Hope for direct promotion: The Kassel Huskies in the game against the Starbulls Rosenheim (March 1, 2024)
The matter seems decided: Even before the 52nd and final preliminary round matchday in the anniversary season of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), the pecking order in the field of 14 teams is clear. In the direct duel, the Berlin Eisbären and the cracks from Bremerhaven only have to clarify who will move into the subsequent play-offs as top in the 30th DEL ice age. Also taking part are Straubing, Wolfsburg, Munich and the Schwenninger Wild Wings. The Kölner Haie, the Mannheimer Adler, Ingolstadt and Nuremberg will fight for the last two free places for the play-offs. In the exciting battle against relegation, Düsseldorf, Main-Frankfurt and Iserlohn recently scored so many points that, no matter how the game is played on Friday, they are safe from the Augsburg Panthers.
As in the previous year, the people of Augsburg now have to worry well into April. Until the second league has determined its champion, who from the Panther’s perspective – like Ravensburg Towers in 2023 – will hopefully not be eligible for promotion. According to the regulations, only the champion of the second division is allowed to climb to the top, and only if he has already deposited a check for 816,000 euros and other documents for the DEL licensing process before the start of the season. Of the play-off participants in the lower house, only the Krefeld Penguins and the Kassel Huskies meet the requirements this year.
“It is our clear goal to return to the DEL and we have submitted the documents for this on time,” explains Huskies press spokesman Lukas Thier jW. But this project is sporty after an eventful history with the DEL relegation in 2006, the comeback in 2008, the bankruptcy in 2010 followed by a new start in the Hessenliga and the promotion to the second league ten years ago.
With the construct of a league as a capital company, German ice hockey broke new ground in the 90s. In contrast to previous Bundesliga seasons, this only occasionally led to economic bankruptcies. There were bankruptcies in Frankfurt am Main and Schwenningen and the end of the “freezers” at the Hamburg location. »A withdrawal in the middle of the season with Kaufbeuren has only happened once in the history of the DEL, right at the beginning as a Bundesliga aftermath, so to speak. “Not again since then,” says Gernot Tripcke, DEL managing director from the start.
The model of the ice hockey league was later followed by other team sports in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Basketball Bundesliga GmbH was founded in 1996, the Deutsche Fußballiga GmbH in 2000 and the Handball Bundesliga GmbH in 2004. In a first step 30 years ago, the former Bundesliga game operations were spun off into DEL GmbH, which still belonged to the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB). The second step followed in the 1997/98 season. Since then, the league has belonged to the clubs of which they are shareholders.
With this measure, the clubs wanted to ensure a “closed society” without relegation or promotion, following the example of the North American professional league NHL. »This fundamental idea was also important and very obvious at the time because a whole series of ice arenas were modernized during this phase and at the same time large, ultra-modern ice rinks were either completely new or were being planned. This has taken our sport into previously unknown spheres. With the assurance that there will be no relegation in the sport, we have given investors at the individual locations planning security. Some mayors might otherwise have made a different decision,” said Tripcke jW.
The second league of the DEL is now “more professional” and “the substructure is stable enough” so that a cooperation agreement has been signed and it has been agreed to allow sports to be played again. Since 2018 – with an interruption due to Corona – not only the fight for the title has been exciting, but also the fight against relegation. And is sometimes more exciting than the race for the championship.
The Panthers from Augsburg would rather forego this tension at the moment. “On the other hand, they still have a second chance to stay in if Kassel or Krefeld don’t become champions in the second league,” Tripcke tries to offer some consolation from the DEL headquarters in Neuss near Düsseldorf. »In other sports, Augsburg would definitely have been relegated at the bottom of the table in this situation. It’s different for us.”
