Much is still provisional at the site where one of Europe’s most modern sports arenas will open in just over a month. The conference room in the SAP Garden, where EHC Red Bull Munich hosted a press conference on Thursday, is not yet fully equipped. Work is still underway.
This also applies to the EHC team, which will start in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) on September 20th, exactly one week before the opening game against the Buffalo Sabres. So shortly before a new era in Munich ice hockey begins, coach Toni Söderholm and captain Patrick Hager are sitting in the conference room this Thursday. Manager Christian Winkler joins them shortly afterwards; he had another meeting. There is still a lot to do.
Winkler, who has been working at EHC for more than 20 years, is particularly keen to note how special these days are now, just before the official opening. After the “rubber boat” (as he called the old Olympic ice rink) had lost all its air and a few tears had been shed, “it was memorable to come in here for the first time,” he says. Winkler still catches himself sometimes standing in a corner, looking around and asking “if this is really like this.” In these moments, he occasionally catches himself thinking for a brief moment that it could be a dream. “But it is reality.”
Since August 5, the Munich team has been training on the facility’s three underground training ice rinks – and enjoying the new amenities. The new training conditions are “worlds better” than before, stresses Hager. In the Olympic ice rink, the team regularly had to be split into four groups when it was time for strength training, as the size of the fitness room was too small. “Koni” (Abeltshauser, editor’s note), Hager also says, “couldn’t get through the door without bending down. How are you supposed to do hurdle jumps there?” Now the team can simply switch to one of the other two ice rinks when the ice needs to be made on the one they’ve just used. In the old rink, all players had to go to the locker room for 15 minutes.
Without the CHL, there would be a “slightly different rhythm” in this preseason, says Söderholm
Many things will be better and easier for the EHC in the far west of the Olympic Park. But with the SAP Garden, expectations will also grow. All the issues surrounding the new arena are an “interesting point,” says defender Dominik Bittner. Primarily, he explains, a player is only interested in his own performance and how he can contribute to the team’s success. Actually, says Bittner, “the whole outside stuff is of no interest.” But only actually. Because secondarily, “of course it does matter at all,” because you want to inspire your fans, play in front of a full stadium and “make something like this a fortress.” Bittner does not perceive the high expectations that all this can bring with it as pressure. He turns it around – into a positive: It is an “absolute privilege” to be able to be there from the start. Being part of the first generation in the SAP Garden is a great blessing.
With all the fuss about the new arena, the EHC must forget what was by its standards a disappointing season. Fifth place in the main round and a clear semi-final defeat (1:4) against Bremerhaven did not meet Munich’s expectations – and also meant that in the opening season of the SAP Gardens, for the first time in nine years, there will be no Champions Hockey League (CHL) with Munich participation. “You can see that the sting is still there,” says captain Hager, looking back on the past season. Without the CHL, there is a “slightly different rhythm” in this preseason preparation, says Söderholm. “We take more time for certain areas,” he explains, and a key element in training is “finding the aggressiveness in our game as quickly as possible.”
In addition to the search for the ideal team setup, which every professional club starts anew in the summer, the Munich team is pleasantly ignorant of the new arena. Every EHC player has already played in large arenas, says Hager, “but we don’t really know what to expect here.”