Quidditch Australia is excited to announce Canberra as a 2020 Quidditch World Cup winning bid location!

Speculation has been rife in the quidditch community these past few weeks as the world awaits the winning bid location for the third incarnation of the Quidditch World Cup to be announced. After numerous complaints about the quality of the previous world cup held in Florence, and no clear better alternative arising, Quidditch Australia is proud to reveal that the nation’s capital city, Canberra, has been put to the International Quidditch Association as a winning bid for World Cup 2020.

The tournament is intended to be held, as usual, in late July, during the university break and Northern Hemisphere summer holidays. The height of Canberra’s winter is expected to provide the kind of rainy, cold, and generally miserable conditions in which many European teams hoping to attend should feel right at home in.

Some international NGBs have nevertheless complained about the distance required to travel to a World Cup in Canberra. However, not only would the first Southern Hemisphere World Cup be a huge boon to the development of the Asia/Oceania region, but the location of Canberra is thought to truly reflect what a world cup held in Australia should be like – isolated, hard to get to, and generally a pain for everyone.

A significant issue for many nations regarding the Florentine World Cup of 2018 was of course, the use of cones as pitch markers. Quidditch Australia can guarantee that this will not be an issue in the 2020 tournament held in Canberra. Given that three of the past four tournaments held in Canberra have experienced heavy rain, and even mild flooding, it is highly unlikely that anyone will be able to notice the lack of any field markings under a few inches of water.

Another key reason Canberra is suggested over any of the major European and North American contenders is the concern of finding accommodation in tourist heavy destinations, as occurred with Florence. With tourists flooding major cities throughout Europe in July, many teams have found travel and accommodation difficult and expensive for previous world cups. This is not expected to be a problem for Canberra, as few want to travel there anyway, least of all in the middle of winter.

Nevertheless, Canberra is expected to be a popular destination for all our international friends, who can at last get to share in the wonder of Canberra’s only attraction, the Questacon science museum.

So far, the list of nations expected to attend a Wold Cup held in Canberra is New Zealand.

Quidditch Australia excitedly awaits to hear the final result of the World Cup location from the IQA in the coming days.