All 26 applying clubs have received approval for the 2021/22 Oberliga season. Returnees to the Oberliga Nord is the one ESC Wohnbau Moskitos Essen, who had asked to withdraw for financial reasons before last season. Thus, the Oberliga Nord In the coming season there will be a strength of 14 clubs, while in the Oberliga Süd 12 teams will currently be playing. The Selber Wolves, as league champions eligible for promotion, have also formally submitted a notification for league play.
At the league meetings of the major leagues (North on July 9th in Hanover/South on July 10th in Rosenheim), looking back at the past season, it became clear that it would not have been possible without the state support through Corona aid. In addition, the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund and the upper league teams looked ahead to the planned 21/22 season at the meetings.
In this context, there was also discussion about the newly founded media and marketing commission, which is made up of club representatives and with the help of which the professionalism of the third highest German ice hockey league is to be further promoted. The schedule is expected to be published in the last week of July. The start of the season in the North relay is scheduled for September 24th, the South relay will start playing on October 7th. In both leagues, the play-offs will be preceded by a double round (52 games north/44 games south).
The return of the Moskitos Essen On the one hand, this was due to the sporting suitability and, on the other hand, due to the club's clearly good business performance during the Corona crisis. There was also no sporting decline for the Mosquitoes. The approval was also subject to close coordination with the ice hockey association Nordrhein-Westfalen in advance. Nevertheless, the substructure of the upper leagues remains a big topic in the ongoing discussions with the regional associations.
The approval documents were checked by DEB-Lawyer Marcus Haase, DEB-Finance manager Birgit Fend and the DEB-Head of gaming operations Markus Schubert. Three clubs received their approval with conditions that must be met before or during the season. In principle, the clubs were instructed to plan with a ticketing discount of at least 15 percent. The plausibility of the budget plans was also closely scrutinized.
DEB-General Secretary Claus Gröbner: “The upper league teams deserve praise for how they fought through this difficult crisis situation last season. We as an association are very happy about this and also relieved that this phase has been overcome after the outbreak of the corona pandemic. Despite the circumstances, the clubs have also managed to take the next steps towards further professionalization. We now want to build on this together and strengthen this development, even though we know that the challenges remain great and the road back to normality can still be rocky.”
DEB-Head of gaming operations Markus Schubert: “We are pleased to be able to approve all 25 current Oberliga clubs for the new 21/22 season. We want them too Moskitos Essen back to normal after a year of abstinence Oberliga Nord greet. This shows that the upper league continues to be an important interface to the regional associations and that we are generally always very happy when clubs take a well-considered leap into the professional sector. The season ahead is unlikely to be an easy one for the clubs. We continue to face major challenges that we want to tackle and solve together with all clubs in the interests of ice hockey.”