Wolfgang Gastner has been managing director of Nürnberg Ice Tigers for around three and a half years. But he has already had to navigate the club from the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) through storms that others have not experienced in three and a half decades. First the long-standing financier withdrew, Gastner's second season was canceled due to the corona virus, the third took place in empty halls, and in the current one, various games were already canceled because there were corona outbreaks among the opponents. In the meantime, several people from Nuremberg have also become infected, and soon only 25 percent of the seats will be allowed to be occupied at home games. If the corona numbers continue to rise, ghost games are even threatening again. As a precaution, the Ice Tigers have stopped ticket sales.
Because things are more relaxed in other federal states, equal opportunities in the DEL are no longer given.
Not even on the ice when players are in quarantine and can only compete in core squads.
Mannheim, Munich, Düsseldorf and Nuremberg have already experienced this.
Most recently, the Iserlohners, who went down in Straubing with two and a half rows 0: 5.
Trainer Brad Tapper found it so absurd that shortly before the end he threw drinking bottles on the ice in protest and went into the cabin.
Wolfgang Gastner is also not very enthusiastic about how things are going in the DEL, and recently presented an idea in the Nürnberger Nachrichten: "What has to happen next is to postpone relegation."
What about promotion and relegation?
This is a sensitive topic, because relegation and promotion have only just been reintroduced - after years of discussion. But if you are about to crash because of a bad year, it is much more difficult to find reliable donors, according to the critics. In terms of sport, too, there is no point in getting ahead if it is only about short-term goals, then hardly anyone counts on the youth. But in the end the proponents prevailed because "Ascent and descent belong to German sporting culture", as was repeatedly heard.
In October 2018, DEL and DEL2 signed the contract, there should be another exchange in the 2020/21 season, but because the season was again poor due to Corona, the DEL suspended relegation again. The second division grudgingly agreed, but still let Master Bietigheim advance. That's why the DEL plays with 15 clubs. One of them should go down safely, is Frankfurt DEL2 champion, there are even two relegated teams in the first division, so that it comes back to 14 teams.
Gastner wants to prevent that. And according to FAZ information, it receives support from Krefeld. Otherwise, no team has yet stood out calling out loud for a suspension. But if you ask around in the industry, you will learn that there are definitely others who are worried about having to go into a crucial game with an emergency squad. Or that the schedule is so tight because of the many relocations that his team runs out of breath. DEL boss Gernot Tripcke, himself never a friend of the reintroduction, recently said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “Now it occurs to many who really wanted to be relegated that relegation is not so cool when you can get down. "
But Tripcke is not in favor of the renewed suspension: “We have a clear contract with DEL2. We knew before the season that one or maybe even two relegated teams would be played out. ”The fact that“ a few games have now been postponed ”is no reason to doubt it. “Sure, if we have to interrupt or break off the season in December, it's a different situation. But as of today that would be completely premature, and that would not look good on us either. "
The biggest hurdle would be the DEL2 anyway. Its managing director René Rudorisch says: "The contract cannot be changed unilaterally." It was clear to everyone that "Corona influences can also occur during the season", so "the sporting competition cannot be reduced to absurdity," says Rudorisch whose league had already lost Bietigheim in the spring. If Frankfurt follows next year, two top teams would be gone from the first division without a replacement.
In addition: not every second division club can advance, you have to prove minimum requirements in terms of infrastructure and profitability.
Currently only Frankfurt can do that.
So Rudorisch says: "If we give up all the clubs that are capable of being promoted and never get one down that goes into the promotion race, the system cannot work in the long term." That would probably not even bother some from the first division.
They were never in favor of relegation anyway.