h AlpsHL

The Steel Wings Linz have withdrawn from the Alps Hockey League. © Matthäus Kostner

The district is full: AlpsHL loses next club

Lustenau, Fassa, the KAC Future Team: The list of AlpsHL clubs that will no longer play in the league in the upcoming season is long. Now another club is joining.

The Steel Wings Linz, the farm team of the ICE club Black Wings Linz, will withdraw from the AlpsHL. The Upper Austrians confirmed this on Tuesday morning.


The withdrawal of the junior team is the next blow for the AlpsHL, after three other clubs have already announced their closure. This means that the league has lost a quarter (!) of its 16 clubs over the summer months. What are the reasons for this?

Financial reasons for the end

The Steel Wings are concerned with financial aspects. The team costs around one million euros a year, a sum that the Linz team can no longer afford - especially since the Black Wings have also repeatedly struggled with financial problems. "Continuing the team is no longer justifiable for the overall organization," the Linz team wrote in a press release.

One problem in the multinational AlpsHL (clubs from Slovenia, Croatia, Italy and Austria are taking part) is the long distances. Although most players are not full-time professionals, they have to travel hundreds of kilometers. This not only costs a lot of time, but also a lot of money. The fact is that the Steel Wings have to say goodbye to their second team. "It's a step backwards in our philosophy, we have to be honest about that," says Philipp Lukas, the Black Wings' sporting director and youth coordinator.

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