HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...
league
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
Sports
* Sports league
* Rugby league, full contact footba ...
, and the second-highest league in the
Swedish ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...
system (after the
SHL). Since the 2009–10 season, the league consists of fourteen teams.
Previous leagues called Allsvenskan
During seasons 1948–49 through 1974–75 ''Allsvenskan'' was the semi-official name of the first-level league, the official name being ''Division 1 norra'' (north) and ''södra'' (south), comprising six teams each until 1955–56 and eight teams each from 1956–57 to 1973–74. In 1974–75 it was played as one Division 1 league with sixteen teams, leading up to the start in the 1975–76 season of the present
SHL.
The second highest-level league had been called Division 2 since 1941–42, and was divided into eight groups from 1957–58 on. The winners of these groups played in two qualification leagues, a northern and a southern one, from which two teams each were promoted. In the 1974–75 season the grouping was changed to have six groups. Each qualification league contained the winners of three groups and one each of the teams on places nine and ten in the sixteen-team league Allsvenskan.
When the then-named Elitserien started in 1975–76 as the top level with ten teams, the new second highest-level league was called
Division 1, in four groups. After a couple of years, it was settled into ten teams each in these. Until the 1981–82 season the Division 1 leagues were played over the entire season and followed by play-offs and
Kvalserien, the qualification league for the Elitserien.
In 1982–83, however, the name Allsvenskan came back, for a league starting after the Christmas and New Year's break of the season. The top two teams of each Division 1 league were promoted to the new ''Allsvenskan''. The top two teams in the Allsvenskan played a best-of-five final for promotion to Elitserien. The teams 3–6 in the Allsvenskan continued with play-offs and possibly Kvalserien for the second open spot in the Elitserien.
For the 1987–88 season the Elitserien was expanded from ten to twelve teams, and now also the two last teams in Elitserien by the end of the year were moved down for play in the Allsvenskan together with the top eight Division 1 teams. Still with a best of five final between the top two teams, and play-offs for teams 3–8.
From the 1996–97 season, the Elitserien changed and played with all twelve teams for the entire season. The Allsvenskan changed back to the eight top teams from Division 1 only. The best of five final was also abandoned. From here on, the top two teams were promoted directly to Kvalserien, while the teams finishing 3-6 played play-offs for two more spots in Kvalserien.
In the 1999–2000 season, Allsvenskan Norra (north) and Södra (south) were inaugurated as a completely new second-level league, consisting of twelve teams each. The top four teams from each of them were promoted for the later half of the season to the same kind of league as the previous years of Allsvenskan, but that league was named SuperAllsvenskan. In the 1999–2000 season, no
Kvalserien was played for survival in Allsvenskan; instead, the four worst teams in Allsvenskan were relegated to
Division 1 (now named Hockeyettan) while the four best teams in Division 1 were promoted to Allsvenskan.
For the 2005–06 season, the number of teams was decreased from 2x12 to 16 (currently 14). The Norra and Södra sections were merged into a joint league named HockeyAllsvenskan, and the SuperAllsvenskan league was scrapped. HockeyAllsvenskan covers the entire regular season.
Present HockeyAllsvenskan
The league is played as a
round-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & C. Me ...
where all teams play each other four times during one season, twice at home and twice on the road, for a total of 52 games per team.
After the regular season, teams 1 and 2 play the HockeyAllsvenskan Final in best of five games, and teams 3-8 play the HockeyAllsvenskan Slutspelsserie, a single meeting round robin tournament, where teams 3-5 start with 3, 2 and 1 bonus points, respectively, and play one more game at home.
The winner of the HockeyAllsvenskan Final gets to challenge team 14 from the SHL in best of seven games for their spot in the league.
The loser in the HockeyAllsvenskan Final faces the winner from the Slutspelsserie in best of three games, and the winner from this stage gets to challenge team 13 from the SHL in best of seven games for their spot in the league.
The two last placed teams from HockeyAllsvenskan have to play in the
Kvalserien qualification against four
Hockeyettan (tier III, formerly Division 1) teams to avoid
relegation
In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open league ...
.
For the 2009–10 season, the number of teams in the league was decreased from sixteen to fourteen. In the 2008–09 season the last placed team was directly relegated, and the teams ranked fourteen and fifteen played in the qualification league, from which only the best team was qualified for the next HockeyAllsvenskan season.
2022-23 participating teams
Attendance
HockeyAllsvenskan has seen a significant increase in average attendance per game since the first season of HockeyAllsvenskan in
2005–06. In the
2011–12 season, HockeyAllsvenskan had the highest average attendance number of any second-tier league in Europe, averaging 2,606 spectators per game.
