Opening game (GER-USA) of 2010 WC to be played at soccer stadium

According to the swiss page hockeyfans.ch and german site eishockeynews.de there is a rumour that the german organisation comitee of the WC has made plans that the opening game of the 2010 world cup could be played in the "Veltins-Arena", the stadium of Schalke 04. The arena capacity for this event could be around 78,000. Franz Reindl, chief of the comitee said that there are plans for a big project for the tournament but didn't confirm the rumour.

http://www.eishockeynews.de/nachricht.html?nachricht_id=5540 (in german)
www.hockeyfans.ch

That would be absolutely amazing :handclap: and a big big thing for hockey in germany

A cool thing, though that years worlds feels a bit overshadowed by the olympics. But maybe this would boost some interest in the tourney.

What are the chances that it would be sold out if a game were held there?

Hmm, all German hockey fans would at least try to make it a huge event. 78.000 is a bit much though.

I'd be there for sure.

Hope they do it.

That's pretty exciting. I've been waiting for a while for another country to join the "Big 7" and I always figured that it would be good. So hopefully this works. I once worked with a German hockey player who was in Canada working and practicing hockey who seemed to think that hockey was doing well in Germany.

However, this worries me (especially the first few paragraphs):

http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/hockey-night-in-europe-dwindling-crowds-in-germany-may-be-opportunity-for-nhl/

It cites this article (though I can't read it because its in German :D):

http://www.welt.de/sport/article2601442/Dem-deutschen-Eishockey-laufen-die-Fans-davon.html

Any thoughts from Germany and elsewhere?

That's pretty exciting. I've been waiting for a while for another country to join the "Big 7" and I always figured that it would be good. So hopefully this works. I once worked with a German hockey player who was in Canada working and practicing hockey who seemed to think that hockey was doing well in Germany.

However, this worries me (especially the first few paragraphs):

http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/hockey-night-in-europe-dwindling-crowds-in-germany-may-be-opportunity-for-nhl/

It cites this article (though I can't read it because its in German :D):

http://www.welt.de/sport/article2601442/Dem-deutschen-Eishockey-laufen-die-Fans-davon.html

Any thoughts from Germany and elsewhere?


I'm german and here are my thoughts:

There's indeed a decline and there are many reasons for it. Let me focus on one:

bad marketing by the DEB and the clubs + not worldclass performances by the national team +ignorance by the media= almost no media coverage of the sport in Germany

The German media doesn't seem to like hockey:
At the last IIHF World Championship we beat Slovakia convincingly and played well against Finland. Still the media only talked about the Holland-case and the 1-10 spanking by Canada.

One more example: A national sports channel recently bought the rights for the Deutschland-Cup but decided to not air one single game of it. Instead they showed poker tournaments and car tuning shows.

There was no Deutschland-Cup homepage by the DEB. The DEB homepage looks like it's from the mid 90s. Somehow the DEB deems the Internet to be something science fiction only used by freaks. I don't know

Which leads me to the opening-game plan. It would be awesome if there were 78000 in the Veltins-Arena that day but I doubt it because of the marketing-incompetence of the decision makers at the DEB.


Speaking of marketing. No doubt the NHL is good at it.
Franchises in Germany would still fail though, because...

... Tradition. Germans love their clubs. What would happen to the smaller club teams? What happens to the DEL? In the long run artificial franchises with no tradition are doomed to fail.

... High ticket prices (already too high in the DEL)

... no promotion /relegation (big problem atm in the DEL already)

... Teams loaded with foreigners (used to be way too many in the DEL - german fans want to see german hockey players)

... Hamburg and Düsseldorf have their arenas too far away from the city center (Frankfurt is about to do the same mistake). That problem would persist for potential NHL franchises

This vicious attendance/atmosphere cycle mentioned in the slapshot article would still exist because of those and probably many other factors.

Imo the NHL/KHL should abandon their plans of expanding into western/northern Europe. The future belongs to the national leagues and the Champions Hockey League here.

... Hamburg and Düsseldorf have their arenas too far away from the city center (Frankfurt is about to do the same mistake). That problem would persist for potential NHL franchises

I don't think that's really a problem, at least in Hamburg. While they should have build a better railway connection decades ago - heck, they don't even need to build a new one, the rails already exist - it's still good enough to supply a sold-out football-stadium. If it's good enough to supply one of the top 10 teams in attendance when it comes to European football/soccer, it definately should be good enough for the NHL.

Getting from the city center to the two arenas is a matter of 15 minutes, both by car and by train. Plus another five minutes for the shuttle-service if you arrive by train.


I agree with the other points, though. You might even add the problems of an even longer schedule. Fans want to have less regular season games, the NHL would bring more.
Currently, the DEL is suffering from too many games. Many fans can't afford that many games, not to mention that less games would make each game more important. The league isn't reducing them, because they need all the money they can get. Less income would mean a worse product on the ice, which completely negates the possible bigger interest by the fans because of a smaller schedule.

I agree with the other points, though. You might even add the problems of an even longer schedule. Fans want to have less regular season games, the NHL would bring more.
Currently, the DEL is suffering from too many games. Many fans can't afford that many games, not to mention that less games would make each game more important. The league isn't reducing them, because they need all the money they can get. Less income would mean a worse product on the ice, which completely negates the possible bigger interest by the fans because of a smaller schedule.

less money would mean more junior players from your own system. and where are the hamburg juniors? they have yet to produce a DELer i think. that's what is wrong with the DEL too. not all DEL teams are able to develop youth. but that's needed if you want to improve the league.

And you think that fans would care about that?
If the team is playing bad, no one gives a ... about having many young Germans on the roster. Teams would end up with even less money. Fans would simply jump from "there are way too many games" to "the team is way too bad".

Yeah, ultimately a better youth system would help the league as well, especially if it improves the German men's team longterm. But that doesn't change that only the hardcore fans can be persuaded by that, and those tend to come anyway.

I don't think that the youth system can be changed anyway. At least not in the near future. You will always end up with the smaller clubs - especially in the South and West - producing talent, before the DEL-teams with a working youth system will take the best ones. Berlin, Mannheim and Cologne end up with stacked youth rosters, because they offer great conditions and have a name in that area.
A team like Hamburg - which definately needs to improve its youth system by more than a lot - will never be able to produce enough talent, regardless of how hard they try. Hamburg hasn't developed a good hockey player in ages, if ever, and it's not because the local teams were too small. If there is hardly any local talent, you can't develop it. If you can't develop it, you will never get a big enough name to lure talent from further away, like other DEL-teams do.


Basketball isn't producing good young talents either, and even the Handball coaches are complaining about no one coming up to replace the current generation. So it's not like hockey is the only sport which is lacking in that area.

And you think that fans would care about that?
If the team is playing bad, no one gives a ... about having many young Germans on the roster. Teams would end up with even less money. Fans would simply jump from "there are way too many games" to "the team is way too bad".

Yeah, ultimately a better youth system would help the league as well, especially if it improves the German men's team longterm. But that doesn't change that only the hardcore fans can be persuaded by that, and those tend to come anyway.


you got me wrong. i'm not saying that playing youth will increase the attendence. but hockey needs a better youth to improve the level of hockey. is the NLA better because of the money or because they have the better talent on their homegrown players? DEL could spend a lot of more money on foreigners if there'd be only 5 and there would be a lot of good youth to fill the lines.

and that's my point. even the DEL teams have to produce good DEL-talent every now and then.


I don't think that the youth system can be changed anyway. At least not in the near future. You will always end up with the smaller clubs - especially in the South and West - producing talent, before the DEL-teams with a working youth system will take the best ones. Berlin, Mannheim and Cologne end up with stacked youth rosters, because they offer great conditions and have a name in that area.

and why is kassel able to finally produce DEL-talent? the conditions here aren't good. no money to play in the DNL, only one rink. but they won titles on every level.
three players born in kassel are on the current roster. klinge always played here, heinrich was loaned out several times, christ went to mannheim at age 15 and came back. there are a few other players born in kassel around the DEL and 2.liga.

the majority of hockey players is still from the south and east. but it should be possible for DEL teams to develop some players into solid DELers. even for hamburg. you just have to be patient. start now and wait 10 years. doesn't matter. but you have to start.

... Tradition. Germans love their clubs. What would happen to the smaller club teams? What happens to the DEL? In the long run artificial franchises with no tradition are doomed to fail.

