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Eishalle Kleinholz

The "Eishalle Kleinholz" is the current home of the EHC Olten which was founded in 1934. For nearly 20 years in a row the team performed in the 2nd division of Swiss hockey, the NLB. A couple of times the team managed to move up to the NLA but usually played so poorly that the NLB was on the schedule for the upcoming season again. The last time this happened was in 1994 when the team went down to the NLB again after just one season, as usual. Many years ago the EHC Olten finished 5th (out of 10 teams) in the NLA once, but it is questionable wether the team will ever be able to challenge this team-record again.

The arena of the EHC Olten has already seen lots of hockey in it´s long history and would be due for major renovations, but unfortunatly the team can´t afford any at the moment. When the club advanced to the NLA in 1994 the team almost went bankrupt (no success on the ice and higher salaries spelled trouble), but after 4 years of good management in the NLB the team had surivived the worst of it´s troubles. At the moment the financial situation is still far from stable, but the direction in which the team is heading seems to lead to a brighter future.

Maybe even a completly new arena would be preferable to the major renovations I mentioned above. The arena is so torn down by now that only 6.500 fans are allowed to attend games even though the arena could easily handle close to 9.000 fans if anything would have been renovated or kept in a somewhat acceptable shape the last couple of years. In 1984 the team announced a record-crowd of 10.500 for a derby vs Langenthal, a team playing far below the NBL these days. At the moment 1.500 seats and 5.000 standing-room spaces are available.

Tickets and the lower maximum attendance shouldn´t concern any visitor at the moment though. In 1999/2000 the team averaged 1.800 spectators per game, but once the financial troubles are finally solved the team will also be able to invest into players and not only into debt consolodation anymore so that the fans should return to the venue.

A visit for hockey-arenas in the area could still result in a nice experience though. Hockey in Olten might not be what it was in the past but the sport is still far from dead. Good clothing should be recommended due to the fact that heating is rather unheard of in Olten so that a nice game on a winter-evening can turn into a pretty cold event when you´re not dressed well.


Ticket-prices:

normal standing room: 15 Franken, 8 for reduced tickets (students, trainees, pensioners)

standing room on the straight: 18 Franken vs 12 Franken