The Tölzer Löwen are a well-established team, have kept their coach with Kevin Gaudet and have received some real Granatan for reinforcement.
Löwen boss Christian Donbeck says: "We are stronger than last season."
The Tölzer Löwen have sold 800 season tickets, but they have to play in front of empty stands
The budget is well below last year's budget of almost 2 million euros
Managing Director Donbeck is certain: “We are no worse than 2019/20
Bad Tölz -
Truly grueling months lie behind Christian Donbeck, the managing director of Tölzer Eissport-GmbH.
After the abrupt and unsatisfactory end of the season - the fifth-placed Lions were deprived of their play-off chance because of the first lockdown - it was not only important to keep sponsors and negotiate player contracts, but also to keep nerves.
Because of the corona pandemic, it was questionable for a long time whether the DEL 2 season 2020/21 would actually go over the ice.
After several postponements, the opening bully will be played tomorrow, Friday.
Mr Donbeck, the season starts two months later than planned and is on top of shaky feet.
How is the mood with the Tölz managing director?
We have known about the unstable situation since March 10th, since the season was canceled.
Corona is nothing new anymore, we have to deal with it.
But with Corona in mind, it is incredibly difficult to plan a season.
After all, we are not the Dorfen volunteer fire brigade, but a company with 30 full-time employees.
Up to 100 people work for us on every home game day.
Despite all this, we have to remain flexible week after week within the scope of our economic means so that we can deal with all eventualities.
When did you definitely know that it could actually start?
In mid-September, after several postponements, the league finally set November 6th as the first matchday.
I was one of the few who hit the gas while doing it.
Despite all the risks - a decision had to be made.
Any further postponement would not have helped because it would have made the season even more difficult to plan.
What do you say to the sponsors?
The players?
How do you prepare for the season?
At the time, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that was the right decision.
Also because we received excellent advice from the law firm Breiter and Ponzer in Holzkirchen and our tax office ETL in Tölz.
Play without a spectator and the loyal Löwen fans in the back: How much does this political decision hurt?
Especially the emotional side, i.e. without fans behind you, is an enormous thorn in the Leo soul.
The spectators are immensely important for the motivation of the players.
The emotionality of our fans can turn games.
I am now in the fourth season in Tölz and we have never had that negative emotion and aggressiveness that you sometimes experience in other stadiums and sports.
Our society has developed in such a way that it is sometimes aggressive or even criminal how players or coaches are dealt with when games are lost.
We don't have that problem in Tölz, I give that credit to the fans.
TEG has so far sold around 800 season tickets to fans.
What happens to this income?
Yes, we stopped at 800 because we didn't know what to do next.
All income is in a lawyer account.
We're not touching the money yet, we don't know how many games will actually be played this season.
Partial repayments, rebooking or compensation are available.
But maybe one or the other fan will also say: We want to continue to see top-class ice hockey in Tölz, keep the money as sponsorship or other income.
Isn't the ice hockey stream channel “Sprade-TV”, which is reporting from the stadium for the third season this year, a blessing?
And whether, because Sprade TV is an additional income, which of course depends on the quality of the broadcast and how many viewers tune in.
In our stadium we have the unfortunate situation with the network.
Together with the Stadtwerke and the six-person Sprade TV team, we are looking for a solution to remove the network.
We also want to install additional cameras and employ additional staff to transmit more attractive images.
The “Cable Gay” was also very well received.
Players or coaches are wired with microphones so that the mood from the players' bench comes across well.
These are all factors with which we want to make television broadcasting more attractive.
If you make it so comfortable for fans at home, isn't there a risk that they won't come back to the stadium after the pandemic?
If only we knew what's going on in three or four months ... Because we are actually building on our sophisticated hygiene concept.
In the past seven months I have driven all over Germany and looked at various concepts, including the Therme Erding and the Jochen Schweizer Arena.
On this basis, we have developed our own hygiene concept, which is suitable for up to 50 percent utilization.
District Administrator Josef Niedermaier confirmed this to us.
That alone shows that our concept is extremely good.
The question is whether people in the current situation have the courage to go to the ice rink.
We'll see what that means for the future.
One or the other will prefer the broadcast, others like to come to the stadium.
In addition to sport, there is also the social component.
Last season, the lions had around two million euros available.
How high is the budget this year?
We were careful and we will have to expect losses because we don't know how the season is going: How many injuries do we have?
Which of our sponsors will not hold out the pandemic?
We are currently calculating with a budget that is a large six-figure sum below that.
And so was our licensing.
With this size, we can go into the race with confidence.
Where did you have opportunities to make savings?
Some service providers and contractual partners have partially accommodated us.
The basic costs such as for trips away, equipment etc. remain the same.
But at least one or the other player came to meet us, but there were also some who were very stubborn.
Is there at least a positive development on the part of the sponsors?
The sponsors are companies like us.
The pandemic affects everyone differently.
Our luck is loyalty when it comes to fans and sponsors.
Of 256 small sponsors, only one has dropped out.
