A total of 12 (!) Wednesday game days are scheduled, with two each in September and October, a first-time occurrence. This threatens sparsely filled arenas, especially in autumn.
Peculiarities of the individual teams
Fehervar AV19:
One of those teams that will play both Milano away games in one trip (October 17/18) - assuming the arena is completed on time. From November 20 to 28, four home games in a row are scheduled.
Black Wings Linz
Season start with home advantage: Six of the first nine games of the season will take place in Linz. Will the audience follow suit?
FTC-Budapest
Season starts with four home games. In contrast, a longer road trip with two games in Milan (January 14 and 16) and one in Bruneck (January 17).
Graz99ers
Manager Bernd Vollmann describes the schedule as the worst in his many years of work. Especially the seven (!) home games on Wednesdays must be a bitter pill for him regarding attendance.
HC Bozen
That club boss Dieter Knoll allows this? As in the previous season, the Foxes will not play any back-to-back away games, meaning they have to factor in an additional hotel night even for combinations like Szeksefehervar/Vienna, Budapest/Szekesfehervar, and Budapest/Vienna.
HC Innsbruck
Actually, geographically less disadvantaged than Bolzano, which is barely 90 minutes away, but with a completely different schedule: Six road trips with back-to-back games for the Sharks.
Saturday is almost the main game day for HCI: A total of eleven home or away games...
HC Pustertal
From November 27 to December 16, HCP will not leave Italian borders - six of the eight games during this period will take place in their home arena.
KAC
As a typical "core team" (without road trips), no major peculiarities: No home game is scheduled between Christmas and New Year's Eve, but that's relatively irrelevant: The arena is always full on other dates too.
HC Milano
Courtesy of the league management, the Milanese will start with eight away games before their new arena is to be inaugurated on October 9 against HC Innsbruck. They have already moved away from the original date of September 30.
Olimpija Ljubljana
Three away games right at the start of the season, including a road trip to Hungary. Perhaps this will contribute to team bonding.
Pioneers Vorarlberg
Conversely to the Slovenians, three home games are scheduled right at the start of the season. As in Innsbruck, Saturday is a popular game day both at home and away (eight times).
Red Bull Salzburg
Likely the most central venue in the league, resulting in few peculiarities: Only once (early February) are three consecutive home games scheduled.
Vienna Capitals
The season starts with a road trip to Innsbruck and Bolzano.
With six games on Wednesday and four on Saturday, the actual game days of Friday and Sunday are pretty much hollowed out. The Top 6 should be secured sooner rather than later, as the last three regular season games all take place away from home.
VSV
Five away games at the start of the season are not due to the malice or whims of the schedule makers, but to the long-awaited renovation of the Adlerhorst. This is followed by seven home appearances within the next eight games.
The Villachers can look forward to a road trip in February that would be hard to put together like this: Wednesday in Vienna, Friday in Milan...
