He still remembers exactly how he stood in the stands of the Curt Frenzel Stadium in Augsburg in 1994, when he was five years old, cheering on his heroes, says Alexander Oblinger. And you almost feel sorry for his good memory. Because Oblinger’s memory of that time three decades ago, when the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) played its first season, was recently refreshed by a brightly colored design monstrosity from the same nineties, touted in flowery PR jargon as “retro jerseys”. To mark the “30 years of DEL” anniversary, the teams wore jerseys from the early years of the league in some games last season, which were at least as colorful as the jersey fashion of the time. But in Oblinger’s retrospective, names like Harry Birk and Sven Zywitza, idols for little Alexander, shine through.
Oblinger from Augsburg is a good witness when you want to talk about the development of the league, which was opened in September 1994 with a game between the Augsburg Panthers and the Maddogs from Munich. Oblinger is what you would call a child of the league, a professional for 15 years with an eventful CV. In 2009, the young striker won the championship with Berlin, in 2014 he was one of the key players when the Panthers from Ingolstadt won the title, before and after that he played for Nuremberg, Straubing and Cologne. He left Augsburg, his hometown, at the age of 13 to go to ice hockey boarding school in Berlin. He only returned last season. Compared to his beginnings, he says, “everything has changed, the game, the players, everything – except for the fact that at the end you always have to have scored one more goal than your opponent.”
TV viewer numbers have tripled since the start of live broadcasts
Oblinger’s observation can be backed up with numbers. Last season, an average of 7,162 spectators attended the games on the 52 match days of the main round (there were a few more in the playoffs), more than ever before and more than in any other ice hockey league in Europe. Even bottom-placed Augsburg reported 14 of its 26 home games as sold out, with stadium occupancy well over 90 percent. The total turnover of the 14 DEL clubs rose from around 100 million to more than 170 million euros in the past ten years – also a new record. But the DEL experienced the greatest growth in living rooms: TV partner Telekom recorded around 25 million views last season – an increase of almost 20 percent compared to the previous season and around three times as many as when Magentasport began broadcasting eight years ago.
Gernot Tripcke, managing director of the DEL since 2000 and recently given a new contract until 2028, sounds accordingly satisfied. The Corona Delta has been successfully overcome and the forecasts are consistently positive. Tripcke attributes the league’s gains to the nationwide live broadcasts and the digital self-promotion of the clubs. Even the crisis at VW, one of the most important financiers in ice hockey both in the league and internationally, does not worry Tripcke: The DEL and its shareholders can rely on long-term contracts and strategic partnerships. And if VW cuts its sponsorship budgets, “then they should just sign one less substitute player for the footballers in Wolfsburg, that way they can save more.” The mood was not always so good.
“The DEL has taken a giant step after Corona,” says Alexander Oblinger. The fact that he and the Panthers are allowed to open the league this Thursday, like they did 30 years ago, this time against Ingolstadt, is less due to their skills than to a large portion of luck. Augsburg, one of only five consistently first-class founding members of the league, was relegated twice in a row. The Swabians were only allowed to stay in the DEL because second division club Kassel failed to get promoted each time (and the DEL2 final winners did not want to be promoted). But: “If you asked 100 people from ice hockey, 99 would say that Augsburg belongs in the league,” says Panther sports director Larry Mitchell (the dissenting voice, you don’t have to be a clairvoyant to know this, presumably came from Kassel).
Mitchell also knows the league inside out. In 2010, he led Augsburg to the final as coach, to date the Panthers’ greatest success. After stints in Straubing, Ingolstadt and most recently in Switzerland, he is now back as sporting director and is expected to lead Augsburg back from the bottom of the table to the playoff regions in the medium term – forward into the past, so to speak. Mitchell sees parallels in the development of the league with the national team. “When I started, sometimes it was just about not losing too heavily. Today, you go into every game with confidence and try to win it. This attitude is also good for the league.” Conversely, the national team’s successes – silver at the 2018 Olympics and the 2023 World Cup – would not have been possible without a strong league.
There are always suggestions for improvement, but not all of them can be implemented. For example, as long as there is no salary cap like in the NHL, the champions will probably be Mannheim, Munich or Berlin in the next ten years, as they have been since 2015. But surprises are still possible, believes Alexander Oblinger. Like in 2014, when he stormed through the entire playoffs with Ingolstadt from ninth place to the title. Or like in 2010, when the Panthers were in the final. “If everything goes well, a challenger can beat a favorite and march through,” says Oblinger. In Augsburg, they are hoping for the time being that things can only get better after the last two years.