Are the 2018 Winter Olympics an acceptable alternate format?
Assuming the Olympics are out of the question, my idea of a format is to have international hockey every two years. One year being World Cup qualification and the second being the Cup itself.
Teams 1 to 8 would make it automatically while teams 9 to 16 would attempt to qualify for two more spots. The qualification tournament would have 2 groups of 4 teams playing home and homes with the group winners getting the final Cup spots. While the qualifications are going on the top 8 teams are required to play at least 6 international games which would count in world rankings. Teams would have very large rosters making this sort of a try out for the World Cup team and it would be a big money maker guaranteeing big international games in the US and Canada every four years.
The 10 team World Cup would then be simple with groups of 5 playing a round robin before the top 4 in each play single elimination. It would also alternate between North America and Europe and be hosted by around 6 to 8 cities in close geographic proximity.
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