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Canada's appetite for the world junior hockey tournament — an event the rest of the hockey-playing world tends to blithely ignore — seems voracious and never-ending.

How else to explain that yesterday, Hockey Canada announced that a joint bid from Calgary and Edmonton received the nod to play host to the 2012 world junior tournament, defeating what president Bob Nicholson described as a "very attractive" bid from Toronto.

The decision came just a few months after Regina and Saskatoon received word that they would stage the 2010 tournament and comes just a few months before Ottawa will play host to the 2009 tournament — to be played over this Christmas season.

In all, it means Canada will enjoy the home-ice advantage for three of the next four world under-20 championships, their official designation by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

The IIHF granted Canada that never-ending home-ice advantage, largely for practical reasons. Whenever Canada holds the tournament, it generally plays to record crowds and makes a lot of money. When the tournament goes to Europe, games — especially in the preliminary rounds — are often played in near-empty arenas.

"We show that when Kazakhstan plays Germany, we fill the building," Nicholson said. "No other country can do that.

"I still remember playing Germany, in the opening game in Halifax [2003]. We had everyone in red in the building. When we go talk to Germany about any event, they still comment on that. That's why we get it so often back here."

Nicholson expects the Calgary-Edmonton tournament to establish records, based on the fact that it will be the first world junior tournament staged completely in NHL arenas. Calgary and Edmonton previously held preliminary-round games during the 1995 tournament, held in Red Deer.

With the 2011 world juniors awarded to the United States (Buffalo, Minneapolis and Grand Forks, N.D., are the finalists for that event), it means that the earliest the world juniors will return to Europe will be 2013, something Nicholson says doesn't bother the IIHF because of the financial windfall that these tournaments generate.

Nicholson described the tournament as "the best sports property in the country" and acknowledged: "There are some finances that we've been able to give back to the IIHF for the growth of the game. That's important globally. We are making good money from this and it's our responsibility to share some of that back.

"You know what? Our country is big. We can do it in Ottawa and then go back to Saskatoon. It's so big and it's great that all regions get to taste this great event."

Calgary and Edmonton put aside their rivalry to bid for the event and virtually all the major players in both cities are involved — from the Oilers and Flames to the junior teams, the Oil Kings and Hitmen.

Information on ticket availability will be decided at a later date, but Hockey Canada anticipated that season-ticket holders for the WHL's Oil Kings and Hitmen will receive front-of-the-line access to ticket packages.

Ten countries will compete in the 31-game tournament and, according to Nicholson, the games will be divided in such a way that one of the Alberta cities will see Canada play in the preliminary round and the other in the medal round.

The tournament committee projected that attendance would exceed 475,000.

Canada has played host to the world junior championships seven times — Vancouver/Kamloops/Kelowna in 2006, Halifax/Sydney in 2003, Winnipeg in 1999, Red Deer in 1995, Saskatoon in 1991, Hamilton in 1986 and Montreal in 1978.

"There is no question that we expect this [tournament] to break all the records," Nicholson said. "Ottawa will break the current record and it's going to continue to grow, but when you look ahead, this should set records for finances that go back to minor hockey; to the Canadian Hockey League; and more importantly, to have a buzz in these buildings that we've never seen before."