships for Inline Hockey is a go for 2006 and that the venue is excellent and every effort is being made to keep this USA event as affordable as possible.