Release from 04.06.2025

ICE General Assembly kicks off 100-day countdown to new season

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On Wednesday, the ordinary General Assembly of the win2day ICE Hockey League took place in Salzburg. Exactly 100 days ahead of the 2025/26 season opener, strategic decisions were made. Already the day before, Red Bull Media House had presented new opportunities for development and marketing.

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Representatives from twelve clubs participated in the assembly, with eleven teams holding voting rights. HC TIWAG Innsbruck was excused, while FTC Telekom Budapest – having met all required criteria and therefore eligible to compete in the 2025/26 season – attended as a “provisional member” without voting rights.

In addition to the formal agenda items, the league also defined its further approach regarding the open TV and streaming rights. The final phase of ongoing negotiations was aligned accordingly. All decisions were made without a dissenting vote. On Tuesday, Red Bull Media House had already outlined concrete growth strategies, some of which are set to be implemented as early as the 2025/26 season.

Season start in 100 days
Exactly 100 days from now – on Friday, 12 September – the win2day ICE Hockey League will enter its 26th season with teams from four A-Pool nations. For the first time, two Hungarian teams – FTC Telekom Budapest, which has fulfilled all entry requirements, and Hydro Fehérvár AV19 – will take part.

The league format remains unchanged: the regular season consists of two home-and-away rounds, totaling 48 games per team. This adds up to 312 games, with each team facing every other team four times. The top six teams in the standings will qualify directly for the quarter-finals. Teams placed seventh to tenth will battle for the remaining two spots in the "best-of-3" pre-playoffs. Quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will all be contested in the traditional "best-of-7" format.

Defending champion EC Red Bull Salzburg, along with EC-KAC and HCB Südtirol Alperia, will start their competitive campaigns almost two weeks earlier than their league rivals, as they represent the win2day ICE Hockey League in the Champions Hockey League, which begins on 28 August.

ICE President Alexander Gruber on the General Assembly:
“The General Assembly featured very constructive discussions in which important groundwork was laid for the future. There was broad consensus among all participants that the win2day ICE Hockey League still holds significant growth potential. We will soon unveil the first measures to unlock this potential. The remaining 100 days until the season start will be put to good use.”