I'm not sure this is really of interest to anyone here, but it made me pretty emotional so I thought I'd share and it's always nice to broaden your horizons on foreign hockey drama, right?
There is (now "there was"...) this German hockey club playing in the DEL (highest league) called Hamburg Freezers (Jamie Benn played for them during the lockout, I think?) and 5 days before the application deadline for a new DEL licence the owners (AEG who also own, among others, the LA Kings and the Eisbären Berlin) said "nope they cost too much" and said they wouldn't apply for a new licence (which costs €800,000). They really didn't tell anyone before (not staff or players) and already sold season tickets for 16/17 etc. :/
The captain of the Freezers (Christoph Schubert, he used to play in the NHL) tried to save the club basically all by himself (with help from others though, for example a field hockey player who won olympic gold and some footballers, I think?) and managed to raise almost 1 million euros in 5 days, but the owners still didn't even want to apply for a new licence for even one year to buy some time for them to find a new owner or sponsors. So now the club just closes and the players don't have a club anymore at the moment and the staff are all out of a job. :(
Here are two articles with more info (the only ones I could find in English with my German google, lol):
Re: Random Hockey Thread
There is (now "there was"...) this German hockey club playing in the DEL (highest league) called Hamburg Freezers (Jamie Benn played for them during the lockout, I think?) and 5 days before the application deadline for a new DEL licence the owners (AEG who also own, among others, the LA Kings and the Eisbären Berlin) said "nope they cost too much" and said they wouldn't apply for a new licence (which costs €800,000). They really didn't tell anyone before (not staff or players) and already sold season tickets for 16/17 etc. :/
The captain of the Freezers (Christoph Schubert, he used to play in the NHL) tried to save the club basically all by himself (with help from others though, for example a field hockey player who won olympic gold and some footballers, I think?) and managed to raise almost 1 million euros in 5 days, but the owners still didn't even want to apply for a new licence for even one year to buy some time for them to find a new owner or sponsors. So now the club just closes and the players don't have a club anymore at the moment and the staff are all out of a job. :(
Here are two articles with more info (the only ones I could find in English with my German google, lol):
http://www.dw.com/en/captain-schubert-fights-to-save-freezers-ice-hockey-team/a-19277269
http://www.dw.com/en/bid-to-save-hamburg-freezers-del-ice-hockey-team-comes-up-short/a-19281624
I didn't even like the Freezers much, but this is still so sad to me after having followed their efforts over the last week. :(