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Extraliga hopes for shut door are failing

Association won't close premier hockey league to fresh competition

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 7th, 2007 issue

Several Extraliga clubs anonymously lobbied in January to lock out new teams, effectively preventing second-tier squads from joining the elite league, but it remains open to new competition, for a price.

Prior to this year, the last-place Extraliga team had to play the top second-division team for the right to play in the premier league the following season.
Now, no current Extraliga team will be relegated to a lower division and new teams can join if they pay an entry fee of 25 million Kč ($1.2 million).
Pressure from the Anti-Monopoly Office (ÚOHS) prevented the league from permanently blocking new teams, Extraliga Director Stanislav Šulc said Feb. 1.
“Talks about closing off the Extraliga have been going on for a while,” Šulc said, “and it was on the agenda of the Association of Professional Clubs (APK) session Feb. 1.”
“[Club representatives] did not even get to vote on the proposal,” Šulc said.
ÚOHS spokesman Filip Vrána confirmed that the Brno-based office, which is the government watchdog on fair-competition issues, has been observing the Extraliga for some time.
Vrána said the entrance fee is contrary to fair competition because none of the standing Extraliga clubs must pay the fee. The ÚOHS spokesman added, however, that the office had not yet taken any action against the league.
“No one has so far been really charged this fee, so there was no reason for action from our side,” Vrána said.
The ÚOHS raised concerns again, however, before the Feb. 1 APK meeting, after it learned that clubs were contemplating closing off the league completely.
“Such a move would create barriers in particular sectors,” Vrána said, “and it’s the ÚOHS’s job not to allow that to happen.”
Catastrophic scenario
The idea of closing the Extraliga was driven by efforts to shake the financial woes that some teams face as a result of their uncertain spots in the league.
“The threat of relegation made many would-be sponsors reconsider their intent in the past, and smaller clubs found it sometimes quite difficult to find sponsors,” Šulc said last April when justifying the APK’s decision to do away with relegation from the Extraliga from this season.
“All requirements are driven by our efforts to bring economic stability to the Extraliga so that all that will matter in the future will be the hockey matches, not clubs’ financial woes,” he said.
The APK’s efforts angered lower-league clubs and the Czech Ice Hockey Association (ČSLH).
“This would be a catastrophe for the whole of Czech hockey,” said Libor Zábranský, owner of Kometa Brno, a leading second-division club.
ČSLH Chairman Vratislav Kulhánek insists the APK doesn’t have the right to take such a step.
“The APK is not entitled to take a unilateral step that would, in the end, affect all of Czech hockey,” Kulhánek said.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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