Bavarian ice hockey leagues

The league system in Bavaria consists of three separate tiers, these being the Bayernliga (IV) (English:Bavarian League), Landesliga (V) (English:State League) and Bezirksliga (VI) (English:County League). The overall system has remained unchanged for a lengthy period of seasons.

The number of clubs, especially in the lowest tier, the Bezirksliga, can fluctuate due to teams joining and other teams leaving the league. This is mostly due to lack of players, or, the other extreme, an over supply of players and the need to form a reserves team. Occasionally, clubs fold, reform or re-enter the league system. In the current Bayernliga season, the EC 2000 Ulm/Neu-Ulm folded in December 2007, being unable to pay their players.

The Bayernliga champion earns the right to gain promotion to the Oberliga. At the end of the 2006-07 season, the runner-up was also promoted, which is an exception.

Until the end of the 1999-2000 season, the Bayernliga was only the fifth tier of the league system. The league between Oberliga and Bayernliga, the Regionalliga, was disbanded after this season and the majority of its clubs integrated into the Oberliga.

The Bavarian Eissport Verband (BEV) is the largest regional ice hockey association in Germany with 14.000 registered players in over 90 clubs. Apart from the 79 senior teams playing in its league system for the 2007-08 season, there is also eight women's teams and 284 junior teams.[1] For this reason, the Bayernliga is the only statewide league whose champion directly qualifies for the Oberliga, all other leagues, the Regionalligas (English:Regional Leagues) cover larger areas or have to go through a promotion play-off round.

Above the BEV there are currently five Bavarian teams in the DEL (German Ice Hockey League) (I), two in the 2nd Bundesliga (II) and twelve in the Oberliga (III). This means, 19 of 56 clubs in the first three divisions of German ice hockey currently come from Bavaria.

Bavaria, especially the southern, mountainous region of it, is the "cradle" of German ice hockey with many former German internationals coming from there. Historically, the German championship was dominated by clubs from Bavaria and Berlin. Nowadays however, Bavarian teams rarely win a championship. The situation is actually very similar to the Canadian teams in the NHL, who provide the majority of players but win a minority of titles.

In 87 editions of the German championship until 2007, Bavarian clubs have won 35. Of the current DEL teams, none hold a German title to their name. In the 2nd Bundesliga, Landshut and Riessersee hold 12 titles between them and in the Oberliga, Füssen, Tölz and Rosenheim have earned 20 German championship between them. The EV Füssen is second only in numbers of titles to Berliner Schlittschuhclub, having won 16 German championships from 1949 to 1973.

One reason for the leading role Bavarian ice hockey had, and still to some extent has, is the number of ice hockey stadiums in the state. Almost 40 percent of all stadiums in Germany are in Bavaria and twice as many as in the second-ranked state Nordrhein-Westfalen:

Source:"Kunsteisbahnen Deutschland". Official DEB website. Archived from the original on 2008-03-25. Retrieved 2008-03-29.

The nine senior leagues split over three tiers, operating on the following modus:[2]

On top of the division champions, each tier also plays out its level champions, the Bayernliga Meister, Landesliga Meister and Bezirksliga Meister.

The Landsliga and Bezirksliga are subdivided in four divisions each with the following divisional champions:

Source:"Bavarian ice hockey leagues". Fussball.de. Archived from the original on July 3, 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-22.

• The club Eishockeyclub HC 98 München was renamed in 2003 into EHC München.
• The SB Rosenheim as company were withdrew from the DEL in 2000 and the club Sportbund Rosenheim folded its ice sports department also in 2000. The newfounded club Starbulls Rosenheim had to restart in the Bezirksliga
• The EV Landsberg folded in 2000. The newfounded club EV Landsberg 2000 had to restart in the Bezirksliga and was renamed 2010 into EV Landsberg.
• The Deggendorfer EC folded in 2002. The teams of Deggendorfer EC changed to the other club Deggendorfer SC
• The Peissenberg Hornets as company were withdrew in 2001. The club TSV Peißenberg forwards the playing-mode of the Senior team, which had to restart in the Bezirksliga'.
• The Erding Jets folded as company in 2002. The club TSV Erding restarted the playing-mode of the Senior team in 2002 in the Bezirksliga.
• The EC Atlantis Ulm folded in 2003. The 2000 founded club EC Ulm 2000 folded in late 2007. The newfounded club VfE Ulm/Neu-Ulm started the playing-mode in 2007/08.
• The EHC Memmingen folded in 2003. The teams of EHC Memmingen changed to the other club ECDC Memmingen.
• The ERC Selb folded in 2004. The newfounded club VER Selb had to restart in the Bezirksliga.
• The Augsburger EV withdrew its team in 2005 and restart the playing-mode in 2010.
• The Mighty Dogs Schweinfurt as company were withdrew in 2005. The playing-mode were forwarded by the amateur team of ERV Schweinfurt in the Landesliga.
• The Geretsried River Rats as company were withdrew in 2003. The member of the ice sports department goes out of the club TuS Geretsried in 2006 and the newfounded club ESC Riverrats Geretsried had to restart in the Bezirksliga.
• The Eisbären Regensburg as company folded in 2008. The playing-mode were forward by the amateur team of EV Regensburg in the Landesliga.
• The club SV Gendorf was renamed after 2000 in SVG Burgkirchen and stopped the playing-mode of the Senior team in 2010 after losing the Possibility to Play in Burgkirchen at the River Alz.

For the 2016-17 season, the following clubs from Bavaria played in the top three German leagues:

In the DEL:

• Thomas Sabo (Nürnberg) Ice Tigers
• Augsburger Panther
• Straubing Tigers
• Ingolstadt Panther
• EHC München

In the 2nd Bundesliga:

• Starbulls Rosenheim
• SC Riessersee

In the Oberliga:

• EC Bad Tölz
• EC Peiting
• ERC Sonthofen
• EV Landshut
• EHC Waldkraiburg
• EV Lindau
• EV Regensburg
• VER Selb
• Deggendorfer SC
• 1. EV Weiden
• EHV Schönheide
• Höchstädter EC

• Bayernhockey-Inoffical website on Bavarian ice hockey
• Eishockey Magazin (in German)
• Hockeyweb-Tables and results from the regional German associations

• Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the DEL
• 2nd Bundesliga
• Oberliga

• 2006-07 Bavarian ice hockey season
• 2007-08 Bavarian ice hockey season

• Bayrischer Eissport Verband- Official Bavarian ice hockey website
• Hockey Archives - International ice hockey website with tables and results (in French)
• Private website on the history of Munich ice hockey