Morning hockey: Třinec proposes earlier Czech Extraliga games

The Třinec hockey club is proposing changes to the Czech Extraliga schedule, with some games played in the first half of the day rather than in the evening. The morning round 14 game against Karlovy Vary served as an experiment: it ended shortly after noon.

Why play games in the morning

The early start was compensation for Karlovy Vary after Třinec asked to move the Friday game in Karlovy Vary in December to Thursday. Třinec sporting director Jan Peterek believes the move has a broader purpose. According to him, games played on the same day overlap, clubs take attention away from one another, and this shows in television ratings. In the morning, a broadcast has almost no competition.

Peterek also wants to open the arenas to families with small children: in his view, morning is the ideal time for kids. As an example he points to the Czech football league, where a round is split between Saturday and Sunday and across several time slots, so each broadcast has its own space. Třinec would like to discuss a similar model for hockey, above all in December and January, when the football league is on break.

The club will include the experiment in a study and submit it to the Association of Professional Clubs (APK) for consideration. The proposed model would mean more games on two game days.

Road trips and costs

Peterek's separate argument is geography. Třinec travels more kilometres per season than any other Extraliga club, so it spends a lot on accommodation and transport: for most games the team travels the day before. According to Peterek, the club has been trying unsuccessfully for several years to discuss different ways of putting the schedule together at the APK. The clubs arrange all road trips themselves and count on the opponent being accommodating.

What the players and the coach say

Forward and father of three Andrej Nestrašil said he supports the idea “one hundred percent”. Children can now come into the dressing room, but in the evening that is a problem: the family gets home around nine, and after the play areas and the “cube” above the ice, the kids are so wound up that they struggle to fall asleep. The 35-year-old player said that after the game he will stop by the shopping centre next to the arena, buy a kite and go fly it with his children.

Karlovy Vary coach Pavel Patera also approved of the early start: “I would play like this all the time. I get tired of waiting for a game all day.” His team came to Třinec after the Hradec Králové game was moved to Friday, and getting home on Sunday is especially welcome: on Tuesday they host Mladá Boleslav. The visitors' only goalscorer, David Šťastný, said he would not introduce the system on a permanent basis: in the morning a person feels “broken” and not quite ready to step straight onto the ice. “But if that's how it's going to be, there's nothing to be done. We're professionals,” he added.

Karlovy Vary have played morning games before and will again soon: on Friday, 20 November, at 12:00, the team hosts Vítkovice at home in a game for schoolchildren.

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz