Lights out on pro hockey in Munich . . . again?

Everything started out great for the club. The first season in the league they finished 8th, qualified for the playoffs in the first round, were they ended up being swept by Kölner Haie. The second season for the club was a bit of a let down, finishing 11th and missing the playoffs all together by five points. However, the club then took an even bigger turn for the worse.

Rumours started to swirl in April that the club was in some financial troubles and might have trouble staying up in the DEL unless they could find some added help. In the third week of April, it was confirmed that one of the main shareholders, Jantz, was going to retire, leaving the foot of the bill to the Philips corporation. 

According to the club, they had a net loss of €2.7 million for the 2011-12 season. 

Even though the club was in talks with Schwenningen about the purchase of their licence, the club was going to do everything that they could to stay in the DEL. It started to begin to look like the future of the club in the DEL was bleak, however, things actually took a turn for the better on April 23 when Rainer Beck, owner of 2.Bundesliga club Landshut, would be willing to talk with Philips about the purchase of the club. Beck's idea was he would control both of the Bavarian clubs, leaving Landshut behind in 2.Bundesliga and keep running with EHC München in the DEL. The only concern was that if Landshut was strong in the 2.Bundesliga and the favourite towin the league, they would be able to gain a promotion if they won the league and München died. Just a day later, Beck said he would be in talks with Philips, however, he wouldn't move forward with the takeover as long as Schwenningen was willing to purchase the licence out of respect for SERC not interfering with Beck trying to purchase the licence of Hannover Scorpions.

On May 7, the situation in Munich is all but over for the club. The talks between the club and the City of Munich, which lasted for several weeks, officially died, which has left the club on life support. The club and the city were trying to work out a deal to get the club sponsorship from the municipal works, but in the end it never happened for political reasons. There were talks to get a sponsorship package of €900,000, enough money to help the club keep going, along with Beck coming in, however those never went through because the city would have trouble explaining why they couldn't help other clubs in the area who need money. At the end of all this, Manager Jurgen Bochanski was left in tears (who is also going to retire) when he went on to say "the contract is worked out with Schwenningen and must only be signed."

As Olympia-Eissportzentrum melts the ice for the summer and they turn out the lights, it paints the picture for the end of professional ice hockey in Munich. The signature of Schwenningen will see them promoted to the DEL, while München will officially be no more; no relegation to 2.Bundesliga, or Oberliga, or even Bayernliga, just gone.

 

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