The reason why
I saw it posted earlier that the average attendance in Halifax averaged 10,000 fans a game. That's a bloody sellout every game in that arena. They sell out games involving marginal teams. Halifax could have had a 20,00 seat arena, and they still would have sold out every game. That's how big the tournament is over year.
I'm sure the players would love to play in front of large crowds, even if it involves lesser teams battling it out for 7th place. Do you think they'd get big crowds playing a 7th place game in Russia? No, but they would in Canada. Do you think anyone but the host team draws well in Europe? No. But everyone draws well in Canada.
Anyone else remember the sea of empty seats at Switzerland in 1997?
If the tournament catches on in other parts of the world, I'd have no problem with Canada hosting it every five years, or even less. I'd love to see European countries have 1/10th of the passion for this tournament that Canada does. If it were another country that had the amazing success of hosting the tournment, and not Canada, I'd have no problem with them hosting every three years. But in Europe, the WJC is generally just a blip for the casual fan, nowhere big as the world championship (which Canada has never hosted. Same thing with the Junior World Cup or the WU18. Canada has had the Olympics once).
It is in the best interests of the tournament to be in Canada every three to four years at this point in time, continuing a cycle that has successfully taken place for 15 years. Once other nations show they can successfully host a tournament, without getting a big boost from Canadian fans (this means you, U.S.), then we can look at going to other countries more often, but Switzerland-Slovakia will always draw peanuts in Sweden, Finland, Russia and most other European countires, and that is unacceptable.