,
Toronto,
Ontario, Canada. Many participating teams are club teams, rather than national teams, where a club team might have players from many nations on the roster. The first tournament was won in 1923 by the
Oxford University Ice Hockey Club, composed of
Canadians studying at the
University of Oxford. The first 24 tournaments were dominated by host
HC Davos (7 wins, 12 runners-up) and the Czechoslovak club team
LTC Prague (7 wins, 2 runners-up). The LTC Prague team was shut down by the
Czechoslovak communist authorities after players
defected at the 1948 Spengler Cup tournament. Between 1965 and 1983, the tournament was dominated by various
Czechoslovak and
Soviet teams. Since joining the tournament in 1984,
Team Canada has been the dominant participant, with 16 wins and 10 runners-up. Team Canada is made up of Canadians predominantly playing in Europe, as the tournament occurs during the
NHL and
AHL seasons, though active NHL stars
Joe Thornton and
Rick Nash played for HC Davos during the
2004–05 NHL lockout. From its inception until 1978, the tournament was played on an
outdoor rink. The outdoor rink still exists outside the indoor arena, and is one of the largest outdoor rinks in the world. Starting in 1978, all tournament games have been played indoors. The Spengler Cup was cancelled in 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. While the tournament was scheduled to return in 2021, Team Canada withdrew from the competition due to problems scheduling a quarantine isolation period before the start of play, and
HC Ambrì-Piotta withdrew from the competition due to COVID-19 cases among the club's players. The 2021 event was ultimately cancelled on 25 December due to COVID cases within HC Davos.
Sponsorship The Spengler Cup is the second-largest sporting event in Switzerland, after tennis'
Swiss Indoors in Basel. The tournament had a budget of
CHF 11 million in 2016. About 40% of the total tournament budget amount comes from corporate sponsors. Since 1985,
UBS has been the main sponsor and presenting partner of the Spengler Cup. Other current major sponsors are
Würth, Schenker Storen,
Škoda,
Calanda, and Hostpoint.ch – each of whom, along with UBS, are the main tournament sponsor of one of the six teams each year. ==International broadcasts==