The Eredivisie (English: "Premier Division"; literally Honours Division) is the only professional ice hockey league in the Netherlands and the highest level of competition sanctioned by the Nederlandse IJshockey Bond (NIJB; English: "Dutch Ice Hockey Federation"). In 2010, two Belgian teams, HYC Herentals and White Caps Turnhout joined the 28-game regular season of the Eredivisie, at which point it was renamed as the North Sea Cup.
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The Eredivisie was formed after World War II, with teams in Amsterdam, The Hague and Tilburg. It suspended operations from 1950 to 1964, but has organized a season of competition annually ever since. Over the years the number of teams competing has fluctuated between 3 and 10 (currently 8), and the number of games played in the regular season between 4 and 36 (currently 28).
In earlier years, the winner of the regular season was crowned the Eredivisie National Championships, but for most of its history the regular season determined playoff seeding, and a playoffs were then held to determine the National Champion. In 2010-2011, the Eredivisie season was reformatted into the "North Sea Cup", inviting two Belgian teams, Turnhout and Herentals, to participate. The top team at the end of the regular season won the North Sea Cup. The Dutch and Belgian teams played in separate Dutch and Belgian playoffs for their respective national championships at the end of the regular season.
Below the Eredivisie is the Eerste Divisie (First Division), an amateur league. There is no automatic relegation or promotion between Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie, but teams have sometimes moved from one division to the other for financial reasons. Some cities (such as Tilburg, The Hague and Nijmegen) have a professional team in the Eredivisie and a separate but similarly named amateur team in the Eerste Divisie.
For the 2008-2009 season, the Utrecht Dragons and Eindhoven Kemphanen joined the league. In 2009-2010, Utrecht returned to the Eerste Divisie. Prior to the 2010-2011 season, Amstel Tijgers, one of the oldest teams in the league, dropped out, as did Groningen Grizzliesafter three seasons, due to poor results on the ice and low revenues. In 2010 the Zoetermeer Panthers were set to join the Eredivisie; it competed in, and won, the National Cup but dropped out of the Eredivisie due to financial problems.
The league became international in 2011 when two Belgian teams, HYC Herentals and White Caps Turnhout joined the 28-game regular season of the Eredivisie in 2011, which rebranded under the name "North Sea Cup".
The Belgian and Dutch teams continue to play in separate, pre-season national cup tournaments, and they continue to have separate national championships. With the demise of the Belgian elite series in 2011, Herentals and Turnhout are the only two teams competing for the Belgian championship. For the second season of the North Sea Cup (2011-2012), One new Dutch team(Amsterdam Capitals) and one new Belgian team (Leuven Chiefs) will take part in the league.
Note: the name Eredivisie is also used for the top leagues of many other sports in the Netherlands, most notably the football Eredivisie.
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