The new president of the MOL League has been in charge for six months and his first regular season is coming to an end, what better way to see how things are going than to catch up and talk to Mr. Álmos Szőke about what he has experienced, seen and what the future of the league looks like.
We asked Álmos Szőke a number of topics that he spoke freely about, such as what he has he has experienced since taking over the job. What has gone smoothly and what has been a bit harder. He also talked about the near future of the league and what the offseason may hold.
Transition period
“I took over the leadership of the league about half a year ago with the current vice president of the league István Végh since the previous leadership unfortunately decided not to continue the work that they were doing because there were doing a really good job. We knew coming in that this would be a transition season not because Nové Zámky decided not to participate in the season and with the situation of the Romanian teams, or that we had two new teams who played well, in MAC and Fehérvár but because of the new leadership at the top of the league and the influence of the new leadership at the Romanian Federation. The balance at the RIHF has gone from the Hungarian side to the Romanian and understandably with the two Romanian clubs getting state funding the priorities have shifted more to the competition in the Romanian league.”
Last season’s expansion and teams moving on
“Who ever has been regularly watching the league will see that based on the quality of play by the two teams that both of them were great additions to the league. If looking to the future I think expansion is the way to go, especially with Hungarian teams and we are open to former MOL League clubs and first division teams to coming back or joining the league.
I know that a lot of people are interested in what is going on with the EBEL or clubs joining other foreign league, I am thinking about Diósgyőr and MAC first and foremost. We have no intention have blocking teams in playing in other leagues, we feel we are not allowed to do that however the question what conditions will they have to meet for them to play in another league. If the teams are in a situation that we currently find Fehérvár in I think that could really help Hungarian hockey in the long run.”
Naming rights and new sponsors
“I mentioned that this is a transition year since there were a number of questions marks, including if the naming rights sponsor, I believe we have been able to stabilize this for now, and we look to be a step ahead of where we were last season as we will be sitting down with the MOL Hungary to start negotiations for the 2016-17 naming rights deal. We have also brought in a new sponsor into the fold in NET’54, a company that is present in other top flight sports in Hungary, in handball and water polo. We do not what the future looks like but if everything continues as we expect it to go they could be a long term partner for the league. This season we are working with twice the budget as last season which is not a bad start but we still need to develop this much more and to help out the teams properly.”
Marketing help
“We have teams that see that if your really need to do some real work if you want to attract people to the games and increase the attendance. We have stated that we would be open to helping teams with this as in November it was announced that the league would help out teams with 500,000 HUF for advertisement and marketing if they can get a sold out crowd. Some teams took advantage of this others did not. We would like the teams to see that they need to market and advertise their image a proper way if they want people in the stands. We have tried to bring in experts to hold training, this might have been premature but it could be done in the long run.”
“There is a lot of work but there are a lot of opportunities as well, and I believe that if there is a proper team involved with this I think there is a potential for improvement.”
MOL Liga TV
“The MOL Liga TV will be back in a different form, the original idea was to bring every game to the fans of the MOL League. This time around is is a new version in which we are trying to raise the quality of the service and we know it is not the same as last season. We know that the only way we can get new viewers that if it is a high quality that can be provided to the viewers. We are trying to take advantage of every forum that is available to popularize the sport and the league.”
Relationship between the league and the Hungarian federation
“We have been trying to show a unified front between the teams and the league, this hasn't been the smoothest but I think we are moving in the right direction. Once the situation with the federation president is settled I think we will be able to take major steps towards the future.”
“I took over the league after seven seasons, clearly the previous president had a relationship with the teams and now I have to build up my own. I knew a number of people involved in hockey before but I was never this deeply involved. The clubs where I knew people I have a better relationships and I still have to build up a relationship with the ones where I don’t know anyone. I know that they will accept me once I have made the right decisions to financially help the clubs.”
Unanswered questions
At the start I didn’t think that this job would be this hard, I also think a number of unanswered questions have come up that no one had thought of before. Teams have left the league, the MOL Hungary wanted to leave the league as well. The future of the Romanian tems in the league was not clear. The relationship between the league and the federation was not the best. There were very few stable point in the league, and I think that we the league have been able to put a quality product out in the ice has been just short of a miracle. For this to happen we needed the people working for the federation and the league needed to come together for a common goal.
Next Season
The first step is for us to know what will happen in the future, and for this to happen we need to know what teams both within Hungary and outside of Hungary will be playing in the league next season. We would like to know around the end of May, at the latest the middle of June. We need to know who is the naming sponsor by the end of May and we need to work to find new sponsors to get involved in the league. If we can get these questions answered by the end of May or middle of June we would be taking huge strides forward. Teams will be able to plan ahead better for the following season and also start off with large crowds out at the games. Teams will need to hand in their registration by the set date and pay their entry fees by that set date, and if they miss the cut off date they will not be able to enter the next season. We need to show that there are rules that all members of the league need to stick to no matter what and regardless of who they are or what kind if history they have.