Ice Hockey in 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 extend 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:
| State | Number |
|---|---|
| Bayern | 73 |
| Baden-Württemberg | 24 |
| Berlin | 6 |
| Brandenburg | 0 |
| Bremen | 2 |
| Hamburg | 4 |
| Hessen | 10 |
| Mecklenburg Vorpommern | 4 |
| Niedersachsen | 10 |
| Nordrhein Westfalen | 35 |
| Rheinland- Pfalz | 8 |
| Saarland | 2 |
| Sachsen | 11 |
| Sachsen- Anhalt | 1 |
| Schleswig- Holstein | 2 |
| Thüringen | 1 |
| Germany | 193 |
Read more about this topic: Bavarian Ice Hockey Leagues
Famous quotes containing the word ice:
“I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and bad dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)