The audience spent the last two minutes standing, clapping to the beat, and when the final siren sounded, a cheer went through the hall in Landshut. The women’s team of the German Ice Hockey Association (DEB) won the start of the Germany Cup against Denmark 1-0 on Wednesday. Even World Association President Luc Tardif came to Lower Bavaria and honored the best players. It was an extraordinary evening for the DEB women. “You’re not used to there being so many people there, so much media presence, interviews – it’s all new,” said striker Emily Nix, “otherwise it was always very poor.”
You could say that there are usually only a handful of women spectators. It’s the same in the Bundesliga. Only those who have a place in the Bundeswehr earn money there or in the national team. Even Emily Nix, the league’s top scorer, works part-time, 30 hours a week as a lawyer in a law firm in Ingolstadt. The long-standing series champion from Planegg doesn’t even have his own hall, sometimes trains here, sometimes plays there. And at the current defending champions in Memmingen, the players have to change outside in a container; there is no space for their own changing room in the hall. But anyone who plays ice hockey in Germany as a woman knows it no different. There are also no separate youth teams for girls.
developments in other countries
DEB sports director Christian Künast calls the women’s area the “biggest construction site”. Associations and clubs left the issue lying around for decades. Only now is something happening. The fact that the Germany Cup was expanded to include a women’s tournament is a first step. “It’s important that the players realize that we are seen,” says women’s national coach Jeff MacLeod. But further steps are needed.
For example, the way football went when the professional clubs from the men’s sector got involved. This happens occasionally, but some like the Düsseldorfer EG disbanded their women’s team, the Cologne women are back in the second league. And even at the first division clubs in Berlin and Ingolstadt, the women are not part of the professional club, but rather at the parent club that looks after the youth.
Things are different in Sweden, as Franziska Feldmeier knows. She has been playing in Linköping since this season. In terms of sport alone, it’s a change because body checks are allowed in Europe’s best league. But above all, they pay there, Feldmeier can now make a living from ice hockey for the first time at the age of 24. Something is also happening in Switzerland, especially in North America.
There, the stars of the scene boycotted what was for a long time the only semi-professional league. They will only play for clubs again when the conditions are suitable. Now they have reached their goal, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was founded in the summer. With a minimum salary of 35,000 US dollars (just under 33,000 euros) per season and standards for medical care, travel and hotels.
It’s still cross-financed by rich patrons, but they believe in women’s ice hockey. The ratings for the World Cup and the Olympics prove them right. But does this also work with clubs? Sandra Abstreiter hopes so. The goalkeeper was the only German to get a place in the PWHL and will play in Ottawa in the future. On Wednesday you could see why: Abstreiter held everything that flew at her. It starts next Tuesday and the new league starts in January.
There are six teams to start with, three in Canada and three in the United States. But there should be more. Then all the top European players should come. Many people still have contracts here, most of them in Sweden. Also Petra Nieminen, the star of the Finnish team who is currently in Landshut. She says: “I’m happy in Sweden, we have good things there. I can play there professionally. Maybe I’ll go over sometime.”
Bernd Schwickerath, Landshut Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Bernd Schwickerath Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6 Bernd Schwickerath Published/Updated:
Franziska Feldmeier also thinks so. But now the Germany Cup is coming up. This Friday (7:00 p.m.) we play against Finland with Petra Nieminen, and on Saturday (2:30 p.m. both games at Magentasport) against the World Cup third place team from the Czech Republic. More than 2,000 tickets have been sold for the game. An almost unreal number for German ice hockey women.
