In an effort to promote the sport, plans are already in place for team photo-ops wearing the official tourney jerseys and t-shirts in front of the iconic Bellagio and Caesars Palace Hotels.
The “Las Vegas Invitational Rink Bandy Tournament” will be held 5-8 June at the new America First Arena in Vegas which is owned by the NHL Vegas Golden Knights. The tournament masterminds are USA Bandy legends Chris Halden and Tom Howard who decided there was no better way to promote the sport of bandy.
Krunehof Tellus C – Sweden
Minnesota Legends based players began training at Bloomington Ice Gardens. They are preparing to take on two Swedish teams and one Norwegian; Krunehof-Tellus team, the KOSA Arc Warriors and the Norwegian Vikings squad.
Evan Erickson, Mike Hosfield, Mike Fabie, Chris Halden, Greg Olson, Dave Plaunt
The Norwegian Vikings are coming with some firepower, led by Team Norway star Felix Callander. The team also has a core of players from the Norwegian Elite League of which several have played in Sweden. These include Fredric Norby, Felix Ljungberg, Fritjof Hagberg, Isaac Jerner, Lucas Philippenko, Alex Johansson and Asmund Bratholm.
The Krunehof Tellus C team will have four former World Champs in their line-up including legend Hasse Johansson, Stefan “X-et” Erixon, David Pizzoni and Olov Englund.
Team KOSA Arc will have Adam Gilljam (World Championship Gold 2017) on the squad.
Aware of the coming fire-power on the two Swedish teams, the other teams are reportedly amping up their training the last weeks to help prepare for some intense matches.