We see this here in Hannover. The Indians have a higher attendance in the 3rd league than the Scorpions in the DEL. Fans are loyal. They don't care about modern Arenas, especially if new arenas mean
* higher ticket prices
* higher prices for drinks and food
* boring and/or sterile atmopshere

and:
... Hamburg and Düsseldorf have their arenas too far away from the city center (Frankfurt is about to do the same mistake). That problem would persist for potential NHL franchises

It's a big problem here in Hannover. I live in the middle of the city and it's a major annoyance getting to our arena, almost half an hour by train or car.

Imo the Hannover Scorpions already failed. The only reason they are still in the DEL is the fact the Arena would be empty otherwise, the lose lots of money every season.

Lots of 2nd league clubs have a higher attendance than the likes of Duisburg and Wolfsburg.

I don't think that's really a problem, at least in Hamburg. While they should have build a better railway connection decades ago - heck, they don't even need to build a new one, the rails already exist - it's still good enough to supply a sold-out football-stadium. If it's good enough to supply one of the top 10 teams in attendance when it comes to European football/soccer, it definately should be good enough for the NHL.

Getting from the city center to the two arenas is a matter of 15 minutes, both by car and by train. Plus another five minutes for the shuttle-service if you arrive by train.


I have to admit I've never been to the ColorLineArena.
I do believe that we have to distinguish between two groups of fans. The one group doesn't mind spending a big portion of the day for a hockey game. They even travel hundreds - in case of the Berlin fans in Oulu last night even thousands - of kilometers to see "their" team. Most soccer fans are like that (maybe not in Hoffenheim).

But then there's also the so-called "eventies". Those are the kinds of customers that want to go out and eat chicken wings at an american diner after the game and maybe even catch the latest James Bond flick at the nearest Cinestar and then be home before midnight. They just can't do that when - i.e. in Düsseldorf - they have to get onto a shuttle bus which only takes you to a train that then takes you back into town. You only catch the train if the bus isn't delayed which happens a lot after a hockey game.

If (big IF) pro hockey in Germany is supposed to be americanized - which means just another type of entertainment - then some of the arenas have to be more customer friendly. And one aspect of that customer friendlyness is their proximity to the livelier parts of the city.
In Düsseldorf the arena is in Rath. Rath is a little suburban village that is absolutely dead after 8 pm on any given day.
In Hannover the Arena is on the Messegelände. According to "no one important" they seem to have similar problems there.
In Frankfurt they have suitable formerly industrial areas pretty close to the CBD and Sachsenhausen but they still want to build the new arena outside of anything important next to the Commerzbank-Arena so they can share parking lots with the football stadium.
Like I said I don't know much about Hamburg but wouldn't it be smarter to have an arena in or at least close to the new HafenCity? I think they planned something like that for the Olympics which as we all know will be in London.

That was basically what I had in mind when I wrote that some of the arenas are too far away.

Finnish media is reporting it as a done deal, WHC 2010 opening game will be played in Gelsenkirchen arena between Germany and TBD.
http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/jaakiekko/uutiset.shtml/arkistot/jaakiekko/2008/12/764667

Should be fun to watch.

German media: http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,596545,00.html

DEL frontpage: http://www.del.org

Should be great. I'll try to make it. Would be my second live hockey game ever (after a dull 0-0 tie in Nuremberg a couple of years ago). Tells you something about the interest the DEL generates for me (I follow the NHL for over 10 years now...). Ok, that was off-topic :D

IIHF.com has an article up along with an artists rendition:

http://www.iihf.com/typo3temp/pics/3152f475ff.jpg

Nhl.com has it also

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=398204&cmpid=rss

Prices will be from 19Euros on. Tickets will be available from the 30th January 09

http://www.del.org/index.php?id=181&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1633&tx_ttnews[backPid]=13&cHash=6dc8facdde[

After one day, over 24,000 tickets have been sold for this game.

That's already way past the old World Championship attendance record of 18,750 which was set in Cologne in 2001.

I got my ticket yesterday.

Hfboards meeting in 15 months? :D

So who has the best chance in playing against Germany in this game? Being Canadian, I would love to see team Canada there...The Czech republic is close so they'd attract lots of fans from there for sure...

Now it's already 35.000 tickets sold :amazed: selling way better and faster than everyone would've expected.

If they play Switzerland (don't know if that's possible), I'm sure there will be about 10k swiss fans in Gelsenkirchen.

