Hockey rocks Switzerland
The winter sposrt par excell
Hockey is a bigger attraction than ever this winter in Switzerland. Through a odd turn of events, a labour-management standoff in North America’s NHL (National Hockey League) has led to the cancellation of much of the 2004-05 hockey season there. As a result, more than one third of the 750 professionals playing in the high-speed, high-salary NHL have opted to play in Europe for the remainder of the lockout. The winter sport par excellence shines brighter than ever this year.
The vast majority of NHL players, roughly 80 per cent, have joined teams in their native countries – Russia, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Canadians, who make up 50 per cent of the top hockey pros, are divided, with most dabbling in local Canadian tournaments or minor leagues in North America. But a smaller group of players has signed up with European teams. Some of these stars have landed right here in Geneva. The Christmas and New Year’s season is a good time to see them.
Crowd is buzzing
Swiss hockey is rocking, and rumours abound. Every day some new NHL
player is said to be making the jump: Is top scorer and Stanley Cup
champion Martin St. Louis negotiating with the Lausanne HC team? Yes,
it turns out: “quality of life” drew the Quebec star to the
French-speaking city on the lake. Meanwhile, Boston’s biggest hockey
name, Joe Thornton of the Bruins, suddenly decided to spend the winter
nestled in the Alps, playing with the Davos club, where he joins the
mercurial young star Rick Nash.
And, more mysteriously: who was that star player sighted recently at Geneva airport? Could it be …. ?
Some rumours, of course, turn out to be false. And some of the players turn out to be workaday second and third-line forwards from the NHL’s less glamorous teams. These are still good additions to the Swiss A League, where tradition and spirit are strong but the competition has always been a cut below the NHL.
On a recent night in Geneva, in the parking lot outside the Geneva-Servette team’s Ver- nets arena (just over the Arve River, past Jonction), the motor of the Davos team’s Mercedes bus has not yet cooled. But inside, the crowd is already buzzing with excitement.
Behind the Geneva-Servette Eagles net, the high-decibel, hyperactive «kop» – or hardcore section of 600-800 fans, dubbed the «Hell’s Eagles» – starts its non-stop chanting and drum-banging. This cheerful uproar will resound the entire game, from the first shots of the warm-up to fans’ final chug of German beer.
Welcome to hockey night in Switzerland,
2004. With close to 5,000 spectators packing into the bulky concrete
Vernets arena, it’s a traditional hockey scene that Canadians and
Americans would recognize — with its steamy lobby, ample beer on
tap, overpriced souvenir jerseys and, now forgotten in North America,
clouds of cigarette smoke enveloping fans there.
Increasingly pro
Swiss hockey has grown increasingly professional, and the play on the ice is fast. With a wider ice surface in Europe, passing and playmaking are often more skilful, and North American players comment on the elbow room they have. At Vernets, the play is robust, but fighting is banned, unlike in the rough- house NHL. Tickets cost 35-45 francs for quite a good view of the play (less for children).
Children respond quickly to the loud, upbeat atmosphere of an arena like the Vernets. But the scene is even more lively sometimes in Bern, just a two-hour drive from Geneva. There, at Bern Arena, the Bears play in front of crowds of 15,000 and more fans, many of them standing to cheer throughout the game. There are Swiss beer stands serving knockwurst between periods and large happy crowds, even for a Bears team that has fallen recently from the heights of a championship season.
Soccer still first
Despite the cold and snow, football remains Europeans favourite sport
even in mid-winter. But hockey, played indoors, may paradoxically be
the warmer sport to watch. With the Turin Winter Olympics looming in
mid-winter 2006, Geneva may be a good place to see even more world-class
hockey.
Unlike football, hockey has never developed a consistent World Cup format, and the Winter Olympics have not established themselves as the single best championship. NHL pros are absent some years, as they play in North America all winter. Still, the combination of top Swiss hockey cities close together, many expatriate NHL players and Olympic warmup matches probably mean this is a great time to be a hockey fan in Switzerland.
For A League tickets, TicketCorner sells places at most Swiss games. Otherwise contact the box offices or web sites of Geneva, www.gshc.ch, Bern, www.scbern.ch, or the Swiss team nearest you.