The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship 2019 took place in Slovakia from 10 to 26 May. For the 27th time in a row, SKODA AUTO supported the event as the official main sponsor and therefore continues to hold the record for the longest main sponsorship in the history of world sports championships.
Just as last year, ŠKODA AUTO provided another highlight in the form of a spectacular trophy for the most valuable player of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship 2019. The dynamic glass sculpture in the shape of an ice crystal was created by ŠKODA Design. It draws inspiration from the traditional Czech glass craftsmanship that is also reflected in the design of ŠKODA’s current models.
ŠKODA AUTO CEO Bernhard Maier presented the 35-centimetre-tall, 22-centimetre-wide 5-kilogram trophy to the Most Valuable Player of the World Cup following the final match, Mark Stone from Canada.
There was another reason this year’s Ice Hockey World Championship was a very special occasion for ŠKODA: The car manufacturer used the event for a world premiere, presenting the comprehensively revised top model ŠKODA SUPERB on 23 May, the day of the quarter-finals. ŠKODA also entered the era of electromobility: With the SUPERB iV, ŠKODA presented a variant of the top model with plug-in hybrid drive for the first time, as well as the all-electric ŠKODA CITIGOe iV, the first 100% battery-powered vehicle in the company’s long history.
Over the course of the World Championship, more than 472,600 fans flocked to the arenas in Bratislava and Košice to support their teams and watch the matches live. Added to that, more than 1,2 billion people worldwide tuned in to watch the matches on TV and the Internet. ŠKODA was prominently represented as the partner to the fastest team sport in the world; the car manufacturer’s logo could be seen on the boards and the centre circle. The car manufacturer also presented three model highlights on the side-lines – the city SUV ŠKODA KAMIQ, the new compact model ŠKODA SCALA and the high-performance SUV KODIAQ RS.
As the mobility partner, ŠKODA also provided the organisers with 50 specially branded vehicles, this time mainly using the SUV models KODIAQ and KAROQ in the vehicle fleet. ŠKODA has been supporting the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship as a mobility partner since 1992.
ŠKODA was once again the exclusive partner of the IIHF App. The smartphone application for the operating systems Android and iOS offered hockey fans exciting background stories and interesting statistics. Thanks to the live ticker, which features a goal alert, fans did not miss any of the action. Users could also predict the outcome of the game in the betting game and share it with friends.
