Bavarian ice hockey leagues
Nation
Germany
State
Bavaria
Promotion To
Oberliga Süd
Levels
Bayernliga (IV)
Landesliga (V)
Bezirksliga (VI)
Number of leagues
9
Number of teams
80
Current Champions 2007-08
EHC Waldkraiburg

TheBavarian ice hockey leagues are part of the German ice hockey league system and form the tiers four to six of the league system in the state ofBavaria. The leagues are operated by theBayrischer Eissport Verband, the Bavarian association for ice sports.

The league system in Bavaria consists of three separate tiers, these being theBayernliga (IV) (English:Bavarian League),Landesliga (V) (English:State League) andBezirksliga (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, theBezirksliga, 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 currentBayernliga season, theEC 2000 Ulm/Neu-Ulm folded in December 2007, being unable to pay their players.

TheBayernliga champion earns the right to gain promotion to theOberliga. 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, theBayernliga was only the fifth tier of the league system. The league betweenOberliga andBayernliga, theRegionalliga, was disbanded after this season and the majority of its clubs integrated into theOberliga.

TheBavarian 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, theBayernliga is the only statewide league whose champion directly qualifies for theOberliga, all other leagues, theRegionalligas (English:Regional Leagues) cover larger areas or have to go through a promotion play-off round.

Above theBEV there are currently five Bavarian teams in theDEL (German Ice Hockey League) (I), two in the2nd Bundesliga (II) and twelve in theOberliga (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, theGerman 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 theNHL, 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 currentDEL teams, none hold a German title to their name. In the2nd Bundesliga,Landshut andRiessersee hold 12 titles between them and in theOberliga,Füssen,Tölz andRosenheim have earned 20 German championship between them. TheEV Füssen is second only in numbers of titles toBerliner 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 fromthe original on 2008-03-25. Retrieved2008-03-29.

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

For the 2007-08 season, theBayernliga sponsored theBayer company operated in one single division of 16 clubs. The season went from October 2007 to March 2008.

Each team in the league played each other twice, home and away. at the end of the regular season, the top eight teams entered a play-off round. In a best-of-three modus, the winner of theBayernliga was determined. The bottom eight teams also played a best-of-three play-down round to determine the two teams relegated to theLandesligas.

Until the end of the 1999-2000 season, the league operated on a fourteen club home-and-away season with no play-offs. From 2000, the strength of the league was increased to sixteen clubs in two regional groups of eight. After a first round, the top four of each group played another group stage, the championship group. The bottom four from each group did the same in a relegation group. From the 2002-03 season, play-offs were introduced after the championship round. The year after, the league moved to its current modus of a sixteen team home-and-away season with play-offs at the end.

Each of the fourLandesligas played a regular season of home-and-away matches. The two first placed teams of each league then entered achampionship round of eight teams. Again played in home-and-away modus, the top two teams of this round gain promotion to theBayernliga. Should one or more teams from theBayernliga gain entry to theOberliga with a lesser number then that being relegated from theOberliga to theBayernliga, additional teams may be promoted from theLandesliga.

The other six teams in each of the fourLandesligas played out another home-and-away round with the last placed team from each league being relegated to the correspondingBezirksliga.

This modus for the 2007-08 season actually differs from the previous years, when after the first round of home-and-away games, theLandesligas were split into a top-four and a bottom-four group, with the latter determining the relegated team and the former playing for the group champion who would enter a four-team play-off for theLandesliga title andBayernliga promotion.

In theBezirksliga, the lowest level of play, each league again plays a home-and-away season. The winner of each 'Bezirksliga goes to theBezirksliga championship where the four teams determined the champion of this level. Each of the four regional champions is also promoted to the correspondingLandesliga. For all other clubs in theBezirksliga the season ends after the main round. there is no relegation as there is no league below theBezirksliga.

On top of the division champions, each tier also plays out its level champions, theBayernliga Meister,Landesliga Meister andBezirksliga Meister.

• With theETC Crimmitschau in 1992, a team fromSachsen won the Bayernliga.

• The 2000-01Bezirksliga final saw the clash of two Bavarian "giants". The two re-formed clubs,SB Rosenheim andEV Landsberg both didn't lose a regular season game and remained unbeaten in the semi-finals,Landsberg having scored 234 goals in 14 matches andRosenheim 164 in 12.Landsberg then went on to win both final games finishing on a 16-0-0 record with 247 goals for and 15 goals against. A year later, the situation repeated itself quite similar in theLandesliga, with theEVL again dominating.^[3]

TheLandsliga andBezirksliga are subdivided in four divisions each with the following divisional champions:

Source:"Bavarian ice hockey leagues". Fussball.de. Archived fromthe original on July 3, 2007. Retrieved2008-03-22.

• The clubEishockeyclub HC 98 München was renamed in 2003 intoEHC München.
• TheSB Rosenheim as company were withdrew from theDEL in 2000 and the clubSportbund Rosenheim folded its ice sports department also in 2000. The newfounded clubStarbulls Rosenheim had to restart in theBezirksliga
• TheEV Landsberg folded in 2000. The newfounded clubEV Landsberg 2000 had to restart in theBezirksliga and was renamed 2010 intoEV Landsberg.
• TheDeggendorfer EC folded in 2002. The teams of Deggendorfer EC changed to the other clubDeggendorfer SC
• ThePeissenberg Hornets as company were withdrew in 2001. The clubTSV Peißenberg forwards the playing-mode of the Senior team, which had to restart in theBezirksliga'.
• TheErding Jets folded as company in 2002. The clubTSV Erding restarted the playing-mode of the Senior team in 2002 in theBezirksliga.
• TheEC Atlantis Ulm folded in 2003. The 2000 founded clubEC Ulm 2000 folded in late 2007. The newfounded clubVfE Ulm/Neu-Ulm started the playing-mode in 2007/08.
• TheEHC Memmingen folded in 2003. The teams of EHC Memmingen changed to the other clubECDC Memmingen.
• TheERC Selb folded in 2004. The newfounded clubVER Selb had to restart in theBezirksliga.
• TheAugsburger EV withdrew its team in 2005 and restart the playing-mode in 2010.
• TheMighty Dogs Schweinfurt as company were withdrew in 2005. The playing-mode were forwarded by the amateur team ofERV Schweinfurt in theLandesliga.
• TheGeretsried River Rats as company were withdrew in 2003. The member of the ice sports department goes out of the clubTuS Geretsried in 2006 and the newfounded clubESC Riverrats Geretsried had to restart in theBezirksliga.
• TheEisbären Regensburg as company folded in 2008. The playing-mode were forward by the amateur team ofEV Regensburg in theLandesliga.
• The clubSV Gendorf was renamed after 2000 inSVG 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 theDEL:

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

In the2nd Bundesliga:

• Starbulls Rosenheim
• SC Riessersee

In theOberliga:

• 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, theDEL
• 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

• Ice hockey leagues in Germany
• Ice hockey in Bavaria

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata