obviously there are the two big 15k plus arenas in rogers and pacific coliseum, but looking at the history of wwc venues they tend to go smaller, around 4k to 10k.

rogers arena left and pacific coliseum right

in that case a slam dunk option would be the 7.5k seater thunderbird arena at ubc (practice availability at protrans or the father bauer rinks in the same building would be sick).

doug mitchell thunderbird sports centre (ubc thunderbird arena)

if they wanted 2 separate venues you could do thunderbird arena and the langley events centre in langley (5.2k), but langley's a little far even though the arena's pretty sweet and for player satisfaction purposes i'd prefer to stay closer to vancouver.

langley events centre

i'd be tempted to go big and do thunderbird arena and pacific coliseum (avoiding rogers due to aquilini associations), but with the new equal groups coming this year, organizers might not want to have unequal capacities between venues to that extent.

honestly, a dual bid between vancouver and victoria would be the best case for two equal venues with thunderbird arena and save on foods memorial centre (yeah) in victoria at 7k capacity. victoria hosted half of a dual bid at world juniors a few years back and it was a success, so the memorial centre would be a tested iihf option. it's also in a great location in victoria, which is a nice city in itself, and a pretty nice arena. the arena's main tenant, the whl royals, also seem supportive of women's hockey (more so than the tenant of the langley events centre). having games in victoria would also open the tournament up to the island market.

save on foods memorial centre in victoria

in conclusion, my preferred realistic single choice would be thunderbird arena bc of the practice options in the same complex and capacity that would allow for sizeable wwc crowds but not feel empty. a lot of bus routes also run right there. my preferred more unrealistic single option would be pacific coliseum bc i love it, local woho fans would be used to it, and the agrodome is also steps away for practice and potentially locker rooms. meanwhile, my two options for secondary/dual rinks both have their pros and cons (langley events centre is a nicer rink on the fan and player amenity side but smaller and in a less desirable location, save on foods memorial centre is a less nice rink but bigger and in a nicer location, would also expose more fans to the wwc). i'd go for victoria for the dual venue eventuality just because i want the players to experience the ferry.

came across some vintage o-pee-chee hockey cards, so i remade them for the PWHL. (inspo under the cut)