PressSplit
The Lions Frankfurt are starting the new DEL season 2024/2025. With a new coach, sports director and goal of the playoffs. There’s a huge event coming up in January.
Frankfurt – On Friday (September 20th) it will be for the Lions Frankfurt serious for the first time. The first puck of the 2024/2025 season will drop in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) at 7:30 p.m. At home in the ice rink on Ratsweg. They are opponents Nuremberg Ice Tigers – Former club of New Lions coach Tom Rowe.
The hall has space for around 7,000 fans and now also has its name may be marketed. And in the best case scenario, most people should be able to celebrate their first “threesome” at the Dippemess in front of the ice rink after the game. As a first introduction to the fight for the targeted playoff qualification. On January 4th, a large number of up to 58,000 fans could cheer on the skid cracks from the Main metropolis. In the Deutsche Bank Parkhome venue of the Bundesliga soccer team Eintracht Frankfurt and last Venue of the World Club Dome.
“DEL Event Game” in Deutsche Bank Park: a spectacle is inevitable
The Lions Frankfurt played an event game in the Waldstadion back in 2016: back then it was still in league two, in the summer and against another rival. (Archive photo) © Hübner
Because on this day the lions will compete under competitive conditions for the first time in the new year. And then in the third derby of the season against their “arch rivals” in league one – Adler Mannheim. And the whole thing in the Waldstadion – in the open air: the dream of every ice hockey player.
The disc will fall onto the ice in the arena in the city forest at 6 p.m. as part of the “DEL Winter Game”. On the one hand, “Ice hockey back to the roots” with a frozen sea pond feeling under the starry sky, on the other hand, a huge event with a colorful supporting program and show character surrounding the ice hockey game. In the year of the stadium’s 100th anniversary.
In the North American professional league NHL, these games have long been common practice and are essentially a huge festival that attracts thousands of spectators like a magnet. In the recent past, such games have become more and more popular in German ice hockey, marketing the sport, which otherwise tends to fly under the radar of public perception in the Federal Republic, to a large audience. Even small town clubs from the second division, like the EC Bad Nauheimhave already organized event games – back then at Bieberer Berg in Offenbach.
Third open-air spectacle for Löwen – 50,000 spectators expected
The Frankfurt Lions were also represented at the 2019 Winter Derby on Bieberer Berg in Offenbach. The opponent at that time was the EC Bad Nauheim. (Archive photo) © Andreas Chuc Agency
The opponents were already the lions back then. This will be the third outdoor game in the club’s history since stadiums existed. Once, in 2016, they were at the “Summer Game” already hosts the Waldstadion against the Huskies Kassel. 30,000 fans lined the arena at the time. So now the first open-air spectacle with lion participation in the German first floor is casting its shadow. It will also be the third outdoor match for the guests from Baden-Württemberg.
Ticket sales for the “DEL Event Game” in Deutsche Bank Park has been running since May 16th. 50,000 spectators are expected at the self-proclaimed “biggest ice hockey derby of all time”. Lions fans with season tickets were able to select a ticket in a comparable category in advance.
Ticket sales, fan distribution, supporting program: Before the “DEL Event Game”
Tickets for the game start at 25 euros online. Although ice hockey fans are known to get along well with each other and often drink a beer together hand in hand despite all the rivalry, the fan areas at the event game are somewhat separated between the two camps. The lion fan zone is located on the northwest curve – in blocks 33 to 51, the eagle on the east curve – in blocks 17 to 21 and the adjacent blocks.
“Of course you can also look for your seats in the other areas of the stadium. But the greatest impact as an Adler unit can be achieved if as many fans as possible secure their tickets in the east curve,” the Mannheimers write on their homepage. The best derby atmosphere and choreographies on both sides are probably inevitable.
Kinder Children up to the age of seven can enter the stadium for free, but without the right to a seat. Groups of ten or more people also benefit from discounted ticket prices.
Doors open at 3 p.m., the official welcome will take place at 4 p.m., while the teams will warm up around 5:20 p.m. – accompanied by a supporting program that will continue after the end of the game (around 8:30 p.m.). What exactly is planned, which live acts will perform and whether there will be a closing fireworks display has yet to be announced.
There has been a debate in the past about the name of the venue. The forest stadium should is no longer called Deutsche Bank Parksome think. (by Paul Luka Schneider)