The following season,
2012–13, which was strengthened by the
NHL lockout
The NHL lockout may refer to any of the four labour actions in the history of the National Hockey League:
* The 1992 NHL strike, which postponed 30 games of the 1991–92 season
* The 1994–95 NHL lockout, which cancelled many of the games of ...
, the average attendance increased to 3,227 spectators per game, a 23.8% increase over the 2011–12 season; HockeyAllsvenskan remained the European second-tier league with the highest average attendance as a result.
This dramatic increase can be explained by the fact that
Djurgårdens IF
Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm.
Name
The club is nam ...
, who replaced
Rögle BK's position in the league as a result of the
2012 Kvalserien, averaged 6,184 spectators per game compared to Rögle who just averaged 2,973 spectators; as well as the fact that
Karlskrona HK and
Asplöven HC, who replaced
IF Sundsvall Hockey
IF Sundsvall Hockey is a Swedish ice hockey club based in Sundsvall. The club currently competes in Hockeyettan, the third tier of ice hockey in Sweden. Sundsvall plays their home matches at Gärdehov, with a capacity of 2,500.
History
The cl ...
and
Borås HC as a result of the
2012 Kvalserien for HockeyAllsvenskan, averaged 2,161 spectators per game (combined) while Sundsvall and Borås just averaged 1,033 spectators. Also,
Örebro HK
Örebro HK is a Swedish ice hockey club located in Örebro. The team is currently playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top tier of Swedish ice hockey, since the 2013–14 season. The team's home arena is Behrn Ar ...
increased their average attendance from 2,445 to 3,618 spectators per game. In seven years, the average attendance increased from 1,996 in the 2005–06 season to 3,227 spectators per game in the 2012–13 season, an increase of 61.7%. The following season saw a slight drop to 3,016 spectators per game, a decrease of 6.5% from the 2012–13 season.
Attendance statistics
Television
C More Entertainment has had the broadcast rights for HockeyAllsvenskan since 2015, with a selection of games being broadcast on television and the remainder being streamed online. They replaced
Viasat
Viasat may refer to:
*Viasat (American company) (founded 1986)
*Viasat (Nordic television service) (founded 1991)
* Danish 1st Division, officially Viasat Divisionen, second-highest football league in Denmark
* Viasat Cup, 2006 Danish football tour ...
who had the broadcast rights from 2009 from 2015.
[Expressen]
Viasat storsatsar på Hockeyallsvenskan
2011-05-30. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
Previous seasons
2005–06 season
Halmstad played in HockeyAllsvenskan this season, but due to the club's bankruptcy the team was disqualified. In
Kvalserien,
Malmö
Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popul ...
and
Skellefteå were promoted to play in Elitserien for the 2006–07 season.
Leksand and
Södertälje were both relegated from Elitserien.
Arboga and
Hammarby had to play the relegation rounds but managed to keep their spots in the league, coming in second respectively third after
Huddinge, who had been relegated one year previously, but made it back after one year in Division 1.
2006–07 season
In the
qualification rounds for Elitserien,
Södertälje advanced to Elitserien while
Malmö
Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popul ...
only finished third and was relegated to HockeyAllsvenskan.
This season,
Huddinge and
Arboga had to play in the qualification series to stay in the league, but Arboga decided not to play because of their bad economic state of affairs. This meant that Arboga joined
Division 1 in the 2007–08 season. Huddinge won the qualification series and thus continued to play in HockeyAllsvenskan for yet another season, while
Borås
Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010.
Geography
Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them th ...
finished second and advanced to HockeyAllsvenskan.
2007–08 season
In a closely played
qualification battle for Elitserien,
Rögle advanced to Elitserien at the cost of
Mora who finished fourth and was relegated to HockeyAllsvenskan.
Huddinge and
Hammarby finished last in the league this year and had to play in the qualification series to stay up. Hammarby, however, decided not to play because of economic issues (the team later went
bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
). Huddinge did not survive the qualification group which was won by the following season's newcomers
Troja/Ljungby and
Mariestad
Mariestad () is a locality and the seat of Mariestad Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 16,611 inhabitants in 2019. Until 1997 it was the capital of the former Skaraborg County and an episcopal see in the Church of Sweden bet ...
. However, in the summer,
Nyköping
Nyköping () is a locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,759 inhabitants as of 2017. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County.
Including Arnö, the locality on the southern shore of the ...
was relegated to Division 1, not meeting the financial demands for being approved to play in the HockeyAllsvenskan (known as the
elite license), and Huddinge was promoted to fill in that spot.
2008–09 season
The 2008–09 season became the last season with sixteen teams in HockeyAllsvenskan. On May 30, 2008, the board of the
SIHA decided to decrease the number of teams to fourteen, starting from the 2009–10 season.