We have agreed on partial payments or compensation transactions with some others.
It is unbelievable how loyal the sponsors are to Tölzer ice hockey in these difficult times.
Cengiz Ehliz, long-time sponsor and friend of the Lions, was sentenced to 40 months in prison in Belgium at the first instance in February.
Is there still an economic connection to Mr. Ehliz?
I don't know the background and it's none of my business.
Ehliz has appealed, so the second hearing will be next February.
With Mr. Ehliz and wee we have a main sponsor who has supported us for three years and made it possible for us to play in the 2nd division.
We have weekly contact with Mr. Ehliz, who is 100 percent loyal to us.
Nobody will be able to drive a wedge between the good cooperation with wee.
They created a sophisticated hygiene concept and fought right to the end for the admission of up to 2000 spectators.
Why didn't it work?
The decisions were made at the political level.
And to what extent they are realistic or proportionate, everyone has their own opinion.
The second wave was already mentioned in April and May.
Politicians should have prepared better.
I haven't heard anything from the “Sport” task force, which was supposed to be launched in mid-October.
The current decisions are completely incomprehensible to me.
Wasn't it foreseeable in advance that politics would not play along?
You always start from the risks that we have to weigh up with our hygiene concept.
These are the access control with legitimation check, the contact restriction including a 1.5 meter distance, the mask requirement, the ventilation concept and the disinfection - we managed everything perfectly.
This is not fulfilled in every Munich shopping center or at every train station, where I am not even asked for my personal details or an illness.
I don't understand how to run this in a public area but not in an audited stadium.
The health department was here and checked every single component and found it to be good.
On the Theresienwiese, a gathering of two and a half thousand people was approved as a “service” at the weekend, just because the two Our Fathers pray.
If so, every fan takes out a rosary in the third break and we can play again in front of 2,000 spectators.
Last season, the Lions attracted an average of almost 2,800 fans to the stadium per home game, sixth place in the league ranking.
How do you intend to fill the gap?
We were even fourth.
Because the two winter games in Dresden and Nauheim were included in the statistics.
As far as the budget gap is concerned, we have qualified for the professional sport stimulus package from the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
There are strict legal and economic requirements for this: we have all met them.
A few days ago we got the approval.
The problem with this is that the stimulus package is only in place until December 31st.
Since the pot is still fairly full, the ministry is considering extending the period.
Our league leader Rudorisch has already signaled that.
So I hope that with the support of our sponsors, fans and the support of the government we will get through the season with a bright blue eye.
Korbinian Holzer said goodbye to the KHL in Jekaterinenburg a few days ago.
Was there no way to keep a player of his caliber?
Haha (laughs), I still have the contract in the trash, because it was already printed out.
The pumpkin is a pound type.
He stopped by for coffee last week and we were chatting about whether he could play for us.
That is an incredible appreciation for us and shows the solidarity of former players who have trained with us with the ice club.
We would have financed Holzer through external sponsorship, i.e. outside of our budget.
We even had two sponsors on hand who would have financed it.
We were just in the process of organizing insurance and NHL approval, when the offer from automobilist Jekaterinenburg fell through.
Obviously he accepted the offer, it was a few fifty euros better than what we could offer him.
But his offer to play for us alone shows his character.
Maybe it will come to that, the good contact will not break off.
How far is this little squad going?
I've heard about the small squad a couple of times.
But last season we had seven defenders and only one more striker.
So actually it's just a position that we have less than last year.
In Tölz we always have to manage the balancing act between established players and young homegrown players.
With Luca Tosto, Niklas Heinzinger, Oliver Ott and Maxi Leitner, we have four very talented Tölzers who are supposed to get the Ice Age and whom the trainer has to train.
But all DEL 2 clubs have upgraded ...
We have two newcomers, 14 last season. That means we have a very well-rehearsed team.
Also in terms of the system, because coach Kevin Gaudet has stayed.
That is a huge advantage.
Tyler McNeely, who came last year with a hand injury, trained like a berserk all summer and is in top shape.
In the goalkeeper position we also improved with Max Franzreb.
Kenney Morrison replaces Matt MacKenzie, which is certainly not a deterioration.
And returnees Thomas Merl replaces Mark Heatley - that's two or three classes difference.
With these four players, we have strengthened as much as the competition.
So aim for the top four or five again ...
Exactly, I don't see why we should lower our standards and our thinking about success in view of this bomb squad.
Last year we came in fifth under difficult conditions.
Luck or bad luck - sometimes you win tight games, sometimes you lose them.
The table doesn't lie after 52 games, it reflects the quality that you had in the sporting field.
We've been on the ice since October 1st, it's six weeks until November 6th, everything as usual.
It is your fourth season as a lion boss.
Which headline would you like to read about yourself and the “Buam” at the end of the season?
I don't need to read anything about myself, I'm part of Tölzer ice hockey.
We all stick together extremely in Tölz.
We are the smallest infrastructure in the two German professional leagues, so I would be happy to hear the headline: The Tölzer ice hockey family is in the final.
