Before the start of the current season, the most successful club of the Slovak hockey history presented its plan for the transformation of HC Košice into a community club. Transparent communication and close cooperation with private and public organizations should be its cornerstone.

After confirming the extension of cooperation with the Municipality of Košice and the Košice Self-governing Region, the club organized a match for primary and secondary schools, which was free of charge for almost 3,300 attending students. Another significant step towards the community is signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Technical University of Košice, the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice and the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice. The parties signed the Memorandum at a joint press conference held on October 28, 2019 in the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel with the participation of journalists.

The main areas of cooperation enshrined in the Memorandum:

• support for promoting HC Košice activities and their provision to university students to the extent agreed,
• support for projects which allow the use of university students' knowledge in projects developing the operation of HC Košice,
• prioritizing university students in relation to the organization of sporting events (e.g. offering discounted tickets for the home matches of HC Košice),
• collaboration on organizing hockey matches (HC Košice seniors' home matches) thematically dedicated to the Students' Day, as well as other sporting events,
• participation of HC Košice hockey players in the events of universities in order to promote cooperation of the parties,
• mutual support for events and activities (according to the available options of the parties involved).

The memorandum was signed by: Ing. Július Lang (the President of HC Košice), Mgr. Norbert Koch, (the Manager of HC Košice), Associate Professor Ing. Jaroslav Porubän, PhD. (the Vice-Rector for Development and External Relations TUKE), Professor RNDr. Pavol Sovák, CSc., (the Rector of UPJŠ), MVDr. Martin Tomko, PhD. (the Vice-Rector for Education of UVLF), Ing. Jakub Palša (the Chairman of the Student Section of the Academic Senate TUKE).

The first joint project will be the Student Match, held on November 19 (Tuesday). The match against Liptovský Mikuláš will be enhanced by rich entertainment thematically dedicated to the events of November 1989. The parties involved agreed that the Student Match could become a traditional event that would be organized every year.

Cooperation with the universities is definitely appreciated by the club leader, Ing. Július Lang (the President of HC Košice): "We are extremely happy that such important institutions of the Košice community accepted our offer of cooperation. Through joint efforts we will be able to reach more than 17,000 students and hundreds of teachers. I firmly believe that these young people will find their way to the stadium and they will support us. On our part, we will do everything we can to thank our partners and establish a long-term partnership that will benefit all parties involved."

A common point of view for all the universities was delivered by Professor RNDr. Pavol Sovák, CSc. (the Rector of UPJŠ): "The three universities in Košice - the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, the Technical University of Košice, and the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice cooperate regularly in education, science and research. Thanks to the Memorandum of Cooperation between HC Košice and the three universities in Košice, sport will represent another sphere of cooperation. This can be demonstrated by the forthcoming hockey match of HC Košice, which is thematically dedicated to the Students' Day. We believe that in the future we will continue to cooperate and participate in other successful projects and that we will jointly contribute to the mutual support of organized activities and events."

At the press conference, students were represented by Ing. Jakub Palša (the Chairman of the Student Section of the Academic Senate TUKE): "I believe that the cooperation of the three universities and HC Košice will bring other interesting events at which we will meet like today during the press conference. I am sure that the cooperation of mentioned institutions and today's signing of the Memorandum will create many new opportunities to promote sport among university students."