Admittedly, the announced comeback of superstar Tom Brady attracted far more attention in the football scene than that of the Austrian Bowl in St. Pölten. The return of the AFL to the NV Arena was not quite so natural.
Flashback: In July of the previous year, the Austrian Bowl had to look for a new home at short notice. In the NV Arena, the newly laid turf was unusable for either footballers or soccer players. There was plenty of need for discussion and blame as to the short-term nature and lack of communication.
According to AFBÖ General Secretary Christoph Seyrl, the Lower Austria sports center responsible for the stadium paid for all the expenses incurred due to the move to Innsbruck, so the basis for a return to St. Pölten was created.
“We never wanted to leave. The NV Arena, the Ratzersdorfer See next to it – that suits us perfectly”, specifies AFBÖ President Michael Eschlböck. For the time being, only the Austrian Bowl on July 30 this year is contractually fixed. However, both sides are striving for long-term cooperation. “We would just want to look for something else if we were bursting at the seams here,” Seyrl calculates with almost 5,000 football fans in the 8,000-seat arena.
New league of ten, weakened top teams
After the league only had to get by with two teams in 2020 due to Corona, it is experiencing unprecedented expansion this year. For the first time, ten teams are fighting for entry into the Austrian Bowl. Because the Vienna Vikings and the Tirol Raiders, who were very dominant recently, are taking part with their top teams in the newly founded European League Football and are only allowed to send the second set of players onto the field in the Austrian league, Eschlböck expects more balance: “Now they can other teams have legitimate hopes for the title.”
From Lower Austria’s point of view, it will be the Rangers from Mödling. “All federal states are represented except for Burgenland, Carinthia and Vorarlberg – a nice mix,” says Eschlböck. The league is “frozen” for two years, so it acts as a closed society. AFBÖ wants to make it easier for newcomers from Znaim, Traun, Telfs and Salzburg to establish themselves.
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