If the Swiss are in the top division, I think it will come down to the Swiss and the Czechs.

Wow, i can't believe it..now Feb.3, 9:53, 40 000 tickets are sold!!!!

And soon there will be some more(still have no tickets!)

All standing rooms are completely sold out already.

The opponent will depend on the World rankings after the 2009 World Championship. Possible opponents are Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

Over 50.000 tickets gone.

While I do think that there will be quite a few people that have no idea about hockey and just bought tickets because it sounds cool I also think that the majority will be German hockey fans and the atmosphere should be great.

I personally know that about 300 fans of my favourite club are going and we don't really have a huge fanbase.

I'm pretty sure that thousands of fans from Cologne, Berlin, Mannheim, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Iserlohn and Bavaria and all the other 1. and 2. Bundesliga clubs have bought tickets already, you just need to read in the forums.

It's going to be an amazing experience. I can hardly wait. Should be a huge party.

60000 tickets sold until today and more than a yeah to go. They should have picked a bigger arena.

Ticket-selling will be stopped soon, as 10,000 tickets have to be held back for the opponent's fans.

Now, all tickets for German fans are sold out and the rest of 10 000 tickets are only available for the guest-fans.

It really looks like a new world record 2010 in Germany.

In all likelihood, Finland is going to be the opponent.

In all likelihood, Finland is going to be the opponent.

how so?

they said the 4th place team will be the opponent.

how so?

they said the 4th place team will be the opponent.

http://www.spox.com/de/sport/eishockey/0905/News/deb-auswahl-gegen-finnland-usa-und-daenemark.html

While I do think that there will be quite a few people that have no idea about hockey and just bought tickets because it sounds cool (...)

Which is basically the best thing that could possibly happen both for international expansion of the sport and to raise interest in Germany, especially towards the youth. How many times have we heard great players saying that they got hooked on hockey for the first time when they watch big international events (1972-74 Summit Series, Canada Cup, Olympics...)? While it's only a WC, it should only bring good things to german hockey.

Finland is official according to del.org. It says that Finland and the US are ranked 4th and 5th respectively, no matter what the outcome of the current tournament will be.

Finland is official according to del.org. It says that Finland and the US are ranked 4th and 5th respectively, no matter what the outcome of the current tournament will be.

ah, then it makes sense.

finland, US and denmark is the group for germany then. i smell relegation round :D

I've seen this on the offical site a few days ago.

http://www.iihf.com/channels10/iihf-world-championship-wc10/home.html

The opening game on May 7, 2010 will be organized as a truly historic event in the VELTINS-Arena of Gelsenkirchen. Selling out the arena with a capacity of 75,976 would represent a "GUINNESS WORLD RECORD (TM)". The full contingent of over 60,000 tickets of pre-event sales phase 1 is now gone. Some few remaining tickets are currently still available in combination with other World Championship tickets and within hospitality packages. Some more tickets for this game shall go on sale by May 2009.

great news indeed.

where can i get tickets for this? sounds pretty sweet

AFAIK German group will also include USA, Finland and Denmark, so one of those is opponent.

Does somebody know when the last 15.000 tickets are sold??

AFAIK German group will also include USA, Finland and Denmark, so one of those is opponent.

The Opening game will be Germany-Finland

The Opening game will be Germany-Finland
According to iihf.com and the DEB the Opening game will be Germany-USA.

According to iihf.com and the DEB the Opening game will be Germany-USA.

Why that?! :shakehead

Why that?! :shakehead

They finished 4th in the previous tournament is the reason I assume.

This is a disappointing decision, surely it would be better for the atmosphere to have 10 000 Finnish fans for a game like this....??

Germany - USA it is then. I read earlier that Finland would play but those reports must have been wrong.

First report I saw had Germany versus the 2009 4th place team, second report was Germany-Finland, and now this final announcement seems to confirm the first report. Seems the Finland thing may just have been a rumor that was blown out of proportion.

First report I saw had Germany versus the 2009 4th place team, second report was Germany-Finland, and now this final announcement seems to confirm the first report. Seems the Finland thing may just have been a rumor that was blown out of proportion.

According to Finnish papers Finland were offered the game but coach(?) Jalonen turned it down. Something about not wanting to take part in such exhibitons. Also Germany would have prefered to play against the USA anyway.