Metropolitan hockey club has recently been dealing with current questions of ice hockey popularization in our city, of our own brand and - obviously - growth of the match visit rate. Besides relatively short-term projects, which belong to our day-to-day activities, there are also long-term strategic projects, whose effect might be seen till after a number of weeks, months or even years. One of them is the creation of a strong connection with a system of elementary schools, not only in Košice, but also in closer or further places.

The initiative comes from the club itself. In the first phase of the project, Hc Košice, with the help of municipality of Košice, addressed each elementary school in Košice, which got a chance to sign on for the close cooperation with our team. Support from the club consists not only of the ticket providing, but also of the promotion of hockey matches on individual schools engaged. This suggestion has been widely accepted. 25 schools signed on to the program, with the total number of students more than 9000.

„We believe that this cooperation will function in various forms, from products and material information exchange, both in printed or electronic forms, up to the visits and chats, with the main goal to raise children's interest in sports and to build up sport habits, either by direct engagement in the sport activities or by active participation on the sport events - especially hockey matches. If we attire them in the tender age, they remain with us their whole lives, “the executive director of HC Košice Rastislav Rusič stated for our official web site.

The first 11 representatives of engaged schools accepted HC Košice invitation to the Sunday match against MsHK Žilina. Rastislav Rusič and Juraj Bolf (member of the board of directors) handed over the certificates and memorandums on the cooperation. In a short discussion, both parties called in question the topics of common activities, which would promote hockey directly at schools.

Aimed cooperation may show itself not only by higher visit rate of the hockey matches, but also by awakening of the children' interest in sports.