In
Kvalserien, none of the four top teams from HockeyAllsvenskan succeeded in qualifying for the highest division this year. Instead, the two Elitserien teams
Södertälje and
Rögle managed to keep their spots.
Because of the decreased number of teams for the next season, the last-placed team,
Mariestad
Mariestad () is a locality and the seat of Mariestad Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 16,611 inhabitants in 2019. Until 1997 it was the capital of the former Skaraborg County and an episcopal see in the Church of Sweden bet ...
, was directly relegated to the lower division instead of joining the teams placed 14th and 15th who had to play the qualification group against four teams from Division 1. With just one team qualifying for HockeyAllsvenskan this season, neither
Nybro (third) nor
Huddinge (fourth) succeeded in staying in the second division. Instead,
Örebro
Örebro ( , ) is the sixth-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of the Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers inland along the small river Svartån, and ...
took the available spot in HockeyAllsvenskan for the 2009–10 season.
2009–10 season
In
Kvalserien,
AIK managed to promote to Elitserien at the expense of
Rögle.
Sundsvall
Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population.
History
The ...
and
Oskarshamn ended up at the bottom of the league table and had to play a qualification series to requalify for HockeyAllsvenskan. There
Tingsryd
Tingsryd () is a locality and the seat of Tingsryd Municipality, Kronoberg County
Kronoberg County (; sv, Kronobergs län) is a county or ''län'' in southern Sweden. Kronoberg is one of three counties in the province of Småland. It border ...
came in second after
Oskarshamn, earning promotion at the expense of Sundsvall. However, in June the
Swedish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA) decided not to grant
Björklöven elite license for the upcoming season due to financial concerns and thus Björklöven was relegated to Division 1 and Sundsvall was given a spot in HockeyAllsvenskan next season.
With AIK advancing to the Elitserien, and no other team from the area in the league, nor any new one promoted from Division 1, this meant that the 2010–11 season would be the first time ever with no team from the Stockholm area in the second level league of Swedish ice hockey.
2010–11 season
In
Kvalserien,
Växjö managed to promote to Elitserien at the expense of
Södertälje. (With Södertälje back in HockeyAllsvenskan, the Stockholm area was re-established on the second level.)
The qualification system for the teams 4–7 to qualify for Kvalserien was changed this season. Instead of a kind-of-playoff series, a "pre-qualification" system was used. The 4th ranked team from HockeyAllsvenskan started with 4 points, the 5th ranked team with 3 points, the 6th ranked team with 2 points, and the 7th ranked team with 1 point. The teams met each other two times, giving a total of 6 rounds. The 7th ranked team, which was Mora, won the pre-qualification and thus reached the Kvalserien.
Troja/Ljungby and
Tingsryd
Tingsryd () is a locality and the seat of Tingsryd Municipality, Kronoberg County
Kronoberg County (; sv, Kronobergs län) is a county or ''län'' in southern Sweden. Kronoberg is one of three counties in the province of Småland. It border ...
ended at 13th and 14th place respectively and thus were forced to play in the Kvalserien for HockeyAllsvenskan. Troja/Ljungby and Tingsryd ended 1st and 2nd respectively in the Kvalserien and thus stayed in HockeyAllsvenskan for the 2011–12 season. This also meant that no team from
Division 1 qualified for HockeyAllsvenskan this season.
2011–12 season
In
Kvalserien,
Rögle promoted to Elitserien at the expense of
Djurgården
Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum ...
. Rögle became the first HockeyAllsvenskan playoff team in history to promote to Elitserien, a feat which
Örebro HK
Örebro HK is a Swedish ice hockey club located in Örebro. The team is currently playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top tier of Swedish ice hockey, since the 2013–14 season. The team's home arena is Behrn Ar ...
subsequently duplicated in 2013.
In
Kvalserien for HockeyAllsvenskan,
Borås
Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010.
Geography
Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them th ...
re-qualified for HockeyAllsvenskan and
Karlskrona
Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Swe ...
promoted to HockeyAllsvenskan for the first time in the club's history, at the expense of
Sundsvall
Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population.
History
The ...
. However, the SIHA did not grant Borås
elite license for the 2012–13 season and Borås were therefore relegated to
Division 1 while
Asplöven, the 3rd-ranked team from the HockeyAllsvenskan Kvalserien, took over their spot for the next HockeyAllsvenskan season.
2012–13 season
2013–14 season
2014–15 season
2015–16 season
2016–17 season
2017–18 season
2018–19 season
2019–20 season
2020–21 season
See also
*
List of ice hockey leagues in Sweden
References
External links
Official homepage
{{Ice hockey in Sweden
Sports leagues established in 1983
1983 establishments in Sweden
Swe
Professional ice hockey leagues in Sweden