Ice hockey in Halle (Saale)

MEC Hall 04
Greatest successes
Champion Regionalliga Ost 2005 Promotion to the league in 2007 Champion Oberliga Ost 2011 , 2012 , 2013
Club information
history	BSG construction hall (1969–1990) USV hall (1997–1999) ESC Saale Teufel (1999–2004) ESC hall 04 (2004–2011) MEC hall 04 (from 2011)
Location	Halle (Saale)
Nickname	Saale Bulls
Club colors	Red - black - white
league	Oberliga Nord
Venue	Sparkassen Eisdom
capacity	1,500 - 2,500 seats
Head coach	Ryan Foster
captain	Kai Schmitz
Season 2018/19	4th place OL – North / PO quarter-finals

The history of ice hockey in Halle (Saale) begins in the 1950s. The Saale Bulls Halle , the first team in MEC Halle 04 , have been playing in the Oberliga Nord since 2010 . The youth and amateur teams have been organized in ESV Halle since 2004.

history

Halle ice hockey in the GDR (1969 to 1990)

The history of ice hockey in Halle begins in the 1950s when teams first took part on a natural ice rink. After an ice hockey stadium was opened in 1967 , the BSG Aufbau Halle was founded in 1969. After the GDR league was reduced to two teams, it took part in the “best determination” of the winners of the district championships. There the syndicate reached the A group. After the ice rink closed in 1990, the BSG Aufbau was finally dissolved.

New beginning after the fall of the Wall (1990 to 1999)

Despite protests and the collection of signatures, it took until 1998 for the Halle ice rink to be refurbished to make it suitable for games. On July 10, 1997, the club, which was re- established as SG Aufbau Halle , joined the University Sports Club Halle, USV for short, with the sections ice sports and inline skating. The ice hockey department of the USV started in the Saxon State League, where the team was able to take third place in front of up to 3,500 spectators in the 1998/99 season. Meanwhile, some members of the ice hockey department split off from the USV in order to found a direct successor to the BSG and SG Aufbau with Aufbau Halle .

ESC Saaleteufel Halle (1999 to 2004)

On July 6, 1999, the ESC Saaleteufel Halle was founded with the aim of establishing ice hockey in Halle at a high level over the long term. The ice hockey department of the university sports club joined the ESC. In the 1999/2000 season, the game was started with the aim of direct promotion to the next higher division, the Sachsenliga, in the lowest division, the Landesliga Sachsen. The core of the team around coach Michael Barta were some players with experience in the national team of the GDR, including Thomas Graul , Dietmar Peters , Rainer Patschinski and Harald Kuhnke . The rise was achieved, the average attendance was 1,500 to 2,000 visitors per game.

In the 2001/02 season, the ESC took part for the first time as a representative of the Saxon Ice Sports Association in the promotion round to the Regionalliga Süd , where qualification for the fourth highest division was made. The Saaleteufel belonged to the Regionalliga from 2002 to 2004 , until finally an application for bankruptcy had to be filed against the club. Because of the looming insolvency of the Saale devil, ESV Halle and later ESC Halle 04 were founded in spring 2004 . At the same time, some of the offspring of the Saale devils found a new home at the SKC TaBeA Hall in the "Ice Sports" department.

Saale Bulls (since 2004)

The ESC Hall 04 was founded by the operators of the Halle ice rink, Andreas Werkling and Frank Busch as well as Daniel Mischner and Andreas Haschke, who are also on the board today. The club's first coach was Jaroslav Šťastný , who had played in the second-rate first division for the ETC Crimmitschau during his playing days . The first team, the Saale Bulls , took the place of the Saaleteufel in the regional league, while the youth work and the amateur teams were located in ESV Halle.

The ESC ended the premiere season by winning the championship, in the subsequent round of promotion to the Oberliga Nord with the participants from North Rhine-Westphalia, the Halle residents took second place behind the Ratinger Ice Aliens and thus missed the athletic qualification for the following Oberliga season . Thus, the team, which was significantly younger due to the new U23 player rule, also started in the Regionalliga Nord-Ost in the 2005/06 season . The declared goal with a budget of 300,000 euros was promotion to the top division, which was missed after a defeat in the play-off semi-final against the Rostock EC .

In the 2006/07 season , the ESC Halle took fourth place, which meant entitlement to a license application for the 2007/08 season . This was successfully made so that the team started in the third-highest German league the following season. The coaches of the first league team in the history of the ESC were Ivan Horak and Robert Torgler . The season ended in 6th place, so the Saale Bulls had to play in the play-downs to stay in the league. Opponent was the EHC Thuringia , which could be defeated with 4-0 victories.

For the 2009/10 season the ESC Halle withdrew to the Regionalliga Ost after it became known that no separate northern group of the Oberliga would come about. After a reform of the Oberliga for the 2010/11 season , in which a separate Oberliga Ost was set up, the ESC Halle is back in third class. In January 2011, the club was renamed the Central German Ice Hockey Club Hall 04 to improve marketing in the region . The name Saale Bulls for the 1st team was retained.

team

Significant (former) players:

•  Martin Miklík
•  Norbert Pascha
•  Georgi Kimstatsch
•  Alexander Zille
•  Tim Schnell
•  István Pál
•  Norms Müller
•  Benjamin Thiede

Participation of players in the ESBG All-Star Game

The ESBG All-Star Game has been held annually since 2006 and brings together the best players from the 2nd national and upper leagues. Before the actual game, the skills competition took place. Benjamin Thiede won the "fastest runner" competition in 2008 with 16.28 seconds.

Participation in the All-Star-Game while being part of the team
Surname	position	Participation (noun)	team
Benjamin Thiede	striker	2008	Team black red gold

Venue

The Sparkassen-Eisdom seen from Begonienstrasse (2017)

The teams of MEC Halle 04 and ESV Halle played their home games in the Volksbank Arena (formerly Eissporthalle Halle ; own spelling EissportHalle ), which was built in 1957 and completely covered in 1970. In 1990 the hall was closed by the TÜV due to structural and technical defects. In the following years the stadium was completely renovated and finally reopened in October 1998.

The stadium had a capacity of 4,920 for ice hockey games and was also used by the Halle Inline Skate Club and the boxing department of Eintracht Halle . In addition, the hall was open to public ice skating.

In October 2011 the EissportHalle became the Volksbank Arena. The Saale Bulls have been playing in the Sparkassen-Eisdom since the 2014/15 season, as the Volksbank Arena was badly damaged by floods in 2013 and was finally demolished in spring 2016. In the 2013/14 season, the MEC played temporarily in a makeshift tent at the Halle Messe.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} eissporthalle.com, hockey tradition in Halle Saale
2. ↑ Oberliga Nord finally burst. In: fass-berlin.de. May 29, 2009. Retrieved July 10, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Ice hockey in Halle / Saale: The MEC Hall 04 - A club with tradition - Class 2.0. (No longer available online.) In: www4.mz-web.de. December 30, 2016, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 10, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    

Web links

• Official homepage of the MEC Hall 04
• Official homepage of ESV Halle (youth department)