Hannover Scorpions

Founded in 1975, as ESC Wedemark, the team was renamed Wedemark Scorpions in their first DEL season in 1996 after the rock band Scorpions, who also call Hanover, Lower Saxony their home. The next season, the Scorpions relocated to Hanover proper and began playing their home games at TUI Arena in 2000.

Despite playing in the region's top venue, as well as enjoying sizeable corporate and political support, the team has struggled to generate sustained interest in Hanover.

Before relocating there in 1997, the Scorpions played their home games in Mellendorf, a small town located 20 km north in Wedemark township. They were actually considered rivals of Hanover. Thus, many local fans resented their longtime foe taking over the Hanover market at the expense of the city's historic hockey team, the less-favored Indians, and refused to support the Scorpions. ^{[citation needed]}

With the club stricken by financial problems at the conclusion of the 2012–13 season, the Scorpions were forced to sell their DEL license to 2nd Bundesliga club the SERC Wild Wings on 14 June 2013.^[1] The Scorpions were then placed in the Oberliga, Germany's third-tier league.