"Strategic participation of Unipetrol in HC Verva reflects our orientation towards the exclusive brands. Hockey, as our national sport, enjoys huge media attention. By connecting the VERVA brand with Czech hockey, we will be able to address the wide target group of the hockey fans and to widen therefore the group of our customers," said Mr. Piotr Chełmiński, the Director General and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unipetrol. The team is starting the new season not only with a new name but also with Martin Ručinský as its captain. The sport goal is to qualify for the play-offs of the Tipsport Ice Hockey Extra League.
The team continues with its philosophy of supporting youth and so young players and the team's own juniors will have again a great opportunity to play a lot in the coming season. "Working with players who have gone through our youth teams represents a long-term strategy of our club. Litvínov hockey has raised, so far, nine Olympic champions and 15 world champions, which is a very unique case worldwide", says Petr Hojer, general manager of HC VERVA Litvínov. "Several young players got a chance to make it to our A-team during this year's pre-season training.
The coming season could mean a breakthrough for some of them." The players list of HC VERVA includes 11 players younger than 24 years. The team has also acquired several experienced hockey players – M. Hujsa, M. Frolík, J. Brejčák and M. Volke and temporarily also R. Hanzl and D. Pojkar.
New captain
"Martin is clearly the most experienced player on our team. Besides his successes in the Czech national team and many years of NHL experience, he has also played 185 games for out team," explains Vladimír Kýhos, the coach of HC VERVA Litvínov. During the season, Martin Ručinský will also be the medium face of the team.
Promise to our fans
At the press conference, Jiří Šlégr, a member of the Board of Directors of HC VERVA Litvínov, introduced an untraditional resolution of the players. If the team, with support of its fans, makes it to the play-off, Martin Ručinský and other players will pump VERVA premium fuels to cars at a selected Benzina gas station. Moreover, the fuel will be significantly discounted in comparison to its regular prices. The club fans will therefore have the opportunity to meet their favorite players and, at the same time, save money on fuel.
With a new name
"By changing the name, we want to capitalize on the success of our international strategy for the VERVA brand in a similar manner as we have been doing when supporting the car races - VERVA Street Racing – in Poland," said Martin Durčák, member of the Board of Directors of Unipetrol and HC VERVA Litvínov. "We believe that the attributes of the VERVA brand, which can be summarized as performance, speed, endurance and acceleration, will be now typical for Litvínov hockey as well," adds Václav Loula, Director of the Quality Section of Benzina. "Despite the name change, we will preserve the club's symbols, for example, the yellow and black colors as well as the logo of a puck with a hockey stick. The change of the company's name came into effect on August 10 th," added Martin Durčák.
In yellow with VERVÁK
HC VERVA Litvínov intends to get its fans more involved in the club matters during the coming season. An example of this was the voting on the team's jersey color, when the fans decided to return back to the light yellow alternative (last year, the jerseys were mostly white). The dark jersey alternative remains black. Fans had been also sending proposals for a new club mascot, the winner being the VERVÁK cheetah. During the final round of voting of the fans, the cheetah got 58% of the total of 1,050 votes. Positive news for the fans is also the fact that the ticket prices as well as prices of the season passes remain the same for this year. After the first seven games of the 2011/2012 season, Litvínov is on the 7 th place with 11 points and score of 14:16.