Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) wants to have a more attractive Bundesliga winter break and create new marketing possibilities. Already in the winter break 2003/04 the teams could come together in common camps as in the North American pro leagues and do advertising actions. "We are thinking about it and aim on the next winter break", confessed DFL Comissioner Werner Hackmann in "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung". "The training camps of the clubs have to be more attractive and we have to think about new marketing possibilities". "It is negligent to donate this time on TV to ski jumpers or biathletes. We need creative solutions", explained Edgar Geenen, GM of 1.FC Nürnberg. Especially the small clubs are looking for income sources in the time without season games. Hackmann also didn't exclude revitalising the Indoor Masters. "I don't bury this topic just because Bayern or Dortmund don't want to". BVB GM Michael Maier already opposes the new plans: "The free time belongs to the clubs". =============================== Question to you: what's up with this training camp matters? I'm just familiar with NHL and know that they already play games against another in the pre-season, but games you can also see in the regular season are not exactly what amazes me. What in this context definitely has to happen is that the league outvotes Dortmund and Bayern as they have to learn that these two can't block all measures of the league just because of their selfishness - without the league these two would be nothing. They can threaten with G14 as much as they want to, but also an eventual Euro-League of them will never be successful if they just watch out for the own profit and work against the interests of the league.
I read a bit more meanwhile. As almost all clubs travel to the south anyway, they think about all teams going to the same place. There they could play a Winter Cup with all the teams.
Would that not require the permission of the FA of the country whereever they all go to? For example if they go to the spanish islands for winter training I would doubt if the Spanish FA would be too keen on a load of German teams having a competition there. The whole idea seems silly to me anyway. Most clubs try to limit the number of games played each season so this seems a backwards step.
I don't think they need the permit of the Spanish, Portuguese or Turkish FA. Quite in contrast the communities would do everything to host them with all the money they spend. With the number of games it is a mixed thing. Every team plays numerous friendlies anyway. Also during the season - the teams that do not take part in an international competition often play friendlies on Wednesday's. The whole debate about it is a bit odd and not very honest. A well trained soccer player has to be able to play a minimum of two games a week, everything else is just used for poor excuses after losses.
The closest (only) analogy in the US is baseball, where teams play each other in the pre-season (spring training, as it is called). Roughly half the teams have a spring training camps in Florida, and play other teams with camps in Florida (the Grapefruit League, as it is called). The other half (a bit of a misnomer, since I think Florida has more teams) train and play in Arizona (the Cactus League). There is no tournament, though, and no formal championship. Winning the Grapefruit League or the Cactus League and 50 cents will get you a newspaper. However, the games are usually well attended, some of the games are televised on local television, fans travel to Florida/Arizona to watch their teams and, while I don't know this for a fact, I would imagine teams make money off their spring training camps.
There are two key differences with that, one is that those games are pre-season, not during the season, and the games are still held within the USA. Many european soccer teams have pre-seaon tournaments. I remember one being held in Munich pre-season with some top teams invited. Having this during the season (winter pause) is a different matter, especially considering that a lot of european leagues do not have a winter break.
There is nothing similar in the NHL to what the DFB is talking about. The only break the NHL takes is for just a few days when they have their All-Star game. There is no inter-club play, except in preseason which was noted above and hardly qualifies as exciting hockey.