Eurolanche

Eurolanche celebrates its 10th birthday

On this day, August 12, 2017, the Eurolanche Fan Club celebrates its 10^th birthday. Ten years ago, its founder David Puchovsky informed other Colorado Avalanche fans on the team’s official message board of his intention of creating this project, which didn’t have name, nor a logo at the time. Since then, Eurolanche organized nine trips for 54 Fan Club members from 10 countries to the US under the name ‘Eurolanche Invasion’. Furthermore, Fan Club members had meetings with nine former and current Colorado Avalanche players in Europe, nine member meetings, had the opportunity to read more than 10,000 articles in different languages, took part in more than 50 competitions for a variety of souvenirs and memorabilia, and experienced unforgettable moments.

“It’s unbelievable that it’s been 10 years already. It feels like yesterday that I experienced Eurolanche’s very first steps, when we met two-three members in total and discussed what to do next. I’m grateful to everyone, who’s helped me to bring this project this far during these 10 years – from Fan Club members to players, journalists and supporters, to people from the Avalanche organization and KSE. I think that on this day, we can be even prouder that we’re not only the first European Fan Club of the Colorado Avalanche, but the oldest Fan Club in the NHL as well,” said Eurolanche founder and president David Puchovsky.

The Eurolanche project got a lot of feedback during its first weeks of existence. Following the creation of the Fan Club’s first, simplistic website, members discussed the direction the entire project could head. The first two Eurolanche member meetings were attended by Slovak David Puchovsky and Croatian Filip Vidakovic in Bratislava, Slovakia and Zagreb, Croatia, where the idea to organize member trips to Colorado under the name ‘Eurolanche Invasion’ was conceived. In spring 2008, Eurolanche got its first professional website and its own domain. In summer, Eurolanche members got to experience the Fan Club’s first bigger event attended by goalie Peter Budaj, who promised to help with game tickets for Avalanche games.

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At the turn of the year, Eurolanche organized its very first Eurolanche Invasion – Invasion I. A month later, Invasion II took place. It was the first and final time two Invasions took place during a single season. The Fan Club returned to Denver the following season, during which it redesigned its websites. The website went through more significant changes a year later and its design hasn’t changed since. With time, Eurolanche.com was joined by sister websites Invasion.Eurolanche.com, StadiumSeries.Eurolanche.com, Story.Eurolanche.com and GlobalSeries.Eurolanche.com, which cover the most important events of both Eurolanche and the Colorado Avalanche.

After a single-season break during the 2010-11 season, Eurolanche organized trips to the US on a yearly basis, which brought the total of Eurolanche Invasions during the first ten years of the Fan Club’s existence up to nine. During nine installments of the Eurolanche Invasion project, the project’s participants attended a total of 56 Colorado Avalanche games, four of those games being played away from the Pepsi Center – in Minnesota, Chicago, Anaheim and San Jose. Aside from many trips in the US, including trips to the West Coast and Las Vegas, Invasion participants also visited Canada and Mexico. All Invasion participants will remember hundreds of meetings with Avalanche players and Invasion VIII will forever remember the Stadium Series outdoor games between the Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings.

Eurolanche was also active in Europe during its ten years of existence, as Fan Club members met eight times in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Eurolanche members also attended ten more meetings with former and current Avalanche players, namely with Peter Budaj, Paul Stastny, Milan Hejduk, Jan Hejda, David Koci, Borna Rendulic, Steven Reinprecht, Uwe Krupp and David Aebischer.

Exclusive interviews were also conducted during the aforementioned meetings, bringing the total of these interviews during the ten-year existence of Eurolanche up to more than 80. Aside from these interviews, a number of exclusive information received by the Eurolanche.com editing staff found its way into several North American media. The Eurolanche.com website became a respected news website. Furthermore, a number of media both from Europe and North America reported about the Fan Club’s activities. Among the Fan Club’s biggest media achievements are a live interview for NBC Sports conducted by Jeremy Roenick, interviews for local Colorado TV stations, articles in the printed version of The Hockey News, ProHockey, the Denver Post and countless other media appearances.

As of today, Eurolanche has 767 registered members from 43 countries. The complete story of the Eurolanche Fan Club will be presented in the upcoming book, which will be published in late 2017 in both Slovak and English. More information will be available at Story.Eurolanche.com.

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